Summary IB Extended Essay (English A, HL), Grade: B
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English
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Essay explores how language technique of Sylvia Plath transcribes her emotions and feelings. At the same time discusses how Sylvia makes it more understandable for readers to realise the obstacles she's going through with the language techniques she utilises.
How does the utilisation of figurative language in Sylvia Plath's poetry indicate the issue of
depression?
Through various language techniques and formats poets used, depicted the author’s attitude
towards the issue of matter in their poems. It is fairly intriguing and engaging to examine the
way the author utilizes language to describe his or her views and understandings on the topic
of matter. In this particular essay the analysis of the poem shows how language format can
encapsulate one of the most disguising and crucial issues of all times - depression. The
mental illness called depression is not simply a higher level of being stressed or tired.
Depression is a scientifically proven disorder that affects a great amount of people. The
matter of depression was and is certainly discussed nowadays as it affects the life of people in
depression dramastically. People live in the state of being depressed and experience
self-deprecation on a daily basis. To discuss and describe the issue of depression language is
an expression tool. It helps the authors to express themselves whether in spoken form or on a
piece of paper. Depending on the language format the authors adopt, benefits the idea the
author tries to convey through it. One of the brightest examples of a poet using one’s
language as a helping tool, is an American poet Sylvia Plath. As many other 20th-century
writers, Sylvia Plath 's writing was strongly affected by her mental illness. Sylvia suffered
from bipolar disorder. The disorder she had made her write poems where the poet has a
unique rough voice that became a distinguishing feature of the confessional poet. Not only
are colloquial speech rhythms inherent to the confessional poet, are seen in Sylvia Plath’s
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,poetry but the use of figurative language is applied in almost every one of her works. Plath’s
stanzas are enriched with metaphors, similes, hyperboles and other variations of figurative
language. The poet applies these elements of figurative language to describe how she sees
and feels the world around her. The poet’s mental illness influenced her to catalogue her
melancholy, despair and repeatedly seen, passionate with death emotion. It is noticeable from
Plath’s poems and language she utilizes that depression was also the poet’s source of
inspiration, source of power and imagination for writing. The poet’s works became more and
more intense as she experienced more and more pain and misery. Sylvia expressed her
depressive thoughts and views on life through the poetry she wrote and the language she
utilized to convey the meaning and context of her works. The products of her source of
inspiration are the two of her most outstanding poetry collections -“Ariel” and “The Bell
Jar”. The poem called “Tulips” from “Ariel” poetry collection represents Sylvia’s” bridge of
suffering between life and death. Applying figurative language, the author tries to reveal her
despair and demonstrate the readers the mental illness issue the author deals with. The essay
provides an analysis of the poem “Tulips”. The piece contributes to a deeper insight on the
issue of depression by applying distinct literary techniques that describe the moments of
Sylvia’s contrasting desires. The emotional rollercoaster is described with the elements of
figurative language as metaphor, simile and personification.
The author’s portrayal of self-destruction from the depression state is detected in each of her
works from “Ariel” poetry collection. Sylvia Plath wrote the collection during her last months
of life[5]. The content of the collection varies from the poems that are in subject range from
domestic chores ("The Bee Meeting") to medical trauma ("Tulips"), each of the poems
contributes to an impression of the inevitable outcome of the autodestruction of the poet[6].
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, The medical trauma described in the poem “Tulips” shows the line where the language the
author of the poem utilizes, construes Sylvia’s contrasting thoughts on life and death. The
poem is a representation of the truth of Plath, her mental pain, and her willingness to die. It
discusses numerous dark themes and concepts. The author speaks of death from an alternate
viewpoint, claiming that there is innocence in death, in that it can offer physical and
emotional freedoms. Liberating the tormented from the difficulties and obligations of life.
Concurrently, Plath’s highly metaphorical language brings the context of the depressed state
of being as the author is not sure whether death is an option to consider where the poet’s vivid
life stands in front of her and gives Sylvia an opportunity to come back. Sylvia Plath’s
disorder regularly makes her think about the thin wall between death and life. The conflicting
and intrusive idea puts a plentiful amount of emotional expression in her poems. Therefore,
the author’s poems notably often start with a personal announcement of emotions the poet is
feeling and continuing with a constant intensity of emotions. The poem “Tulips” is not an
exception, vice versa is a stable example of it. The “Tulips” begin with the description of
Sylvia’s attitude towards the tulips. The flowers play a major role in the poem as they are the
representation and reminder of Plath’s life-The tulips are too red in the first place, they hurt
me. The poet is more frantic and much more disturbed than she wanted to be by the irritating
flowers. The author sees flowers as “too excitable for her”. Everything in the poem is
focused around the vivid tulips that stand on the table near the poet’s bed in hospital. Within
the poem, Sylvia Plath touches on motifs common to her works: onfining and her disorder
and dignity of death. The author’s tone in the poem constantly calibrates between an emotion
of apprehension or worry and peace. Sylvia Plath's poem “Tulips” is a deep, endlessly layered
poem that portrays Plath's time at the medical center and the poet’s mental condition. The
utilization of metaphor, personification and simile helps to depict the author’s mood while
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