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The High Priestess of Suffering

© Megan Drummond

The life, and more notably, the death, of Sylvia Plath have never been fully understood. On the surface, she was a golden girl who had it all; beauty and brains, a great and recognized talent, a family and children of her own.

Sylvia Plath was born on October 27, 1932 to middle-class parents in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. She was extremely close to her father, a college professor and self-proclaimed bee expert. Otto Plath became ill during the first years of his daughter’s life. Believing that he was dying of cancer, he refused to see a physician and instead spent most of his time at home, resting. When the family convinced him to seek medical attention, he was told that he was suffering from the effects of diabetes. He was also told that he had gone so long without help that his condition was too far advanced for any successful treatment. After much suffering, including the amputation of a leg, Sylvia’s father died just days after her 8th birthday.

By all accounts, Sylvia was the picture of childhood perfection. She was extremely popular with the other children, she earned straight A’s in school, she earned all the highest prizes, and she was immensely talented. Sylvia had gotten her first poem published by the time she was nine years old. There was an overpowering force in Sylvia that even her friends and family noticed in her youth. She was driven by a need for constant perfection in everything she did. This drive dominated the rest of her life and earned her the above nickname. It also greatly contributed to her greatest personal tragedy.

Sylvia was accepted into Smith College on scholarship in 1950 and immediately took the top position in her class. In 1952, she won the first prize of $500 from Mademoiselle magazine for her short story, Sunday at the Mintons. The following June, she served as a student “guest editor” at Mademoiselle, an experience which would later become her most famous novel, The Bell Jar.

In August of that same year, Sylvia made her first attempt at suicide by swallowing handfuls of sleeping pills. She was revived and admitted to MacLean Hospital, where she was treated with insulin shock therapy, electroshock therapy and psychotherapy. Sylvia continued to write during her treatment and produced the award-winning story, Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams.

After her release from the hospital, Sylvia continued her search for academic and literary success. She graduated summa cum laude from Smith in 1955 and was awarded the Fullbright scholarship to study at Cambridge in England. Here she met Ted Hughes, an English poet, and after a brief courtship, married him in June of 1956.