Sylvia Plath has been one of my favorite authors ever since I read The Bell Jar as a young teenager. When I read the book for the first time I felt I had finally found a voice for my own struggles with depression. While Plath's poetry was full of angst and darkness, I found it to be brilliantly written. I really liked how she was open and honest about her struggles with mental illness. Some might say that Plath was overindulgent in her representation of death and suicide, but I see it more as outlet for her feelings; it was a way for her to purge herself of all the negative emotions she was experiencing. Writing was her attempt to survive in a world in which she felt lost and alone. If more artists and writers were as honest and forthcoming as Plath was I think there would be a lot less stigma associated with mental illness.
In her poem Daddy Plath speaks of her regret at never having a chance to really get to know her father. She speaks also of her resentment towards the memories he left her with of a fascist German soldier fighting for Hitler. And then, in the end of the poem, she writes of her first suicide attempt. She blames it on her father, saying she just wanted to get back to him.
In Lady Lazarus Plath gets into the gritty details of her depression and attempts to escape the agony that was her life. She now wears the battle scars that represent her struggles, but they came at a great cost. I think she is also talking about the failings of the treatment she received for her depression. She speaks of the doctor being the enemy and how she felt stripped bare in front of the doctors and other patients in the hospital.
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