WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.839 Welcome to the deep dive. Today we are taking 00:00:02.839 --> 00:00:08.199 a full comprehensive immersion into the intensely 00:00:08.199 --> 00:00:12.119 brilliant, fiercely tragic and, well, utterly 00:00:12.119 --> 00:00:14.500 unforgettable life of Sylvia Plath. Yeah. Plath 00:00:14.500 --> 00:00:16.280 is one of those figures where the, you know, 00:00:16.280 --> 00:00:18.600 the biographical narrative is so compelling and 00:00:18.600 --> 00:00:21.260 so traumatic that it constantly threatens to 00:00:21.260 --> 00:00:23.800 sort of eclipse the artistry itself. Right. Our 00:00:23.800 --> 00:00:25.899 entire mission today really is to prevent that, 00:00:25.960 --> 00:00:29.039 to connect the immense complex turmoil of her 00:00:29.039 --> 00:00:31.359 short life directly to the raw groundbreaking 00:00:31.359 --> 00:00:34.060 power of her work. She remains such a monument. 00:00:34.189 --> 00:00:36.490 figure in 20th century literature. We're talking 00:00:36.490 --> 00:00:39.450 about an American poet and author born in 1932, 00:00:39.710 --> 00:00:42.189 probably best known for her only novel, The Bell 00:00:42.189 --> 00:00:44.670 Jar, and that explosive poetry collection published 00:00:44.670 --> 00:00:46.909 after her death, Ariel. And it's immediately 00:00:46.909 --> 00:00:48.509 vital, I think, to recognize she didn't just 00:00:48.509 --> 00:00:50.350 write poetry. She fundamentally advanced the 00:00:50.350 --> 00:00:52.829 entire genre of confessional poetry. She kind 00:00:52.829 --> 00:00:55.670 of dragged the interior life, the trauma, the 00:00:55.670 --> 00:00:58.090 rage, the despair of the poet onto the page with 00:00:58.090 --> 00:01:01.049 just unprecedented force. Exactly. And the literary 00:01:01.049 --> 00:01:03.859 establishment, you know, eventually ratified 00:01:03.859 --> 00:01:06.700 that immense power her lasting achievement was 00:01:06.700 --> 00:01:09.040 formalized years after her death when she was 00:01:09.040 --> 00:01:11.500 awarded the pulitzer prize for poetry for the 00:01:11.500 --> 00:01:14.680 collective poems that was in 1982. wow and this 00:01:14.680 --> 00:01:17.040 is a really monumental detail for any learner 00:01:17.040 --> 00:01:19.299 of literature because she became only the fourth 00:01:19.299 --> 00:01:22.099 person in history to receive that highest honor 00:01:22.099 --> 00:01:25.599 posthumously only the fourth right that tells 00:01:25.599 --> 00:01:27.640 you that the legacy she left behind wasn't just 00:01:27.640 --> 00:01:31.840 controversial it was um undeniably genius. So 00:01:31.840 --> 00:01:33.939 for this deep dive, we've gathered a stack of 00:01:33.939 --> 00:01:36.260 comprehensive biographical and critical sources. 00:01:36.500 --> 00:01:38.760 We're looking at everything, her fierce ambition, 00:01:39.040 --> 00:01:41.299 her struggle with severe depression and that, 00:01:41.359 --> 00:01:45.049 well. famously fraught, extremely public, tumultuous 00:01:45.049 --> 00:01:47.890 marriage to Ted Hughes. Our goal is really to 00:01:47.890 --> 00:01:50.150 synthesize all this material and show you precisely 00:01:50.150 --> 00:01:52.810 how those experiences forged the unforgettable 00:01:52.810 --> 00:01:55.450 voice we hear in her poetry. We're connecting 00:01:55.450 --> 00:01:57.909 those biographical dots to the emotional reality 00:01:57.909 --> 00:02:01.329 of the literature. Let's do it. Okay, so to understand 00:02:01.329 --> 00:02:04.189 the intensity of the adult poet, we really have 00:02:04.189 --> 00:02:06.030 to start with the specific environment of her 00:02:06.030 --> 00:02:10.090 childhood. Sylvia Plath, born October 27, 1932, 00:02:10.310 --> 00:02:13.050 in Boston, Massachusetts. Right. And the background 00:02:13.050 --> 00:02:18.189 is fascinatingly academic and critically quite 00:02:18.189 --> 00:02:20.349 European in its structure and discipline, you 00:02:20.349 --> 00:02:22.699 could say. Oh, so. Her mother. Aurelia Schober 00:02:22.699 --> 00:02:25.300 -Plath, she was the daughter of Austrian immigrants. 00:02:25.759 --> 00:02:28.379 But the primary figure of intellectual authority, 00:02:28.580 --> 00:02:30.879 really, was her father, Otto Plath. Otto, yeah. 00:02:31.120 --> 00:02:33.219 Otto was a German immigrant, a professor of biology 00:02:33.219 --> 00:02:35.680 at Boston University, and a renowned entomologist. 00:02:36.419 --> 00:02:39.620 Specialized in, of all things, bumblebees. He 00:02:39.620 --> 00:02:41.819 even published his big work on them back in 1934. 00:02:42.250 --> 00:02:44.770 Bumblebees. Wow. Imagine growing up under the 00:02:44.770 --> 00:02:46.930 shadow of someone whose life was dedicated to 00:02:46.930 --> 00:02:50.289 like microscopic examination and rigorous classification 00:02:50.289 --> 00:02:52.909 of nature. Intense discipline, intense authority. 00:02:52.990 --> 00:02:55.949 Exactly. But this highly structured early life 00:02:55.949 --> 00:02:58.689 was, well, violently interrupted by a profound 00:02:58.689 --> 00:03:01.250 loss, a loss that really defined her emotional 00:03:01.250 --> 00:03:04.199 and poetic landscape forever. Otto Plath died 00:03:04.199 --> 00:03:07.280 November 5, 1940, just a week and a half after 00:03:07.280 --> 00:03:09.919 Sylvia's eighth birthday. Yeah, and the manner 00:03:09.919 --> 00:03:12.539 of his death is horrifyingly pertinent to the 00:03:12.539 --> 00:03:15.560 themes in her later work. Specifically, that 00:03:15.560 --> 00:03:18.060 overwhelming sense of betrayal and the theme 00:03:18.060 --> 00:03:19.719 of the authoritarian figure turning out to be 00:03:19.719 --> 00:03:22.060 fragile. What happened exactly? He died from 00:03:22.060 --> 00:03:24.020 complications following an amputation, which 00:03:24.020 --> 00:03:26.560 was needed because of untreated diabetes. But 00:03:26.560 --> 00:03:29.360 the tragedy is why it was untreated. Otto had 00:03:29.360 --> 00:03:31.939 become ill shortly after a close friend died 00:03:31.939 --> 00:03:34.590 of lung cancer. He compared his symptoms to his 00:03:34.590 --> 00:03:37.490 friends, convinced himself, completely wrongly, 00:03:37.530 --> 00:03:40.270 that he also had terminal lung cancer, so he 00:03:40.270 --> 00:03:42.550 deliberately delayed seeking proper medical care. 00:03:42.729 --> 00:03:45.129 So he essentially self -diagnosed a fatal illness 00:03:45.129 --> 00:03:48.150 based on fear, and that fatal delay, it cost 00:03:48.150 --> 00:03:51.550 him his leg and then his life. Precisely. And 00:03:51.550 --> 00:03:53.770 for the 8 -year -old Plath, This event created 00:03:53.770 --> 00:03:55.729 this massive spiritual and emotional vacuum. 00:03:56.110 --> 00:03:58.870 She'd been raised Unitarian, but that loss immediately 00:03:58.870 --> 00:04:01.469 resulted in a profound loss of faith and ambivalence 00:04:01.469 --> 00:04:03.830 about religion that just stuck with her. It's 00:04:03.830 --> 00:04:05.710 the origin point, really, of that great lost 00:04:05.710 --> 00:04:07.830 authoritarian figure that dominates her most 00:04:07.830 --> 00:04:11.669 famous poems, like Daddy. So it's more than just 00:04:11.669 --> 00:04:14.330 a vague trauma, isn't it? It's a specific psychological 00:04:14.330 --> 00:04:17.920 blueprint. The father, this towering disciplined 00:04:17.920 --> 00:04:20.879 intellect, dies not from some random accident 00:04:20.879 --> 00:04:23.740 but from a catastrophic failure of his own knowledge, 00:04:23.980 --> 00:04:26.660 his own self -imposed discipline. That's the 00:04:26.660 --> 00:04:29.120 key insight, yeah. The personal trauma became 00:04:29.120 --> 00:04:32.610 the direct subject of her verse later on. A visit 00:04:32.610 --> 00:04:35.290 to his grave, for instance, in the 50s, directly 00:04:35.290 --> 00:04:39.050 inspired the poem Electra on Azalea Path, where 00:04:39.050 --> 00:04:41.350 she explicitly wrestles with the memory of this 00:04:41.350 --> 00:04:43.970 German father whose massive presence was just 00:04:43.970 --> 00:04:46.800 so abruptly cancelled out. Setting up that dynamic. 00:04:47.139 --> 00:04:50.500 Exactly. Seeking powerful male figures while 00:04:50.500 --> 00:04:52.899 simultaneously fearing their control and ultimately 00:04:52.899 --> 00:04:55.139 their disappearance. But even with that early 00:04:55.139 --> 00:04:58.399 devastation, the signs of her genius, her aggressive 00:04:58.399 --> 00:05:00.860 drive, they were already emerging, weren't they? 00:05:00.920 --> 00:05:03.180 The ambition we see later was fully present in 00:05:03.180 --> 00:05:05.240 her youth. Oh, absolutely. Published her first 00:05:05.240 --> 00:05:07.990 poem at age eight. in the Boston Herald's children's 00:05:07.990 --> 00:05:10.430 section, no less. Eight years old. By age 11, 00:05:10.550 --> 00:05:12.670 she started keeping a journal, an incredible 00:05:12.670 --> 00:05:15.209 habit that would later provide so much raw material 00:05:15.209 --> 00:05:18.689 and, well, controversy for her adult life. And 00:05:18.689 --> 00:05:21.250 she wasn't just writing. No, she was competitive 00:05:21.250 --> 00:05:25.230 across artistic mediums. In 1947, she won a Scholastic 00:05:25.230 --> 00:05:27.810 Art and Writing Award for her paintings. So she 00:05:27.810 --> 00:05:30.490 wasn't just gifted. The biographical sources, 00:05:30.629 --> 00:05:33.310 they often observed that even in her youth, Plath 00:05:33.310 --> 00:05:36.759 was ambitiously driven to succeed. She wasn't 00:05:36.759 --> 00:05:38.899 content just practicing. She had to be recognized. 00:05:39.100 --> 00:05:43.060 She had to excel everywhere. That drive absolutely 00:05:43.060 --> 00:05:45.720 carried her through her education. Graduated 00:05:45.720 --> 00:05:48.139 from Bradford Senior High, now Wellesley High, 00:05:48.279 --> 00:05:51.139 then entered Smith College. And her academic 00:05:51.139 --> 00:05:53.459 achievements there are just astonishing. Summa 00:05:53.459 --> 00:05:56.220 Cum Laude. Phi Beta Kappa, estimated IQ around 00:05:56.220 --> 00:05:59.000 160. She was a focused intellectual powerhouse, 00:05:59.139 --> 00:06:01.500 won the Glasscock Prize for poetry while she 00:06:01.500 --> 00:06:03.540 was still at Smith. She wasn't just surviving 00:06:03.540 --> 00:06:05.699 college, she was absolutely mastering it. Okay, 00:06:05.740 --> 00:06:07.939 so that intense academic drive, it kind of ran 00:06:07.939 --> 00:06:10.100 headlong into the harsh reality of the professional 00:06:10.100 --> 00:06:12.920 world in the summer of 1953. This period, it 00:06:12.920 --> 00:06:14.879 feels like the essential crucible for her later 00:06:14.879 --> 00:06:17.800 work, especially The Bell Jar. Absolutely. She 00:06:17.800 --> 00:06:20.360 won that coveted role, guest editor at Mademoiselle 00:06:20.360 --> 00:06:23.060 Magazine in New York City. For a young woman 00:06:23.060 --> 00:06:24.699 with her level of ambition, this should have 00:06:24.699 --> 00:06:27.300 been the absolute pinnacle of success. Should 00:06:27.300 --> 00:06:30.680 have been. But the experience was profoundly 00:06:30.680 --> 00:06:34.759 disillusioning. The reality of the shallow, competitive 00:06:34.759 --> 00:06:37.920 fashion world, it just didn't meet her idealized 00:06:37.920 --> 00:06:41.079 expectations of this sophisticated, artistic 00:06:41.079 --> 00:06:44.199 life she craved. And this disillusionment, it 00:06:44.199 --> 00:06:47.889 became the direct... raw source material for 00:06:47.889 --> 00:06:49.970 her novel. Yeah, there's that great anecdote 00:06:49.970 --> 00:06:51.709 that captures the intensity and disappointment. 00:06:52.290 --> 00:06:55.250 Plath was a huge admirer of the Welsh poet Dylan 00:06:55.250 --> 00:06:57.949 Thomas. Oh, massively. According to one friend, 00:06:58.009 --> 00:07:00.170 she loved his work more than life itself. Wow. 00:07:00.629 --> 00:07:02.689 So an editor at Mademoiselle arranged a meeting, 00:07:02.850 --> 00:07:06.000 but Plath, through some mix -up, missed it. Oh, 00:07:06.019 --> 00:07:08.759 no. She was apparently so furious and devastated 00:07:08.759 --> 00:07:11.259 by missing this chance to meet her idol, who 00:07:11.259 --> 00:07:13.019 really represented everything she wanted to be, 00:07:13.040 --> 00:07:15.639 that she spent two full days just loitering around 00:07:15.639 --> 00:07:17.600 the White Horse Tavern and the Chelsea Hotel, 00:07:17.879 --> 00:07:20.139 desperately trying to catch a glimpse of him. 00:07:20.199 --> 00:07:22.600 Just hanging around, hoping. Yeah, only to find 00:07:22.600 --> 00:07:25.279 out he'd already left town. That crushing sense 00:07:25.279 --> 00:07:28.079 of immense, unfulfilled ambition and disappointment, 00:07:28.319 --> 00:07:30.920 that's the emotional engine she later channeled 00:07:30.920 --> 00:07:33.220 directly into Esther Greenwood in the bell jar. 00:07:33.600 --> 00:07:36.139 And shortly after that intense, frustrating summer 00:07:36.139 --> 00:07:39.240 came the first major documented mental health 00:07:39.240 --> 00:07:41.920 crisis. We have details from her journals, don't 00:07:41.920 --> 00:07:44.220 we? Showing self -harm attempts where she slashed 00:07:44.220 --> 00:07:46.480 her legs. To see if she had enough courage to 00:07:46.480 --> 00:07:50.319 kill herself. Yeah. Testing the limits. It preceded 00:07:50.319 --> 00:07:52.759 the main crisis. Which culminated in her first 00:07:52.759 --> 00:07:56.300 documented suicide attempt. August 24th, 1953. 00:07:57.579 --> 00:08:00.000 Overdosing on her mother's sleeping pills. It 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:02.199 was a severe attempt. Required intensive intervention. 00:08:02.680 --> 00:08:04.459 She was subsequently admitted to the psychiatric 00:08:04.459 --> 00:08:07.399 care unit at McLean Hospital, spent six months 00:08:07.399 --> 00:08:09.899 there. The treatment included electroconvulsive 00:08:09.899 --> 00:08:13.300 therapy, ECT, and insulin shock treatment. And 00:08:13.300 --> 00:08:14.899 for you listening, it's important to understand 00:08:14.899 --> 00:08:16.699 the level of institutional care she received. 00:08:16.720 --> 00:08:18.540 It was quite advanced for the time, though often, 00:08:18.639 --> 00:08:21.259 you know, pretty traumatic in itself. And a key 00:08:21.259 --> 00:08:23.980 supporting detail here is the role played by 00:08:23.980 --> 00:08:26.910 the author, Olive Higgins Prouty. Prouty had 00:08:26.910 --> 00:08:28.689 struggled with mental breakdowns herself. Oh, 00:08:28.709 --> 00:08:30.949 interesting. And she actually financially supported 00:08:30.949 --> 00:08:32.889 Plath's medical care and her Smith scholarship 00:08:32.889 --> 00:08:35.730 after the attempt. This private sponsorship, 00:08:35.970 --> 00:08:38.669 it highlights the sort of social and financial 00:08:38.669 --> 00:08:41.730 scaffolding that allowed her to recover and resume 00:08:41.730 --> 00:08:45.210 her really promising career. It's a detail often 00:08:45.210 --> 00:08:47.169 lost when we just focus on the breakdown itself. 00:08:47.269 --> 00:08:49.700 That makes sense. Plath, in her private writings, 00:08:49.879 --> 00:08:53.159 described that moment of overdose as blissfully 00:08:53.159 --> 00:08:55.820 succumbing to the whirling blackness that I honestly 00:08:55.820 --> 00:08:59.240 believed was eternal oblivion. That's the core 00:08:59.240 --> 00:09:01.879 trauma she later translated so vividly into fiction. 00:09:02.039 --> 00:09:04.000 But she did make a strong recovery, didn't she? 00:09:04.059 --> 00:09:06.799 Showing that fierce drive once again. Return 00:09:06.799 --> 00:09:10.000 to Smith completed her thesis, The Magic Mirror. 00:09:10.580 --> 00:09:13.279 A study of the double in two of Dostoevsky's 00:09:13.279 --> 00:09:16.179 novels. Exploring themes of duality, fractured 00:09:16.179 --> 00:09:19.230 identity. Clearly intensely personal stuff for 00:09:19.230 --> 00:09:22.350 her. Totally. And that academic excellence didn't 00:09:22.350 --> 00:09:25.309 stop. She immediately secured a prestigious Fulbright 00:09:25.309 --> 00:09:27.889 scholarship. Took her across the Atlantic to 00:09:27.889 --> 00:09:30.389 Newnham College, Cambridge in England. Studied 00:09:30.389 --> 00:09:32.190 there with the literary scholar Dorothea Crick. 00:09:32.309 --> 00:09:34.070 And this international setting, Cambridge, it 00:09:34.070 --> 00:09:37.110 was the perfect backdrop for the next highly 00:09:37.110 --> 00:09:39.870 combustible chapter of her life. Indeed. And 00:09:39.870 --> 00:09:41.450 that chapter, of course, is the meeting that 00:09:41.450 --> 00:09:43.450 literary history has obsessed over ever since. 00:09:43.850 --> 00:09:46.590 Her collision with the English poet Ted Hughes. 00:09:47.179 --> 00:09:51.000 The big one. They met February 25, 1956 at a 00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:52.759 party celebrating the launch of some literary 00:09:52.759 --> 00:09:56.799 journal. And the sources are just dramatic. Plath, 00:09:56.799 --> 00:09:58.679 ever the journalist, documented it immediately. 00:09:59.299 --> 00:10:01.600 Described Hughes as immensely powerful physically 00:10:01.600 --> 00:10:05.279 and intellectually. A singer, storyteller, lion 00:10:05.279 --> 00:10:07.440 and world wanderer with a voice like the thunder 00:10:07.440 --> 00:10:11.320 of God. Wow. Thunder of God. Yeah. The sources 00:10:11.320 --> 00:10:13.320 even detail how he apparently ripped off her 00:10:13.320 --> 00:10:15.340 headband and kissed her so hard he drew blood 00:10:15.340 --> 00:10:18.200 and she bit him back. Good grief. A truly immediate 00:10:18.200 --> 00:10:20.340 and intense collision of personalities then. 00:10:20.639 --> 00:10:23.179 Absolutely. And they married just four months 00:10:23.179 --> 00:10:28.120 later, June 16th, 1956. This wasn't some slow 00:10:28.120 --> 00:10:30.759 courtship. It was an explosive commitment, probably 00:10:30.759 --> 00:10:33.600 founded on a shared burning literary ambition. 00:10:33.980 --> 00:10:37.870 Four months. That's fast. Super fast. The sources 00:10:37.870 --> 00:10:39.950 even show they shared an interest in the occult, 00:10:39.970 --> 00:10:43.090 apparently used Ouija boards during their early 00:10:43.090 --> 00:10:46.250 married life, seeking creative inspiration or 00:10:46.250 --> 00:10:48.289 maybe some kind of spiritual guidance. Who knows? 00:10:48.409 --> 00:10:51.470 But this shared intensity, this belief in a powerful 00:10:51.470 --> 00:10:53.889 connection, it helps explain the speed of their 00:10:53.889 --> 00:10:56.490 commitment. As Plath put it later in a BBC interview, 00:10:56.710 --> 00:10:58.590 they met. They were impressed by each other's 00:10:58.590 --> 00:11:00.750 poetry, and they were having such a fine time 00:11:00.750 --> 00:11:03.309 doing it, they just decided to formalize the 00:11:03.309 --> 00:11:05.110 partnership. Okay, so following the marriage, 00:11:05.210 --> 00:11:08.289 the couple moves back to the U .S. in 1957. Blath 00:11:08.289 --> 00:11:10.169 takes a teaching position at her alma mater, 00:11:10.350 --> 00:11:13.950 Smith College. But this period, it quickly becomes 00:11:13.950 --> 00:11:16.230 frustrating for her, right? Yeah, the intense 00:11:16.230 --> 00:11:18.409 demands of teaching, it just left her exhausted, 00:11:18.570 --> 00:11:21.190 constantly draining the time and energy she desperately 00:11:21.190 --> 00:11:23.710 needed for her own creative writing. Understandable. 00:11:23.710 --> 00:11:26.549 And this struggle led to a really crucial decision. 00:11:27.200 --> 00:11:30.759 They moved to Boston in 1958, and this decision, 00:11:30.899 --> 00:11:33.700 this move, it marks a fundamental turning point 00:11:33.700 --> 00:11:36.480 in her artistic career. Because it was here... 00:11:36.620 --> 00:11:38.960 In the evenings that Plath started attending 00:11:38.960 --> 00:11:41.539 creative writing seminars led by the great American 00:11:41.539 --> 00:11:44.460 confessional poet Robert Lowell. Ah, Lowell. 00:11:44.620 --> 00:11:46.759 And she was in truly rarefied company there. 00:11:46.840 --> 00:11:49.279 Also attending the seminars were the poet Anne 00:11:49.279 --> 00:11:52.039 Sexton. Who had also experienced institutionalization. 00:11:52.259 --> 00:11:55.159 Right. And George Starbuck, the sort of triumvirate 00:11:55.159 --> 00:11:57.820 of ambitious, talented writers all absorbing 00:11:57.820 --> 00:12:00.919 Lowell's instruction. It fundamentally changed 00:12:00.919 --> 00:12:03.279 how Plath viewed her own material. This is a 00:12:03.279 --> 00:12:05.059 massive moment for the confessional movement. 00:12:05.610 --> 00:12:08.190 Lowell and Sexton were just instrumental in pushing 00:12:08.190 --> 00:12:10.570 her to break free from the technically perfect 00:12:10.570 --> 00:12:13.029 maybe but often emotionally distant formalism 00:12:13.029 --> 00:12:15.309 of her early work. They encouraged her to write 00:12:15.309 --> 00:12:17.610 directly, without abstraction, from her most 00:12:17.610 --> 00:12:20.210 intensely personal, deepest, and often most painful 00:12:20.210 --> 00:12:22.570 experiences. And she talked about it openly with 00:12:22.570 --> 00:12:26.450 them. Apparently so. Plath, remarkably, openly 00:12:26.450 --> 00:12:28.269 discussed her struggles with depression with 00:12:28.269 --> 00:12:30.509 Lowell and detailed her suicide attempt with 00:12:30.509 --> 00:12:33.399 Sexton. So it was like... Peer validation for 00:12:33.399 --> 00:12:36.899 using that pain as material. It allowed her to 00:12:36.899 --> 00:12:39.139 move past some of the shame maybe associated 00:12:39.139 --> 00:12:41.639 with mental illness back then. It seems like 00:12:41.639 --> 00:12:44.179 it did, this critical acceptance. It led her 00:12:44.179 --> 00:12:47.539 to consider herself a more serious, focused writer. 00:12:47.919 --> 00:12:51.059 It provided the necessary kind of psychological 00:12:51.059 --> 00:12:53.399 safety net for her to begin experimenting with 00:12:53.399 --> 00:12:56.639 that raw, explosive voice that would define her 00:12:56.639 --> 00:12:58.960 career later. Yeah. You really can't overstate 00:12:58.960 --> 00:13:01.320 this influence. It's the foundation for the poems 00:13:01.320 --> 00:13:04.059 that eventually made Ariel. Then in late 1959, 00:13:04.539 --> 00:13:06.840 the couple travels to the Yaddo artist colony 00:13:06.840 --> 00:13:09.360 in New York, and Plath makes a key statement 00:13:09.360 --> 00:13:11.279 in her journals there, saying she learned to 00:13:11.279 --> 00:13:14.080 be true to my own weirdnesses. Yeah, but the 00:13:14.080 --> 00:13:16.259 sources also note she still wrestled intensely 00:13:16.259 --> 00:13:18.919 with the anxiety of writing confessionally, concerned 00:13:18.919 --> 00:13:21.419 about revealing too much private material. So 00:13:21.419 --> 00:13:24.340 she was finding the confidence to use her weirdnesses, 00:13:24.340 --> 00:13:26.779 as she put it, but still holding back some of 00:13:26.779 --> 00:13:28.779 the deepest stuff. Interesting tension there. 00:13:29.240 --> 00:13:32.490 They then returned to London. settling at 3 Chalkov 00:13:32.490 --> 00:13:34.509 Square, that flat's now marked by an English 00:13:34.509 --> 00:13:36.690 heritage plaque, actually. Oh, cool. And it was 00:13:36.690 --> 00:13:39.009 here that she published her first poetry collection, 00:13:39.409 --> 00:13:42.370 The Colossus and Other Poems, in October 1960. 00:13:42.789 --> 00:13:44.750 And the initial reception of The Colossus tells 00:13:44.750 --> 00:13:46.570 us something about her trajectory, doesn't it? 00:13:46.629 --> 00:13:49.409 In the UK, the reviews were overwhelmingly positive. 00:13:50.090 --> 00:13:52.509 Critics praised her voice as new and strong, 00:13:52.629 --> 00:13:55.970 individual and American, often noting its outstanding 00:13:55.970 --> 00:13:58.919 technical accomplishment. She immediately became 00:13:58.919 --> 00:14:02.000 this recognized, serious presence in the UK poetry 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:04.419 world. Right. She landed well there. However, 00:14:04.580 --> 00:14:06.639 when the book was published in America, which 00:14:06.639 --> 00:14:10.019 was a bit later, 1962, the reviews were far more 00:14:10.019 --> 00:14:12.700 mixed. While her craft was acknowledged, some 00:14:12.700 --> 00:14:15.539 U .S. critics felt her work was still too derivative, 00:14:15.740 --> 00:14:18.240 maybe too constrained by the formal rules of 00:14:18.240 --> 00:14:21.100 the mid -century poets. Not quite achieving that 00:14:21.100 --> 00:14:23.799 radical break we see later in Ariel. So she hadn't 00:14:23.799 --> 00:14:25.940 fully broken free in the States yet. Not quite 00:14:25.940 --> 00:14:28.460 yet. Creatively, she's building steam, but domestically, 00:14:28.559 --> 00:14:31.139 well, the complexity of her life is escalating 00:14:31.139 --> 00:14:33.620 rapidly. Their daughter, Frida, was born in 1960. 00:14:34.340 --> 00:14:36.440 Plath then suffered a miscarriage in February 00:14:36.440 --> 00:14:39.299 1961, an event that deeply affected her. You 00:14:39.299 --> 00:14:41.779 can see it in poems like Parliament Hillfields. 00:14:41.779 --> 00:14:44.139 Yeah, that was a tough time. And then their son, 00:14:44.320 --> 00:14:47.440 Nicholas, was born in January 1962. Two young 00:14:47.440 --> 00:14:50.120 children, a demanding creative life. And the 00:14:50.120 --> 00:14:52.259 sources, particularly her later letters, they 00:14:52.259 --> 00:14:54.600 point to massive domestic strife during this 00:14:54.600 --> 00:14:56.919 period, long before the affair became public 00:14:56.919 --> 00:14:59.500 knowledge. There's a devastating detail that 00:14:59.500 --> 00:15:02.340 emerges in a letter to her therapist where Blath 00:15:02.340 --> 00:15:05.279 alleged Hughes beat her just two days before 00:15:05.279 --> 00:15:08.019 her miscarriage. Oh, my God. Now, Hughes later 00:15:08.019 --> 00:15:11.100 denied allegations of abuse, but this private 00:15:11.100 --> 00:15:13.919 testimony suggests an extremely dark and possibly 00:15:13.919 --> 00:15:16.659 abusive dynamic was present, adding just immense 00:15:16.659 --> 00:15:18.600 emotional weight to that domestic environment. 00:15:18.740 --> 00:15:21.659 Which makes what happens next even more understandable, 00:15:21.899 --> 00:15:24.519 maybe. The final decisive break came in the summer 00:15:24.519 --> 00:15:28.129 of 1962. Plath and Hughes had rented their Chalkout 00:15:28.129 --> 00:15:30.769 Square flat the previous year to Asha Weevil 00:15:30.769 --> 00:15:33.149 and David Weevil. Right. And Ted Hughes was immediately 00:15:33.149 --> 00:15:36.250 struck by Asha. Plath discovered Hughes was having 00:15:36.250 --> 00:15:39.450 an affair with Weevil in July 1962. The pain 00:15:39.450 --> 00:15:41.250 and the sense of betrayal were immediate and 00:15:41.250 --> 00:15:43.269 total. And they separated just two months later, 00:15:43.429 --> 00:15:47.730 September 1962. Yep. The marriage and that shared 00:15:47.730 --> 00:15:49.909 intellectual life that had really defined her 00:15:49.909 --> 00:15:52.950 stability for six years was utterly fractured. 00:15:53.389 --> 00:15:56.350 Gone. So the separation, it led to immense despair, 00:15:56.590 --> 00:15:59.409 obviously. But counterintuitively, it didn't 00:15:59.409 --> 00:16:01.789 lead to an immediate creative collapse. Instead, 00:16:02.029 --> 00:16:04.210 it seems to have fueled this massive, astonishing, 00:16:04.570 --> 00:16:07.730 and frankly terrifying creative burst. Starting 00:16:07.730 --> 00:16:11.269 in October 1962, Plath enters this hyperproductive 00:16:11.269 --> 00:16:13.309 period. We're talking about a truly concentrated 00:16:13.309 --> 00:16:15.889 period of genius, right? In the four months leading 00:16:15.889 --> 00:16:18.149 up to her death, she composed most of the 40 00:16:18.149 --> 00:16:20.789 poems that now define her reputation, including 00:16:20.789 --> 00:16:23.570 at least 26 poems intended for Ariel. Reports 00:16:23.570 --> 00:16:25.690 say she was writing multiple drafts of major 00:16:25.690 --> 00:16:28.909 poems daily. This period is the true birth of 00:16:28.909 --> 00:16:32.190 that iconic Plath voice. Daddy, Lady Lazarus, 00:16:32.190 --> 00:16:34.570 Ariel. They all just poured out in this intense, 00:16:34.590 --> 00:16:37.080 sustained torrent of creation. Incredible output 00:16:37.080 --> 00:16:39.559 under duress. She needed stability, though, and 00:16:39.559 --> 00:16:41.120 she moved along with her two young children, 00:16:41.320 --> 00:16:43.919 Frida, who was two, and Nicholas, just nine months 00:16:43.919 --> 00:16:46.440 old, to 23 Fitzroy Road in London in December 00:16:46.440 --> 00:16:49.620 1962. Plath was briefly kind of buoyed by the 00:16:49.620 --> 00:16:51.299 house because it was a property where William 00:16:51.299 --> 00:16:54.299 Butler Yeats had once lived. Oh, Yeats. Yeah, 00:16:54.320 --> 00:16:57.259 she considered it a powerful guiding omen. It 00:16:57.259 --> 00:16:59.480 even bears an English heritage blue plaque for 00:16:59.480 --> 00:17:01.639 him today. But the reality of that winter was 00:17:01.639 --> 00:17:04.500 just merciless. It wasn't just cold. The winter 00:17:04.500 --> 00:17:07.819 of 1962 -1963 was one of the coldest on record 00:17:07.819 --> 00:17:10.940 in the UK. We really need to underscore the difficult 00:17:10.940 --> 00:17:13.960 reality she faced. Oh, absolutely. Frozen pipes, 00:17:14.160 --> 00:17:16.660 no running water sometimes, constantly sick young 00:17:16.660 --> 00:17:19.579 children, and absolutely no telephone. She was 00:17:19.579 --> 00:17:22.079 isolated, sick, devastated by the failure of 00:17:22.079 --> 00:17:24.380 her marriage, and physically struggling just 00:17:24.380 --> 00:17:26.339 to keep her kids warm and healthy. All while 00:17:26.339 --> 00:17:28.900 producing arguably the most powerful poetry of 00:17:28.900 --> 00:17:31.099 the 20th century. It's mind -boggling. It really 00:17:31.099 --> 00:17:33.400 is. And this is the critical context for her 00:17:33.400 --> 00:17:36.680 mental decline. Amidst this personal chaos and 00:17:36.680 --> 00:17:39.240 extreme weather, her only novel, The Bell Jar, 00:17:39.460 --> 00:17:42.759 was published in January 1963. Under the pseudonym 00:17:42.759 --> 00:17:45.759 Victoria Lucas. Right. Critically, she published 00:17:45.759 --> 00:17:47.859 it under that pseudonym, partly to protect the 00:17:47.859 --> 00:17:50.660 real people she'd based the characters on. Initially, 00:17:50.660 --> 00:17:52.339 it was met with critical indifference. The public 00:17:52.339 --> 00:17:54.839 wasn't really ready for its raw autobiographical 00:17:54.839 --> 00:17:58.279 content yet. What was Plath's own view on the 00:17:58.279 --> 00:18:00.420 novel? It's quite insightful, isn't it? Yeah, 00:18:00.460 --> 00:18:03.099 she described it not as some magnum opus, but 00:18:03.099 --> 00:18:05.740 as an autobiographical apprentice work, which 00:18:05.740 --> 00:18:07.680 I had to write in order to free myself from the 00:18:07.680 --> 00:18:11.359 past. Her explicit goal was to depict the utter 00:18:11.359 --> 00:18:14.319 isolation felt during a mental breakdown. to 00:18:14.319 --> 00:18:16.960 show the world as seen through the distorting 00:18:16.960 --> 00:18:19.700 lens of a bell jar. She was trying to exercise 00:18:19.700 --> 00:18:22.400 her past traumas through fiction. Trying to free 00:18:22.400 --> 00:18:24.839 herself. But the intensity of the trauma she 00:18:24.839 --> 00:18:27.380 was dealing with, it just proved too much. Her 00:18:27.380 --> 00:18:29.400 depressive episode, which had been ongoing for 00:18:29.400 --> 00:18:32.140 maybe six or seven months, it worsened dramatically 00:18:32.140 --> 00:18:34.740 during that winter. She was presenting with severe 00:18:34.740 --> 00:18:38.490 symptoms. constant agitation, suicidal thoughts, 00:18:38.609 --> 00:18:41.049 and inability to cope with daily life. She had 00:18:41.049 --> 00:18:43.369 lost 20 pounds, about 9 kilograms, at a really 00:18:43.369 --> 00:18:45.970 short time. So people noticed. Her doctor... 00:18:45.970 --> 00:18:48.890 Yeah, her GP, Dr. John Horder, recognized the 00:18:48.890 --> 00:18:52.569 extreme risk. He prescribed her a marnamine oxidase 00:18:52.569 --> 00:18:56.049 inhibitor, an MAOI antidepressant, just a few 00:18:56.049 --> 00:18:59.210 days before her death. The sources indicate he 00:18:59.210 --> 00:19:01.329 made strenuous, desperate efforts to get her 00:19:01.329 --> 00:19:03.470 admitted to a hospital, but when that failed, 00:19:03.630 --> 00:19:06.250 he arranged for a love -in nurse to arrive first 00:19:06.250 --> 00:19:08.390 thing in the morning on February 11th. And the 00:19:08.390 --> 00:19:10.509 medication detail, that's where a long -standing 00:19:10.509 --> 00:19:13.490 controversy arises, isn't it? Ted Hughes, in 00:19:13.490 --> 00:19:16.329 a note found decades later. Right. Hughes, in 00:19:16.329 --> 00:19:19.029 a handwritten note discovered way later in 2001, 00:19:19.410 --> 00:19:22.130 claimed the antidepressants were a key factor 00:19:22.130 --> 00:19:24.980 in her suicide. He suggested she'd had an adverse 00:19:24.980 --> 00:19:27.339 reaction to a similar medication previously in 00:19:27.339 --> 00:19:30.000 the US and that the new doctor prescribed the 00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:32.200 MAOI without fully understanding her medical 00:19:32.200 --> 00:19:35.450 history. So while some argue the medication wouldn't 00:19:35.450 --> 00:19:37.130 have reached therapeutic levels quickly enough 00:19:37.130 --> 00:19:39.529 to cause this, there are counterarguments suggesting 00:19:39.529 --> 00:19:42.329 adverse effects can manifest immediately. And 00:19:42.329 --> 00:19:44.410 this, combination with her existing agitation, 00:19:44.670 --> 00:19:47.089 could have been catastrophic. It introduces this 00:19:47.089 --> 00:19:49.869 complex, tragic layer of medical ambiguity into 00:19:49.869 --> 00:19:52.130 her final hours. We'll likely never know for 00:19:52.130 --> 00:19:54.069 sure. Regardless of the medical intervention, 00:19:54.490 --> 00:19:56.750 the tragedy culminated on the morning of February 00:19:56.750 --> 00:20:01.569 11, 1963. Plath died by suicide, carbon monoxide 00:20:01.569 --> 00:20:04.210 poisoning, head in the kitchen oven. She was 00:20:04.210 --> 00:20:07.529 30 years old. Yes, 30. And the final heartbreaking 00:20:07.529 --> 00:20:09.670 ambiguity of her intent that morning remains 00:20:09.670 --> 00:20:12.369 highly debated. The nurse was due to arrive at 00:20:12.369 --> 00:20:15.630 9 a .m. Plath took deliberate, meticulous care 00:20:15.630 --> 00:20:18.049 to seal the rooms between herself and her sleeping 00:20:18.049 --> 00:20:21.529 children with tape, towels, cloths to protect 00:20:21.529 --> 00:20:23.690 them from the gas. Right. Protecting the children. 00:20:23.829 --> 00:20:27.079 But she also left a note reading. Call Dr. Horder 00:20:27.079 --> 00:20:29.279 with his phone number taped to a milk bottle. 00:20:29.980 --> 00:20:33.039 And this dual action, it led her friend, the 00:20:33.039 --> 00:20:35.920 writer Al Alvarez, to argue years later that 00:20:35.920 --> 00:20:38.119 her suicide wasn't fully intentional, that it 00:20:38.119 --> 00:20:40.339 was instead a cry for help which fatally misfired. 00:20:40.880 --> 00:20:43.059 Believing she timed the gas to be turned on when 00:20:43.059 --> 00:20:45.339 her downstairs neighbor and Mr. Thomas would 00:20:45.339 --> 00:20:47.339 likely see the note and intervene before it was 00:20:47.339 --> 00:20:50.140 too late. A cry for help. But the counter -argument 00:20:50.140 --> 00:20:52.460 is fiercely supported by the people who actually 00:20:52.460 --> 00:20:54.980 saw the scene, right? Her friend Jillian Becker, 00:20:55.119 --> 00:20:57.819 in her biography Giving Up, quoted a police officer 00:20:57.819 --> 00:21:00.619 who stated Plath had thrust her head far into 00:21:00.619 --> 00:21:03.640 the oven. Yeah. And Dr. Horder himself was adamant, 00:21:03.640 --> 00:21:06.099 he stated. No one who saw the care with which 00:21:06.099 --> 00:21:07.819 the kitchen was prepared could have interpreted 00:21:07.819 --> 00:21:10.500 her action as anything but an irrational compulsion. 00:21:10.539 --> 00:21:13.259 That level of detail, protecting the children 00:21:13.259 --> 00:21:15.319 while simultaneously ensuring her own demise, 00:21:15.559 --> 00:21:17.859 it speaks to a conflict between life and death 00:21:17.859 --> 00:21:20.579 that is just almost unbearable to contemplate. 00:21:20.640 --> 00:21:23.589 The official ruling was suicide, of course. But 00:21:23.589 --> 00:21:25.609 the legacy of Plath was only just beginning. 00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:28.599 Her immense reputation, it rests almost entirely 00:21:28.599 --> 00:21:31.180 on the poetry published after her death, particularly 00:21:31.180 --> 00:21:34.440 Ariel, which appeared in 1965. And Ariel represents 00:21:34.440 --> 00:21:36.920 that monumental shift in her career, moving her 00:21:36.920 --> 00:21:39.339 work permanently into a more personal arena of 00:21:39.339 --> 00:21:42.000 poetry. This was the radical departure from the 00:21:42.000 --> 00:21:44.480 formalism that had maybe constrained her first 00:21:44.480 --> 00:21:47.519 collection, The Colossus. Right. And this radical 00:21:47.519 --> 00:21:50.019 break was cemented by her own admission just 00:21:50.019 --> 00:21:52.599 before her death that she'd been reading Robert 00:21:52.599 --> 00:21:55.809 Lowell's 1959 collection Life Studies. Lowell's 00:21:55.809 --> 00:21:58.829 decision to publish poems that discussed his 00:21:58.829 --> 00:22:01.049 own mental illness and institutionalization, 00:22:01.170 --> 00:22:03.450 it seems to have given Plath the final courage 00:22:03.450 --> 00:22:06.190 she needed. The impact of Ariel was immediate 00:22:06.190 --> 00:22:09.430 and dramatic, filled with dark, intense, often 00:22:09.430 --> 00:22:12.329 violent, and thoroughly autobiographical descriptions 00:22:12.329 --> 00:22:15.750 of mental illness in poems like Tulips, Daddy, 00:22:16.170 --> 00:22:18.869 and Lady Lazarus. Okay, let's spend a moment 00:22:18.869 --> 00:22:21.410 on this concept because Plath is really the definitive 00:22:21.410 --> 00:22:24.190 figure of confessional poetry. How did critics 00:22:24.190 --> 00:22:27.180 formally define this genre back then? Well, critic 00:22:27.180 --> 00:22:30.099 Alvarez, her close friend, he defined it perfectly, 00:22:30.259 --> 00:22:32.420 I think. He said it's a form where the barriers 00:22:32.420 --> 00:22:34.579 between the artist's work and his life are forever 00:22:34.579 --> 00:22:37.319 shifting and crumbling. It's art that just refuses 00:22:37.319 --> 00:22:40.099 to sanitize the messy, painful domestic and sexual 00:22:40.099 --> 00:22:42.900 details of private life. Right. So it stands 00:22:42.900 --> 00:22:46.559 in direct, almost aggressive opposition to T 00:22:46.559 --> 00:22:48.759 .S. Eliot's famous idea that great art requires 00:22:48.759 --> 00:22:51.599 the extinction of personality. Confessional poets 00:22:51.599 --> 00:22:53.920 rejected that. They fused their entire messy 00:22:53.920 --> 00:22:56.200 inner lives with their artistic output. Totally. 00:22:56.460 --> 00:22:59.859 And Platt's work exemplified this with its explosive, 00:23:00.180 --> 00:23:03.700 intense, and often controversial imagery. We 00:23:03.700 --> 00:23:05.400 really have to address the specifics in poems 00:23:05.400 --> 00:23:08.319 like Daddy. Yeah, Daddy is intense. In that poem, 00:23:08.400 --> 00:23:11.700 she uses the metaphor of Nazi concentration camps 00:23:11.700 --> 00:23:13.819 and the Holocaust to describe her relationship 00:23:13.819 --> 00:23:16.400 with her deceased German father. Lines like, 00:23:16.480 --> 00:23:19.119 I may well be a Jew, and the reference to the 00:23:19.119 --> 00:23:22.220 Mein Kampf look. They're shockingly potent, even 00:23:22.220 --> 00:23:24.720 today. This use of immense historical trauma 00:23:24.720 --> 00:23:27.380 to articulate profound personal pain, which is 00:23:27.380 --> 00:23:29.720 unprecedented. And in Lady Lazarus, she employs 00:23:29.720 --> 00:23:32.220 a similar shock tactic, right? Transforming her 00:23:32.220 --> 00:23:34.220 suicide attempts into this defiant resurrection 00:23:34.220 --> 00:23:37.400 performance, using imagery like the Jewish prisoner's 00:23:37.400 --> 00:23:40.119 lampshade or the gold filling from a tooth, equating 00:23:40.119 --> 00:23:42.400 her suffering with historical martyrdom. It's 00:23:42.400 --> 00:23:45.460 brutal imagery. And the intensity of this work 00:23:45.460 --> 00:23:48.619 made Plath a... powerful and, well, sometimes 00:23:48.619 --> 00:23:51.440 controversial symbol. For many in the nascent 00:23:51.440 --> 00:23:53.960 feminist movement, she immediately became a symbol 00:23:53.960 --> 00:23:56.559 of blighted female genius. Right, a feminist 00:23:56.559 --> 00:23:59.480 icon for some. Yeah. Writer Honor Moore noted 00:23:59.480 --> 00:24:01.759 that Ariel effectively marked the beginning of 00:24:01.759 --> 00:24:04.700 a movement, charting female rage, ambivalence, 00:24:04.700 --> 00:24:07.500 and grief in a voice that was visceral and true. 00:24:07.960 --> 00:24:10.420 It allowed generations of women to identify with 00:24:10.420 --> 00:24:12.799 her struggles. Beyond Ariel, her published output 00:24:12.799 --> 00:24:15.299 continued to grow, didn't it? Thanks mostly to 00:24:15.299 --> 00:24:17.740 the efforts of Ted Hughes, despite all the controversies, 00:24:17.759 --> 00:24:20.940 and her mother, Aurelia. The collected poems, 00:24:21.240 --> 00:24:24.039 published in 1981, that contained work from 1956 00:24:24.039 --> 00:24:26.480 right up until her death, and eventually won 00:24:26.480 --> 00:24:29.460 her that posthumous Pulitzer Prize. Right. And 00:24:29.460 --> 00:24:31.759 volumes like Crossing the Water and Winter Trees 00:24:31.759 --> 00:24:34.259 from 1971, they collected more previously unseen 00:24:34.259 --> 00:24:37.720 poems, solidifying her reputation. One critic 00:24:37.720 --> 00:24:39.819 praised Crossing the Water for its singularity 00:24:39.819 --> 00:24:42.160 and certainty, confirming her as this front -rank 00:24:42.160 --> 00:24:44.779 artist who had, by the end of her life, fully 00:24:44.779 --> 00:24:47.160 discovered her true power. And we can't overlook 00:24:47.160 --> 00:24:49.980 the importance of her nonfiction either. She 00:24:49.980 --> 00:24:52.940 started keeping a diary at age 11. That material 00:24:52.940 --> 00:24:55.420 is almost as important as her poetry for understanding 00:24:55.420 --> 00:24:59.319 her. Letters Home came out in 1975. Yeah, edited 00:24:59.319 --> 00:25:02.519 by her mother, Aurelia, who felt compelled to 00:25:02.519 --> 00:25:05.119 sort of counter the public perception of Plath 00:25:05.119 --> 00:25:07.940 that emerged after... The bell jar became huge. 00:25:08.099 --> 00:25:10.059 Trying to offer a different perspective. Exactly. 00:25:10.240 --> 00:25:12.839 But the real gift for literary scholars came 00:25:12.839 --> 00:25:15.380 much later. The Underbridge Journals of Sylvia 00:25:15.380 --> 00:25:18.529 Plath was published in 2000. That contained significant 00:25:18.529 --> 00:25:20.849 new material that Hughes had previously withheld, 00:25:20.910 --> 00:25:22.869 believing it was too painful or too revealing. 00:25:23.049 --> 00:25:24.869 And the reaction to that? The immediate reaction 00:25:24.869 --> 00:25:27.809 was that this was a genuine literary event, offering 00:25:27.809 --> 00:25:30.470 immense intimate context for her life and that 00:25:30.470 --> 00:25:33.269 final creative burst. It was huge. Okay, so if 00:25:33.269 --> 00:25:35.849 Plath's raw poetry is one pillar of her legacy, 00:25:36.170 --> 00:25:39.150 the intense, often bitter public scrutiny surrounding 00:25:39.150 --> 00:25:41.630 her estranged husband, Ted Hughes, is definitely 00:25:41.630 --> 00:25:43.900 the other. As her husband at the time of her 00:25:43.900 --> 00:25:46.059 death, Hughes inherited her entire estate, including 00:25:46.059 --> 00:25:48.619 all her written work, and he has been repeatedly 00:25:48.619 --> 00:25:51.299 and bitterly condemned for his role as her literary 00:25:51.299 --> 00:25:54.339 executor. Yeah, splitting mildly sometimes. The 00:25:54.339 --> 00:25:56.819 primary point of condemnation, which has been 00:25:56.819 --> 00:25:59.759 argued about for literally decades, centers on 00:25:59.759 --> 00:26:02.279 the destruction of source material. Hughes admitted 00:26:02.279 --> 00:26:05.259 to destroying Plath's last journal. The one containing 00:26:05.259 --> 00:26:07.940 entries from the winter of 1962 right up to her 00:26:07.940 --> 00:26:11.599 death in February 1963. That exact one. And his 00:26:11.599 --> 00:26:13.759 defense for that action, which he provided later, 00:26:13.880 --> 00:26:16.220 was that he'd do it because I did not want her 00:26:16.220 --> 00:26:18.599 children to have to read it. Adding something 00:26:18.599 --> 00:26:21.140 like, in those days I regarded forgetfulness 00:26:21.140 --> 00:26:24.019 as an essential part of survival. Right. A controversial 00:26:24.019 --> 00:26:27.380 justification, to say the least. And that decision 00:26:27.380 --> 00:26:29.599 has irrevocably shaped the narrative around her 00:26:29.599 --> 00:26:32.380 final months. But he didn't just destroy the 00:26:32.380 --> 00:26:34.599 journal. He also stated that another journal 00:26:34.599 --> 00:26:37.099 and an unfinished novel Plath was working on, 00:26:37.140 --> 00:26:39.799 titled... Double exposure, we're simply lost. 00:26:40.220 --> 00:26:42.539 Lost, conveniently. Well, that's what many suspected. 00:26:43.200 --> 00:26:45.500 While he did place her considerable royalties 00:26:45.500 --> 00:26:47.359 into a trust for their two children, Frida and 00:26:47.359 --> 00:26:49.920 Nicholas, the pervasive public perception remained 00:26:49.920 --> 00:26:52.700 that Hughes was actively controlling and, frankly, 00:26:52.819 --> 00:26:55.559 sanitizing the narrative of Plath's life to protect 00:26:55.559 --> 00:26:58.140 his own reputation. And this public outrage, 00:26:58.420 --> 00:27:00.960 it often manifested physically, didn't it, dramatically? 00:27:01.920 --> 00:27:04.480 Plath's gravestone in Heptonstall Churchyard 00:27:04.480 --> 00:27:06.900 has been repeatedly vandalized over the years. 00:27:08.190 --> 00:27:10.289 Activists, often motivated by feminist rage, 00:27:10.509 --> 00:27:14.250 repeatedly chiseled off the surname Hughes, insisting 00:27:14.250 --> 00:27:16.630 the stone should only read Sylvia Plath. Just 00:27:16.630 --> 00:27:19.289 erasing his name. Yep. And the epitaph Hughes 00:27:19.289 --> 00:27:22.130 chose for her, which reads, Even amidst fierce 00:27:22.130 --> 00:27:24.750 flames, the golden lotus can be planted, attributed 00:27:24.750 --> 00:27:27.650 to either the Hindu Bhagavad Gita or maybe the 00:27:27.650 --> 00:27:30.400 Buddhist novel Journey to the West. While it 00:27:30.400 --> 00:27:32.339 did little to soothe the fervor, every time the 00:27:32.339 --> 00:27:34.359 stone was damaged, Hughes would have the damaged 00:27:34.359 --> 00:27:36.720 part removed for repair, sometimes leaving the 00:27:36.720 --> 00:27:39.000 site unmarked for periods, which only fueled 00:27:39.000 --> 00:27:41.119 further public accusations that he was dishonoring 00:27:41.119 --> 00:27:43.180 her name or trying to erase her. It just fed 00:27:43.180 --> 00:27:46.099 the fire. Completely. And then, six years after 00:27:46.099 --> 00:27:49.140 Plath's death, the controversy intensified horrifically. 00:27:49.680 --> 00:27:52.640 Hughes' mistress, Asha Weevil, the woman Plath 00:27:52.640 --> 00:27:54.640 discovered him having the affair with, also died 00:27:54.640 --> 00:27:59.009 by suicide, using a gas stove. In 1969. Oh, God. 00:27:59.069 --> 00:28:01.349 And tragically. Tragically. She also killed their 00:28:01.349 --> 00:28:02.789 four -year -old daughter, Shura, at the same 00:28:02.789 --> 00:28:06.410 time. Unbelievable. This double tragedy, it really 00:28:06.410 --> 00:28:09.190 sealed Hughes' reputation in the eyes of many 00:28:09.190 --> 00:28:12.849 as this figure of immense toxicity. It cemented 00:28:12.849 --> 00:28:15.490 the Plath Fantasia, as Hughes himself later called 00:28:15.490 --> 00:28:18.529 it. Some radical feminists openly accused him 00:28:18.529 --> 00:28:21.150 of driving both women to suicide, even going 00:28:21.150 --> 00:28:23.390 so far as to accuse him of Plath's battery and 00:28:23.390 --> 00:28:26.329 murder, highlighting the extreme level of public 00:28:26.329 --> 00:28:29.309 vitriol he endured for decades. He was under 00:28:29.309 --> 00:28:32.750 enormous sustained attack. In 1989, he finally 00:28:32.750 --> 00:28:34.849 addressed the public image he felt trapped in, 00:28:34.910 --> 00:28:37.089 publishing an article in The Guardian titled 00:28:37.089 --> 00:28:39.650 The Place Where Sylvia Plath Should Rest in Peace. 00:28:39.809 --> 00:28:42.509 Right. And in that piece, he directly wrestled 00:28:42.509 --> 00:28:45.329 with the public image of Plath, arguing the fantasia 00:28:45.329 --> 00:28:47.529 about Sylvia Plath is more needed than the facts. 00:28:47.809 --> 00:28:49.990 He felt that no matter what facts he presented, 00:28:50.250 --> 00:28:53.009 the public preferred the romantic, tragic, mythic 00:28:53.009 --> 00:28:55.190 version of the story. If he tried to correct 00:28:55.190 --> 00:28:57.109 a fantasy, he was accused of trying to suppress 00:28:57.109 --> 00:28:59.829 free speech. His sustained silence on the marriage 00:28:59.829 --> 00:29:02.230 for so long only exacerbated the myth -making 00:29:02.230 --> 00:29:05.490 process. But that silence finally broke in 1998. 00:29:06.539 --> 00:29:08.880 A really pivotal moment in literary history. 00:29:09.160 --> 00:29:11.700 Just before his own death from terminal cancer, 00:29:12.099 --> 00:29:14.900 Hughes published birthday letters. Huge moment. 00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:18.359 This collection of 88 poems was his first explicit 00:29:18.359 --> 00:29:21.059 disclosure, written entirely from his perspective 00:29:21.059 --> 00:29:23.759 about his relationship with Plath. And it caused 00:29:23.759 --> 00:29:27.079 a sensation. Oh, massive. Topped bestseller charts 00:29:27.079 --> 00:29:29.720 internationally. For the first time, the world 00:29:29.720 --> 00:29:32.759 received a direct... emotional, deeply complex 00:29:32.759 --> 00:29:35.180 account from the man who had been the central 00:29:35.180 --> 00:29:38.000 villain in the narrative for three decades. While 00:29:38.000 --> 00:29:40.180 it certainly didn't excuse his actions in many 00:29:40.180 --> 00:29:43.059 people's eyes, it added necessary context and 00:29:43.059 --> 00:29:45.160 definitely shattered this simple one -sided narrative. 00:29:45.710 --> 00:29:47.829 The tragedy, unfortunately, extended to the next 00:29:47.829 --> 00:29:50.369 generation as well. We have to note the subsequent 00:29:50.369 --> 00:29:52.829 just heartbreaking death by suicide of their 00:29:52.829 --> 00:29:55.710 son, Nicholas Hughes, in 2009, following a long 00:29:55.710 --> 00:29:57.890 history of depression. Yeah. The family's story 00:29:57.890 --> 00:30:00.430 became just tragically synonymous with artistic 00:30:00.430 --> 00:30:02.970 turmoil and hereditary depression. It's incredibly 00:30:02.970 --> 00:30:05.640 sad. Their daughter, Frida Hughes, she's a writer 00:30:05.640 --> 00:30:08.099 and artist herself, and she has vehemently criticized 00:30:08.099 --> 00:30:10.619 the media's relentless intrusion into their personal 00:30:10.619 --> 00:30:13.880 life when the 2003 biopic Sylvia was made. Oh, 00:30:13.980 --> 00:30:16.240 she reacted strongly, wrote a poem criticizing 00:30:16.240 --> 00:30:18.519 the peanut -crunching public for wanting to be 00:30:18.519 --> 00:30:21.599 titillated by her family's tragedies, condemning 00:30:21.599 --> 00:30:23.880 them for trying to fill the mouth of their Sylvia 00:30:23.880 --> 00:30:26.900 suicide doll. Wow. So the legacy is not just 00:30:26.900 --> 00:30:29.940 literary, it's an intensely painful, ongoing, 00:30:30.180 --> 00:30:34.089 open family wound. Hashtag tech outro. Yeah, 00:30:34.170 --> 00:30:36.670 it really is. So this deep dive, it's really 00:30:36.670 --> 00:30:38.750 allowed us to synthesize the material, hasn't 00:30:38.750 --> 00:30:41.089 it? Connecting the specific biographical facts, 00:30:41.170 --> 00:30:42.930 her father's failure, the academic excellence, 00:30:43.210 --> 00:30:45.849 the specific painful influence of Lowell and 00:30:45.849 --> 00:30:48.809 Sexton, and the trauma of that final winter with 00:30:48.809 --> 00:30:51.029 the revolutionary poetic output we see in Ariel. 00:30:51.250 --> 00:30:53.309 Yeah, Plath's willingness to fuse the domestic 00:30:53.309 --> 00:30:55.950 and the surreal in her later work, turning daily 00:30:55.950 --> 00:30:58.930 despair into this kind of mythic verse. It changed 00:30:58.930 --> 00:31:02.269 poetry forever. Her legacy as a major, defining, 00:31:02.390 --> 00:31:04.630 and yes, controversial figure is completely secure. 00:31:04.849 --> 00:31:06.930 Which brings us to our final thought for you, 00:31:07.069 --> 00:31:09.990 the listener. Given Plath's absolute commitment 00:31:09.990 --> 00:31:12.289 to confessional poetry and her fierce desire 00:31:12.289 --> 00:31:14.970 to write honestly, as she put it, from her most 00:31:14.970 --> 00:31:18.450 raw and painful experience, how should we attempt 00:31:18.450 --> 00:31:21.029 to separate the genius reflected in the art from 00:31:21.029 --> 00:31:24.609 the profound turmoil of the life? Or maybe... 00:31:24.829 --> 00:31:27.069 considering the very definition of confessionalism, 00:31:27.150 --> 00:31:29.650 is separating the two not only impossible but 00:31:29.650 --> 00:31:32.069 actually counterproductive to really understanding 00:31:32.069 --> 00:31:34.930 the work. Where does the life end and the art 00:31:34.930 --> 00:31:37.150 begin? Something to think about. It's the central 00:31:37.150 --> 00:31:39.470 tension of her genius, isn't it? The trauma is 00:31:39.470 --> 00:31:41.670 the material. Thank you for diving deep with 00:31:41.670 --> 00:31:42.849 us today. We'll see you next time.