Today we're gonna look at the life and some of the works of one of America's finest modern female

poets,
Sylvia Plath.

At the time of her death in 1963 Sylvia Plath was on the verge of the critical success and recognition that
she had sought for most of her life. Her first novel 'The Bell Jar' had just been published and the
publication of her collection of poems 'Ariel' had just been agreed.

These poems, which were mostly written during the last year of her life, chronicle the traumatic
developments taking place in her personal life and were to make for her a reputation as a first rate poet.
But it wasn't until 1982, almost twenty years after her death, that her posthumously published 'Collected
poems' won the Pulitzer Prize for literature. Since this time the fascination and intrigue with her work has
continued to grow. Very few modern poets have captured the popular imagination as much as Plath, even
to the extent that in 2003 a movie was made about her life and her intense relationship with husband and
fellow poet Ted Huges.

To understand the continued growth in interest in her work, we have to look at the issues which her life
and work address. As Susan Bassnett writes in her book on women writers.

'Dying as she did in 1963, Sylvia Plath never knew that so soon afterwards the problems of what and how
women write was to become such a crucial matter and was to be debated by so many other women'

So, Sylvia Plath was a woman writing about women's issues before they were recognized as being of any
importance.

Sylvia Plath was born at Robinson memorial Hospital in Boston on 27th October 1932. She was the first
born child of Otto and Aurelia Plath, both highly educated academic people. Her father Otto was a
professor of biology at Boston University, but her mother had been subjugated into a domestic role as
housewife despite her level of education. Her father was not too pleased with the birth of his daughter and
demanded that his wife have a son within the next two years. Amazingly enough his wife obliged by giving
birth to a son almost exactly two years later.

This domineering father figure became a common theme that recurred throughout Plath's writing. With the
birth of her brother, Sylvia had to work much harder to win her father's attention and approval. When in
1936 Plath's father became ill, access to him became even more restricted, and Plath's main means of
getting attention from her father was by achieving academic success. This meant that from an early age
she began to equate love with success.

In 1940 Plath's father died and this left the family in a very difficult financial situation. They were forced to
move away from the seaside home that Plath had enjoyed so much and into a suburb of Boston and her
mother had to take a part time job to support the family.

In 1950 Plath graduated from Bradford High school and won a scholarship to Smith College. In the same
year she published a short story entitled 'And summer will not come again' and a poem called 'Bitter
strawberries'.

Plath's time at Smith was difficult as she had very high expectations of herself. She wanted to achieve
immaculate grades, but she also wanted to be accepted by her peers and an important part of being
accepted was being popular and dating lots of boys. This was difficult because as a scholarship girl she
had only a very small allowance to spend on clothes and going out, and each year's continued
scholarship was dependent on the level of her grades.

In 1953 Plath won a fiction contest sponsored by Madamouselle magazine and was offered the
opportunity to go to New York as a guest editor. She relished this opportunity to spend a month working in
a professional publishing environment, but Plath returned from New York feeling exhausted and after
hearing news that her application to a creative writing course had been rejected, she fell into what was to
become one of many depressions.
1. The Bell Jar was

about her father

her first novel

a very successful collection of poems

her last poem

2. Sylvia Plath’s ‘Collected poems’

won the Pulitzer Prize twenty years after it was published

were written during the last year of her life

won the Pulitzer Prize in 1982

were never published

3. Sylvia’s husband

made movies

died in 2003

was also a poet

had a movie made about him

4. Susan Bassnett thought Sylvia’s work

was about her husband

wasn’t very good

was about work life

was of great interest to women

5. Sylvia’s brother

was two years older than her

was born two years after her

was a professor at Boston University

was a highly educated academic

she got bad grades

she won a scholarship

boys didn’t like her

she was short of money

7. In 1953 Sylvia

left New York to get a job as an editor

rejected an offer to teach creative writing

worked as a guest editor in New York

returned to new York because she was depressed

8. What does the lecturer imply when she says “Very few modern poets have captured the popular
imagination as much as Plath”

Plath was able to understand the hopes of ordinary people.

Plath has become very popular

It is unusual for a modern poet to become popular with ordinary people.

Plath’s writing was about modern people and their imagination.

9. What does the lecturer imply when she says “This domineering father figure became a common theme
that recurred throughout Plath’s writing.”

The image of her father appears in many of her poems.

Plath often wrote of her love for her father.

Plath writings were dominated by the image of her father.

Plath’s father often told her what to write about.

10. Which THREE sentences best summarise the passage?

A What's remarkable about Plath's work is that it addresses many women's issues that were ahead
of her time.

B Plath's father was one of her guiding influences and he supported and mentored her until he died
in 1940.
 C Plath's early life was spent living happily by the sea with her mother who had a part time job to
support the family.

D The real significance and the greatness of work was never recognised within in her lifetime.

E Plath's academic path to success was secured by winning an early scholarship. After this she
never looked back.

F Plath's work reflects the many of the personal difficulties that she had whilst growing up and later
as a wife and mother.
Professor: Good morning everyone, now in today’s lesson I’d like to talk about Population Growth, and
in particular, fertility rate. Now, can anyone here define fertility rate?
Charlene: Er, is it the number of births in a population, measured per thousand people per year?
Professor: Oh, er no, that’s what we call the birth rate. The number of children born in a year, per
thousand people. No, the fertility rate is the average number of children born per woman in her lifetime,
that is, if she lives beyond her child-bearing years. Now, do you think the British fertility level is higher or
lower than it was ... say twenty years ago?
Charlene: I think it’s lower, because these days women are far more focused on their careers than they
used to be.
Professor: Well, that point is certainly true, but actually, fertility levels in Britain are relatively high at the
moment. In 2008, it was 1.96; that means that on average, each woman gives birth to 1.96 children, and
in 2009 it was only slightly lower, at 1.94. The last time fertility rates were this high was back in 1973. In
the UK currently, the highest rate of fertility is in Northern Ireland, where the rate is 2.04, and the lowest is
in Scotland, where the rate is just 1.77.
Charlene: I don’t understand. How come fertility rate is going up? Women are just as career-driven
these days as they were thirty years ago.
Professor: Well, the reason is that during the 1990s women really started to delay having families, and
that was the reason for the decrease in birth rate then. Now those women are in their thirties and early
forties, and they are starting to have families. So that’s why the birth rate is going up.
Charlene: Oh, I see, so it’s not actually as if people are actively choosing to have more children than
they used to.
Professor: Yes, that’s right Charlene. The number of children per family is continuing to fall. Women
who are currently in their 70s had an average of 2.4 children. Those in their sixties had 2.2, those in their
fifties had 2.0, and the current figure is 1.9. Actually, this figure isn’t due to more families choosing to
have only one child, although that certainly is occurring, it’s mainly because of the increasing number of
women who have no children at all. This figure was 1 in 10 among the age group who are now 65, but
now 1 in 4 women in their mid-40s are childless.
Charlene: I heard that the fertility rate in Europe is, like, really low. 1.3 or something.
Professor: That’s right, Charlene. It is. It’s far below the replacement level. Can you tell me what
replacement level means? No? It’s the number of births you need to keep the population constant.
Charlene: Yes, I heard that in France they’re trying to get people to have more children. They even give
out gold medals if you have eight!
Professor: That’s right. So, we’ve already mentioned that women are waiting before having children
because of their careers. Why else is fertility rate generally decreasing?
Charlene: I think they have fewer children because they’re so expensive. I mean, I heard one report that
said it costs £200, 000 a year to raise a child here. But I find that difficult to believe. People’s standard of
living is far higher now than it used to be a hundred years ago when families had eight or nine kids.
Professor: That’s very true, but these days people’s expectations tend to be higher. Parents want their
children to have the best opportunities in life, so they’re prepared to pay to develop their children’s talents.
Charlene: Yes, I heard that in China, where they’re easing off some of the rules of the one child policy
and allowing some couples to have two, many parents are still choosing to have one. They say it’s just
too expensive. But, you know, I reckon that, with all this parental micromanagement that’s going on these
days, parents only have the time to manage one or two children.
Professor: That’s a good point. So, now I’d like to look at some different organizations, and examine
what they believe about the current population issues...
1. Which of the following is defined as the number of children born per 1000 people per year?

Replacement Level

Fertility Rate

Birth Rate

Fertility Level

2. Which of the following countries in the UK has the highest fertility rate?

England

Scotland

Wales

Northern Ireland

3. Why is fertility rate in the UK higher than it was twenty years ago?

Couples are choosing to have larger families.

A higher proportion of women are having children.

Women who delayed childbirth are having children now.

Fewer women are interested in their careers.

4. What proportion of women in their mid-forties do not have children nowadays?

10%

4%

25%

40%

5. What do French couples who have eight children receive?

C D
6. Which of the reasons for low fertility rates is NOT mentioned?

Women are increasingly focused on their jobs.

People want to enjoy their lives before taking on responsibility.

Parents do not have time to have many children.

Children are considered to cost a lot of money.