The Representations of Anxiety in Sylvia Plath's "Letters Home"

Abstract

"Letters home" deals with Sylvia Plath’s anxious life. Anxiety dominated Plath’s life due to the stressful death of her father when she was young, her mother’s hard work to support the family, lack of trust and faith in her life, and raising her children alone after her husband’s infidelity. This paper approaches her her letters to explore her psychological disorder using the concept of anxiety as explained by the American Psychiatrist Association (DSM- 5)*. The paper concludes that males have defined and applied mental illness to women throughout history. Female lunacy was thought to be caused by the delicate structure of a woman. Even after psychiatrists began researching patient conditions, the woman’s role as a patient remained unchanged, while the man’s role as a doctor remained the same. Plath’s Letters Home shows her life experiences from her first day in college till a few days before her suicide. She sustained the mental illness over time due to the society’s stereotyping. However, the purpose of this paper is to shed light on anxiety in Plath’s Letters Home.