Sylvia Plath, born October of 1932, was one of the greatest confessional and feminist poets during the mid fifties and early sixties. Sylvia Plath expressed and criticized feminism and a woman’s role in society through her poems. She always felt a victim to society and the values of American culture which she said she was suppose to play the role of a housemother and wife. On December 12, 1958 she writes in her journal: “The little white house on the corner with a family full of women. So many women, the house stank of them. The grandfather lived and worked at the country club, but the grandmother stayed home and cooked like a grandmother should. The father dead and rotten in the grave he barely paid for, and the mother working for bread like no woman should have to and being a good mother on top of it ….a stink of women: Lysol, cologne, rose water and glycerine, cocoa butter on the nipples so they won`t crack lipstick red on all three mouths…” (Journal 267) Plath always had had time getting the acceptance of others for her work because she was expressing her feelings on feminism while a woman’s purpose at the time, was to obey and refrain from speaking her mind. She spoke of the experiences and obstacles faced by women during the time she was writing poetry which was The Great Depression as well as the Holocaust. Women at this time were treated as though they were of lesser importance than men and were a lower species. They were brought up to do two things and that is to take care of the husband and give him children.
Women at this time had no rights or respect from men and were not appreciated. Many feminists praise Plath for her work and what she says about women and how they should be empowered.
She also was one of the many other women poets of her time to declare that women writers should have a place in society along with male writers.
As Tyson Lois states in his Critical Theory Today, a feminist reading of literature will question the “…male