Imagery of Depression, Trauma, and Suicide in Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath's Writings

Imagery of depression trauma
and suicide in Virginia Woolf
and Sylvia Plath’s writings

Contents
Contents...........................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Over the centuries, women have been resorting to suicide and self-harm as a method to
surrender themselves to what was actually labelled as “sins”, whenever a female dared to
represent them, apart from the stigma associated with imagery in the society. During the 19th and
20th century, women were expected to fulfil many roles- a mother, daughter and wife (De
Villiers, 09). However, their value was still not determined on the basis of their intrinsic abilities
but, rather on the fact that how well they followed instructions given by male-dominated society.
“I sank bank in the grey, plush seat and closed my eyes. The air of the bell jar wadded round on
me and I couldn’t stir”, as mentioned by one of the most prominent writers of the 20th century,
Sylvia Plath in her famous novel “The Bell Jar”. Another prominent confessional poetry writer,
Virginia Woolf, succumbed to death by committing suicide as a result of “going mad again”. The
unifying factor between two of the most famous female writers, Woolf and Plath, introduced the
individual act of suicide as “self-slaughter” (GRUNTS, 53).
The concept of mental illness was not widely known in those times; therefore, the term
“depression” was postulated as “melancholia”, because of its sheer positive connotation. The
knowledge about the term depression was based on an irrational belief, “sickness of the mind”,
commonly associated with women. The use of the word depression was somewhat gender based,
“heightened sensibilities” was the illuminative expression used for men. The objectification of
women as weak-minded was stereotyped because of which, Woolf and Plath were chose death
over life. In those times, suicide was considered as form of honorary death because of which
many female writers, such as Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath committed suicide as a result of
repression of their deep desires (Clark, 1081). Based on their life experiences, the creative
energy of the females was considered a threat to the male-dominated patriarchal society. In their
writings, the authors directly blamed the sheer stupidity of men which led to destructive wars and
caused trauma to the authors themselves resulting in their downfall as well.
The most blatant likeness between Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath were the extraordinary
verbal gifts and the sheer ability to shape language into remarkable poetry. Another similarity
that both women faced is the ability to speak against fascism in old times (Secreast, 72). It was
also believed that these poets suffered from depression which reflected through their work and as
a result of which both of them committed suicide at an early age. Virginia was remembered for
her influential working and the bold exploration of contemporary themes, on the other hand