The suicide tradition would seem to be both located in time and American.
Plath was taught by Lowell. Lowell was part of a swath of American
poets -- Delmore Schwartz, Randall Jarrell, Berryman -- all of whom
committed suicide. (Not Lowell in legal terms, but his self-destructive
drinking might qualify.)
Plath shared a college room with Anne Sexton, and they used to chat about
suicide.
So the context of Plath's suicide.
Given that at the end of her life, she was holding down a full-time job,
writing ferociously, and bringing up two children as a single-mother, the
pressures on her were immense.
Suicide for personal reasons.
Or suicide as part of a literary tradition ...
Or she didn't really mean it seriously ...
Or a history of past attempts ...
Robin Hamilton
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