Sylvia possessed a deeply conditioned respect for authority. She wanted desperately to live up to the expectations of a society that viewed her as a bright, charming, enormously talented disciple of bourgeois conformity. On the other hand, she ached to experience life in all its grim and beautiful complexity. The poetic eye was always at work examining the nuance and measuring obscure detail, turning conversation into ultimatum (Steiner)
Elizabeth Winder, Pain, Parties, Work: Sylvia Plath in New York, Summer 1953
human-existence, joy, living-life-to-the-fullest, pain