Résumé:
The major aim of this study is to reveal the autobiographical reflections and images of death in Sylvia Plath’s Ariel poems. The purpose of this research is to verify the hypothesis that the theme of death in Plath’s Ariel can be read from different ways. Owing to the fact that her poems were purely confessional, her biography reflected purposefully in her writing. Thus, in order to conduct this study, we intend to employ the Death Drive theory which was introduced by Sigmund Freud. This thesis consists of two chapters: the first chapter presents a theoretical background of the writer and the genre she belongs to. On other hand, Plath’s life plays a pivotal role in shaping her poetry. The events she went through were illustrated in her poems and eventually made her commit suicide at an early age. The second chapter deals with the “death instinct” that was portrayed within Ariel poems and the various interpretations of this theme relying on the poet’s life and mainly her psychological issues. The use of the death drive theory will allow us to analyse Plath’s poems form a psychological perspective.