GENDER IDENTITY IN SYLVIA PLATH'S LITERARY UNIVERSE

This thesis examines the portrayal of gender roles and the quest for female autonomy in the writings of Sylvia Plath. It looks at the social climate of the 1950s and 60s and how Plath's writing criticizes the “Feminine Mystique”, which is the idea that women should only find happiness in the home. Plath uses metaphors like the “Fig Tree” and the “Bell Jar” to show how women are stuck between their own goals and the expectations of society. This thesis seeks to give a broad picture of how Plath turned her own pain into a political message of resistance to patriarchal limits that everyone could understand.