Nutshell Summary

Ariel is a collection of 40 poems that Sylvia Plath wrote in a burst of creativity starting in 1960 and ending in 1963, the year she took her own life. It was published posthumously by her husband Ted Hughes in 1965, despite their turbulent marriage and eventual separation.
In this particular collection, Plath’s poems touch on a lot of different themes, yet there is no doubt that they are very personal and seem to fall under the label of confessional poetry, in which the poet uses their words as an outlet for their own life and hardships. In order to understand a lot of the themes within the text, we must know that Plath was previously diagnosed with depression, having made multiple suicide attempts, and would eventually take her own life at the age of 30.