Sylvia Plath was a woman of light and fracture. Through her poetry, and her novel “The Bell Jar”, she turned her wounds into words, using confession not as surrender, but as a way to see, and understand herself. Plath’s writing transforms pain into art, creating a mirror where vulnerability can become voice. 

Within the world of literature, Plath was a key figure in the 20th century, as she made it possible for people, especially women, to turn pain into something spoken and significant, giving suffering a voice that still echoes today. 

The transformation of this vulnerability finds one of literature’s most powerful expressions in Plath’s only novel “The Bell Jar”, written in 1961 beneath the shadow of her separation from Ted Hughes. Here, Plath’s poetic voice is extended into prose, using the ‘bell jar’ as a conceit for isolation, entrapment and psychological suffocation. The jar is both cage and lens; it separates Esther, the novel’s voice, from the world while distorting her view of it. Through this imagery, Plath channels her own experiences of depression, societal pressure, and loneliness into a confessional art that is unflinchingly honest. At a time when women’s voices were often silenced, Plath fought to be heard, dissecting pain and holding it to the light, where it could no longer be ignored. Her writing transforms art into a mirror, reflecting not only her own suffocation but that of countless women alongside her.

In “The Bell Jar”, the mind’s desire to escape blurs the line between the fear of life and the fear of death. Plath related this state of depression to a vivid, almost tangible intensity just like ‘frostbite all over’, numb yet unbearably painful, as Helena Dela observes. Esther describes this sensation with intense clarity: “coolly as a tree or a flower.” It is not a moment of alarm, it is a silent surrender, an acceptance of inevitability, a longing to see if ‘the grass is greener on the other side’. Plath’s honesty with such sensitive truths makes her work profoundly intimate, expressing ideas that are historically shielded . This raw depiction of helplessness resonates beyond Plath herself, echoing in other confessional pieces such as Osamu Dazai’s “No Longer Human”, where he pleads, “in spite of my suffering, at the thought …I cried and burst into tears.” Across her prose and poetry, Plath captures the silent, suffocating weight of despair in a way that is both deeply personal and beautifully recognisable.

The confessional intensity of “The Bell Jar” meets its echo in Plath’s poetry, where the sense of anguish and ambiguity is displayed with striking imagery and raw emotion. In poems like “Daddy”, “Lady Lazarus”, and “Soliloquy of the Solipsist”, Plath channels her own grief, anger and upset into haunting language, transforming her own struggles into a powerful expression of feeling and thought. Her poetic voice is strong, raw, and unflinching. In “Daddy”, the weight of her father’s death and responsibility collide, while “Lady Lazarus” turns the concept of death into performance, capturing the endless cycle of despair and survival through her channels of reason and emotion. In “Soliloquy of the Solipsist”, the pressures Plath faces following her miscarriage are highlighted to the world. She explores feeling like a failure in the eyes of society, as she sees one of her only expectations as a woman is to bear children. This conflicts deeply with Plath’s own views, as she describes in other poems the striking absence of a maternal instinct, which causes her to feel alienated and separate from her surroundings. Her poetry’s interpretation of an internal struggle leaves a lasting impact on the world of literature and how we perceive pain, as shown by this example of these 3 of over 400 published poems. Truthfully, I could spend all day analyzing her poetry, with its layers of meaning, its reflection of mental turmoil and its beautifully presented lyrics.

These poems were Plath’s voice, crystallising her confessional style into a metaphor and rhythm which resonate universally, illuminating the truth about identity, mental health and the silent pressures on the chest of a woman, just as “The Bell Jar” enclosed Esther’s consciousness. Plath’s work traps the human psyche in its most vulnerable and truthful state, leaving her own voice, which is vividly personal, poetic and hauntingly intimate.

Sylvia Plath, whether in poetry or prose, continues to be one of the most influential and courageous figures in literature. Even today, the relevance of her work is profound and striking. She transforms suffering into art. She listens to the silent beat of the mind. She feels the torment of societal expectations. She traces the fragile edges of identity. She turns vulnerability into a mirror through which we see ourselves, through which we reflect. Across her works, confession is creation, anguish is insight, and life is language. In doing so, Sylvia Plath leaves behind a legacy that rings a bell across generations and roles. Her voice is both unflinchingly personal and powerfully raw, echoing in the hearts of those who listen.

I am going to finish with a favourite quote of mine from Plath, reflecting the very heartbeat of life itself:

“I am, I am, I am.”

We are all likely to have seen the Welsh flag across our local towns and cities many times throughout our lives. However, the flag itself, from the red dragon to the green and white background have all been the result of some form of Welsh or Welsh-related history.

The green and white background on the Welsh flag is due to these two colours being the colours of the Tudor family, the English and Welsh dynasty that ruled over England from 1485 until 1603. Despite ruling on the throne over England, the Tudors' links to Wales are a result of the Tudor family's descent from Ednyfed Fychan, a Welsh nobleman who became distain (which is similar to a steward or governor) of the Kingdom of Gwynedd in north-west Wales; and the Tudors of Penmynydd, who were the wider family the Tudor dynasty arose from - they were connected to Anglesey in North Wales, which is where the village of Penmynydd is situated. This family was very important to the Tudor dynasty as it was the lineage of Sir Owen Tudor, the man who founded their line in 1485.  

One of the first uses of a flag with a red dragon and white and green background relating to Wales was the use of a standard with these colours and a dragon. This happens to look very similar to the modern day Welsh flag!

Last weekend, I visited my Uncle who lives in Greenwich, London. As usual, we took the train. The one thing that always fascinates me in London is not the big skyscrapers of Canary Wharf or the beautiful houses in my Uncle’s area, but the efficiency and scale of the public transport my family uses when getting to his house. I always enjoy how well designed these things are, and think how much planning and organisation it must take to keep a city with multiple million people living in it running for even just a day. Over 4 billion people live in cities. Over half of earth’s population sleeps, eats, and works in these large and exciting but also unorganised, polluted and overcrowded settlements. 

Cities in Europe, North America and some cities in the far east of Asia have modern technology automating many jobs, organised and fast public transport services, and enough housing to mostly fit people moving towards them. But these cities have already had their population explosions, and have since been developing for tens if not hundreds of years. Most of the growth right now is occurring, and will continue to occur, in poorer countries, in continents such as Asia, Africa and South America. Many of these countries are still experiencing economic changes and industrial revolutions. Young people are now moving to urban centres and having far greater numbers of children than in ‘Western’ cities in North America and Europe.This means there is significant stress on cities in low income countries to develop quickly enough. However, sadly, many of these cities, some with tens of millions of people living in them, have enormous problems. One is housing. With so many people moving to cities, there is a very high demand for houses to be built, but they are not being built quickly enough, and many people are forced to live in slums and informal settlements. Another problem is high pollution and environmental impacts. Old cars and badly built factories can cause severe smoke and air pollution. In Byrnihat, India, air pollution was 25 times the WHO’s recommended limit in 2024. This is very dangerous for the people living in cities, as extended exposure can cause long term lung illnesses that drastically limit the lifespan of the people there. Infrastructure in poorer cities can be very bad. Roads can become completely congested, and there are rarely public transport networks, and when there are, they are full and unreliable. Homes lack essential services such as sewage and running water, which decreases hygiene, increasing risks of diseases such as cholera, which also limits lifespan. Other government services in cities such as healthcare, are also crumbling, and struggling to meet demand. In short, quality of life in cities like these is often very poor. But people still move every day in their thousands from the countryside to the city. 

So what can be done to improve quality and length of life for the 4 billion (and counting) people who inhabit urban spaces? There are many cities trying to improve infrastructure, and in places like the Middle East, very elaborate, completely new, modern cities are being built. One famous example of this is ‘The Line’. The line is a giant glass city set to be built in the desert of Saudi Arabia. It is planned to stretch 170 km and accommodate 9 million people. Everything people will need will be within a 5 minute walk, and a train should be able to travel from one end to the other in 20 minutes. It will completely eliminate the issue of air pollution as it will be car free, using renewable energy to function. There will be many green spaces which could serve as wellbeing hubs as well as benefiting the environment, to make the city feel more natural. Due to the fact it is built upwards, it will be able to fit many more people than in a traditional city, while taking up about 2% of its footprint, according to NEOM, the company building it. New city developments across the world will be similar, and use more sustainable building materials. Technologies such as the 3D printing of parts and materials are also starting to be used in building developments, such as a mosque in Dubai built using solely 3D printed materials. Already in many big western cities, there is a technology called the ‘Internet of Things’. This is essentially a large web of cameras and different sensors, powered by large computers and AI to automate and smoothen processes in areas of urban life such as transport. AI will also help to reduce energy consumption in cities, with innovations such as adaptive street lighting. 

This leads us back to the importance of the development of transport infrastructure as a vehicle for growth. Transport in large cities is being modernised to become more efficient, for example, the public transport system in London. With almost 10 million people living in one of the most important cities in the world, it’s no wonder that 26.6 million trips are made every day in London. Therefore, the city government organises a large system of the tube, buses, trams, train services and boats. One example of the modernity and effectiveness of this system is the newly built Elizabeth line. The trains have clean carriages with live information, and in most Elizabeth line stations, there are so-called ‘Automated platform screen doors’ which open and close only when the train arrives, increasing safety on the platform and making the stations easier to climatize. 

Public transport services across western countries are generally very developed, similarly to London. In poorer cities, developments are being made, for example in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, a new app called FLARE was created by a tech company to co-ordinate and organise emergency services to get people to the nearest hospital, due to a lack of a whole country hospital service, but there is a long way to go yet. In many places, the rise of smartphones and the internet can help people in poor cities navigate and find essential services.

In the end, while completely new cities like ‘The Line’ are very exciting and sound great on paper, there’s something that just doesn't seem right. If we design new cities from scratch, what joy or human personality is there to them? In the line, everything you would need would be within a 5 minutes walk. To me, that seems almost dystopian. And all these modern ideas are very grand, but will it really solve the core problems that lie in very poor Mega cities? I don't really think so. One thing completely new cities don’t have that the slum areas in low income cities, however poor they are, do have, is a sense of community, history and uniqueness. If there are no problems in places like the Line, where’s the humanity in that? Another thing poor cities have is a hope for the place they live to be better. Maybe the best way to improve these cities is slowly, one change at a time.