On October 27, the world celebrated what would have been renowned writer Sylvia Plath's 87th birthday, and many reflected on the legacy that her artistic and creative writing had on lives even in modern-day society.
Known for her unapologetic feminism and honest conversations on mental health, Plath immediately set herself apart from other writers, especially of the time, who often remained silent on the kinds of topics that she discussed. Her life came to an end when she committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning, after sealing the room and putting her head in the oven. Needless to say, her work did everything but glorify the harsh realities she lived.
And while everyone had their own way of honoring her memory, with many posting excerpts from their favorite of her works-- perhaps from her novel, The Bell Jar or from one of her more famous poems like "Lady Lazarus"-- Google had a more interesting take for her birthday. Although Google features an image, or "doodle," on every significant date, whether it be birthdays of prominent figures or holidays, it seems that the search engine had missed the entire point of Plath's legacy, and thus contributed to a larger and more prevalent conversation.
Google's doodle for Sylvia Plath's birthday.google.com
The image's inconsistencies with the reality of Plath's life and legacy were first brought up by Twitter user @andevers, although, afterward, many people on social media admitted to feeling the same level of confusion.
"Could the Sylvia Plath google doodle be a little less EVERYTHING IS LOVELY AND PRETTY?" she wrote.
The demands of the feminine made her a punk rock art monster. So, you know, there's a lot to work with.— A. N. Devers (@A. N. Devers) 1572137419.0
The points made in the thread that this user created, as well as the conversation it started, mainly connected to how female writers and their adversities have and continued to be misportrayed by others in society. People questioned why she wasn't wearing a jacket, why her papers of writing were on the snow-covered ground, why the winter trees, presumably inspired by her poem entitled, "Winter Trees," were perceived as beautiful in the image, when in reality, the poem was one of her lasts before she committed suicide. The beautification of her work, making it seem as though she was just a girl (with no apparent regard for warmth?) writing in the winter. It could quite literally pass as a painting that your grandma hangs up during the wintertime.
All of these things take away from her impactful writing. She has left such a mark on the world and on her readers because she was brutally honest in her writing and represented everything that the image was not-- an aggressive form of feminism, demanding from the world more than she was given.
@andevers Disney Plath— Tonya Horrorly🥀 (@Tonya Horrorly🥀) 1572186435.0
@andevers Dang. You are very right. I would have never been able to guess this was supposed to be Plath. Just some… https://t.co/z90oPXkOG4— a bag for fleas (@a bag for fleas) 1572183988.0
@laura_owens01 It’s sexist. Why doesn’t she have a coat on. Why is she pointing her toe? This is a princessificatio… https://t.co/giPn0ZCoPS— A. N. Devers (@A. N. Devers) 1572191879.0
In an interview with the artist, they described their creative approach by saying, "I started by ordering her poetry anthologies and reading through them. I tried to find specific passages from her work that would thread together into a pseudo-narrative, but ended up pivoting to an illustration that would capture the mood of her work instead."
Inevitably, it left a lot of people thinking 'Mood of her work? Did you even read it?' The mood of her work is nearly the opposite of the image. The only things that could indicate any kind of semblance to the "mood of her work" would be the thorns on the flowers and the darkness of the sky-- and really, at that point of interpretation, the bar is on the floor.
Another user in the thread brought up the point that the artwork connects directly to the idea that female suicide is something of a cultural obsession. In an article by D.W. Anselmo of BitchMedia, this idea is analyzed further, referencing other popular forms of storytelling that linger on this ideology, including Ophelia in Shakespeare's Hamlet, the Libson sisters in Jeffery Eugenides's The Virgin Suicides, and even Hannah Baker in 13 Reasons Why. In summary, Anselmo quotes the famous Edgar Allan Poe, where he wrote that "the death…of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world." (Yes. He literally said that.)
Suicide is anything but beautiful-- a reality that a lot of society has yet to accept. Romanticizing the suicide of women, whether it be through deeming it "poetic" or drawing light and airy images instead of the proper representation, is dangerous. How are we going to be able to start a conversation on mental health and suicide when everything around us is influencing people to believe that women killing themselves is not horrifying and devastating, but poetic, soft, and beautiful?
Sylvia Plath's life was not light or soft. Her writing showed that. It touched so many people because they felt as though they could identify with the stray from the glorification that poetry so often holds. The Google artwork brings it back to just that, glorifying her life and work with a romantic image and further contributing to the belittling of women and their struggles. No one is asking for an image of Plath's suicide, but the acknowledgment of Plath as an insanely intellectual, Nobel Prize-winning writer might have been the better choice over just a pretty girl walking in the snow.