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iBeFloe t1_j6c0k3c wrote

That’s intersting that her & the mistress died the same exact way… Plath accused him of domestic violence days before her second miscarriage. Her making sure her children didn’t die from how she chose to die shows me that she was clear of mind enough to not randomly blurt that?

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Tomek_Hermsgavorden t1_j6c1ef6 wrote

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Plath
>They found Plath dead with her head in the oven, having sealed the rooms between her and her sleeping children with tape, towels and cloths.[40] She was 30 years old.[41]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Hughes
>On March 16, 2009, Hughes hanged himself in his home in Fairbanks, Alaska.[3][15] According to his sister Frieda[16] and his UAF colleagues,[17] he had long been battling with depression.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assia_Wevill
>On 23 March 1969, Assia killed herself and four-year-old Shura in their London home at 3 Okeover Manor, Clapham Common. She had first sealed the kitchen door and window, then dissolved sleeping pills in a glass of water, chased with whisky, and then turned on the gas supply to the stove without lighting it. She and Shura were found by the family's German au pair, Else Ludwig, lying together on a mattress in the kitchen.[17]

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strugglebusvictim t1_j6c2tod wrote

In any Mental Health first aid course - people are taught not to say "commit" because you "commit" crimes. People die by suicide because it is rarely ever a random event, and more of the result of a sickness that can be traced back through their life.

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strugglebusvictim t1_j6c2whs wrote

Didn't know who she was... That was a very sad rabbit hole I fell down...

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3leggedkitten t1_j6chyus wrote

The German word for suicide is Selbstmord, "self-murder". It's being used less and less nowadays for the same reason, as murder implies malicious intent. People opt for the neutral term Suizid instead.

Which is great except we still use the German word for "commit" with it when talking about it. I didn't realize that until reading your comment. So we only did half the thing we were intending to do and I never noticed. 😅

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CCriscal t1_j6cjbkw wrote

Summary makes Mr.Plath look like a bad person.

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Super_Turnip t1_j6cny77 wrote

Assia Wevill, the mistress who later committed suicide, was deeply unhappy with, in her words, being treated like a housekeeper by Ted Hughes, who had promised to marry her. Elizabeth Sigmund, a close friend of Plath's, wrote of the difference in the way Hughes treated his daughter Shura (by Assia Wevill) compared to the way he related to his children with Plath, and said that the little girl was sad and quiet, seemingly well aware that Hughes didn't give her the same parental love and attention that he gave to his son and daughter with Plath.

Assia would later leave Hughes and return to London with Shura. Hughes had continued to make vague promises to Assia about setting up house with her and their daughter, while simultaneously making plans to marry Carol Orchard, with whom he'd been having affair. (He was also having an affair with Brenda Hedden, a married acquaintance.) Assia committed suicide on March 23rd, 1969, by dissolving sleeping pills in water and giving some to Shura, drinking the rest herself and chasing it with whisky. She had dragged a mattress into the kitchen of her flat and the pair were found there by the family au pair, Else Ludwig.

Ted Hughes seems to have been a lodestone of tragedy to both Platt and Wevill. Brilliant he may have been, he was also a serial philanderer, was accused by Plath (in a letter to her therapist) of having beaten her two days before the miscarriage of her second pregnancy, and was observed to have been a distant and unloving father to his daughter with Assia Wevill. Passion might make for good poetry, but it doesn't look as if it made for stable, healthy relationships.

If anyone is interested, here's an article in the Guardian that offers Elizabeth Sigmund's recollections about Plath, Hughes, and Wevill.

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PM_ME_UNDERPANTS t1_j6dqkel wrote

I only know about her because of the card in Cards Against Humanity.

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iBeFloe t1_j6ekiib wrote

Yes, depression can be hereditary, but she had accused him of being violent before her miscarriage & multiple times after to her psychiatrist.

On top of the terrible “therapy treatment” she got, that’s definitely a driving factor in her suicide.

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Siglo_de_oro_XVI t1_j6gym4b wrote

Ted Hughes was a hyena who could sniff out vulnerable prey. He'd know to hide from the apexes.

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