A Poetic Detection Into Sylvia Plath's Suicide Essay

Problem, Methodology and Background:
    Suicide represents a global health concern that encompasses a myriad of biological, psychological, and social factors.   Suicide, strictly speaking a manner of death, currently ranks as the 11th leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for approximately 30,000 deaths annually.   Although reports of suicide have existed since the Greek and Roman times, the trends of suicide specifically in the United States have drastically changed, especially within the past century.   The most striking finding is the significant increase in suicide rate for both men and women in the second and third decade of life (Forensic 305).   But what is the relation between suicide and literature?   And what would a researcher in English literature research about suicide?
    During the recent times, the effect of the realm of psychology was introduced into almost all the other realms.   In a murder case, the focus is no more on the ‘criminal’ but on the criminal personality.   In the case of suicide, matters went further; a new science called suicidology was born. Suicidology is defined in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language as "The study of suicide, suicidal behavior, and suicide prevention".   Wikipedia defines suicidology as ‘a science dedicated to the understanding of suicide (taking one's own life).   Many fields of study are brought together under suicidology including psychology, psychiatry, physiology and sociology.   While some groups advocate a pro-choice stance towards suicide, this is controversial due to the fact that many suicides are due to mental illnesses, rather than euthanasia. Most groups advocate the prevention of suicide as well as aiming to understand it’.   So, this science is concerned with investigating into suicide cases through studying all the factors that may have led to committing suicide, including the psychological factors.   A branch of suicidology focused on studying the suicide cases of...