Plath’s work participates in the Confessional poetry movement, which dominated American poetry in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The movement, which reacts against Modernism’s impersonality, blurs the line between the poet and speaker. Often, Confessional poetry uses the lyric “I” and speaks openly about transgressive topics, such as sexuality and mental illness. Confessional poetry’s emphasis on the speaker’s internal life draws on the prevalence of Freudian psychotherapy in the 1950s. Poets like Anne Sexton and John Berryman wrote works influenced by their therapists.

Confessional poetry acted as a sounding board for many women who used the mode to voice their oppression in a male-dominated society. To this end, Confessional poetry was an essential component in the second wave of feminism. Though Plath stands as an essential figure in Confessional poetry and second-wave feminism, much of her poetry looks back to earlier traditions. In Shakespeare’s play The Tempest, Ariel is a male spirit that inhabits the remote island where Prospero shipwrecks. At the time of Prospero’s arrival, Ariel is trapped under the witch Sycorax’s spell. Prospero breaks the spell but brings Ariel under a form of servitude. At the end of the play, Prospero sets Ariel free.