5. Plath gassed herself with the kitchen oven while her two young children were upstairs sleeping
Plath’s own family doctor saw that she was a risk to herself. In January 1963, he prescribed her strong anti-depressants. He also arranged for a nurse to visit her apartment every morning to check on both Plath and her two children. On the morning of February 11, 1963, the nurse arrived at the flat to find Plath dead in the kitchen. She had put her children to bed, sealed off the kitchen doors with towels and then placed her head in the gas oven. Some biographers argue Plath never intended to kill herself, that this act was a desperate cry for help. Others, however, point to her past history of failed attempts and the careful execution of the act as evidence Plath really did want to end her life.
