Sylvia Plath’s Son Nicholas Hughes Commits Suicide

Nicholas Hughes, son of renowned author Sylvia Plath, committed suicide last week at the age of 47. Hughes had been employed as a marine biologist at the University of Alaska. His mother famously took her own life at a young age in 1963. His father, the powerful poet Ted Hughes, died of natural causes in 1998.

Nicholas Hughes had been suffering from depression from his home in Fairbanks, Alaska before taking his life through hanging on March 16. He had worked as a professor studying salmon ecology until resigning from his university faculty position in 2006. He is survived by his sister, Frieda Hughes, a painter, writer, and poet residing in the United Kingdom.

Sylvia Plath is largely remembered for her novel describing a young woman’s battle with mental illness entitled The Bell Jar as well as a body of poetry. Ted Hughes is one of the best poets of his generation and was the poet laureate of Brittain from 1984 until his death. They were married from 1956 to 1963.

Although the children of parents who are prone to depression are more likely to suffer from the condition than others, it has not been proven to be a genetically hereditary condition. Rather, a child who has grown up or come of age in a household that is run by parents who are displaying signs of depression are more likely to learn similar behavioral patterns, and the impact that a parent’s suicide has on a child’s mental health is no doubt a drastic one.