Analysis Of The Bell Jar By Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath’s poor mental health, which subsequently lead to her suicide on February 11th 1963, may be seen to be reflected in her novel, ‘The Bell Jar’. Death may be deemed to have a lack of meaning throughout her novel due to the casual manner in which the protagonist and narrator, Esther Greenwood, deals with death. Esther’s father passed away when she was nine years old, and she feels that his death marked the point at which she changed, resulting in her mental health becoming unstable. However, along with her mother, she ‘had never cried for [her] father’s death’ (p.159). This clearly demonstrates how Esther deals with death; it is a necessary part of life, and to Esther, as aforementioned, her mental health has caused her to view death as more desirable than ‘sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in [her] own sour air’ (p. 178). Moreover, Esther’s numerous attempts at suicide remind the reader that Esther believes the only ‘way out’ is death. For example, in Chapter Thirteen, Esther asks her friend Cal, how he would kill

Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar is rich with an array of motifs, all which serve to sustain the novel’s primary themes. A motif particularly prevalent within the first half of the novel involves food, specifically Esther Greenwood’s relationship with food. This peculiar relationship corroborates the book’s themes of Esther’s continuous rebirthing rituals, and of her extreme dissatisfaction. The interrelation with food functions in two distinct manners: literally and figuratively. This analysis will concentrate on the figurative role of food in The Bell Jar, and how it denotes Esther’s overall state.

One often hears the saying, “Don't judge a man until you have walked a mile in their shoes.” The way an author uses similes can help the reader better understand how the character feel and what they're going through like Sylvia Plath in The Bell Jar. Esther Greenwood, a college student, working at a month long job as a guest editor for a fashion magazine feels like an outcast from the rest of the girls; she doesn't seem to fit in. When she arrives back home, she receives several bad news leads her into thinking suicide is the best thing to do. After multiple failed attempts, she is put into a mental hospital where she will gain hope in life and finally discover who she really is. In Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, there are several instances in which the author uses similes to illustrate a more detailed image/description to better portray how the main character felt during her New York job, her suicide attempts, and at her stay at the mental institution.

One’s identity is the most important lesson to be learned. It is vital part of life knowing who you are in order to live a fulfilled life. Without knowing your identity, and the way you perceive life, it is difficult for others to understand you, along with a struggle to live a happy life. In Sylvia Plath’s “The Bell Jar,” Esther Greenwood struggles to find her own identity, and in the process, she develops a mental illness which helps her discover the person she is on the inside.

Freedom is something that is very often sought after, whether that is freedom from one’s self, others, or society. That last point is demonstrated best in the novel known as The Bell Jar. The story demonstrates a desire towards independence from societal expectations that was and very well still is felt in many people. The novel focuses on a young woman’s story, in her best times and worst times, her plight for freedom from what is expected of women, and most of all the sacrifices she makes in order to attain it. The author, Sylvia Plath, wanted to create an understanding in the reader that would have them understand what. That is, what a woman had to do for freedom and the struggle that it entailed, a feeling that may have been lost with the recent changes in societal expectations towards women. So, in The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath uses setting, plot, and tone to illustrate how women in the 1950s were forced to make sacrifices to obtain freedom from societal expectations.

The postwar 1950s launched the modernist period in English Literature, which suggested a more pessimistic perception of society through societal nonconformity, decay, and alienation. Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, a parallel to her life, expresses Esther Greenwood’s character in pursuit of morality in the reality she faces in the modern society. Esther discovers that the society is not as pure as it seems and has underlying truths behind its deceptive appearance. To emphasize her realization, she mentions the color white two hundred-fourteen times in the novel. Although the color white often symbolizes purity, goodness, and innocence, Esther gives white a negative connotation in the novel. Esther depicts the reality of the society as fabricated through the recurring motif of the color white, which symbolizes hopelessness and a stigma in the optimistic society.

Esther evidently feels as if she is constantly being judged and tested, although in fact she is not. Her magnified sense of distrust is illustrated repeatedly throughout the course of the book, at once involving the reader and developing her own characteristic response to unique situations. Finally, one who views occurrences which can only be categorized as coincidental as being planned often experiences a suspicious response. When she finds out that an acquaintance from high school is at the same hospital, her first reaction is wariness: "It occurred to me that Joan, hearing where I was, had engaged the room at the asylum on pretence, simply as a joke." (Plath 207). Although the reader is incredulous of the protagonist's manner of thought, it is also possible to feel a connection to the situation. Such a

Esther is experiencing repression because she is fighting the two different thoughts in her mind. Her state of repression is leading her to become depress.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath is a realistic fiction novel that tell the story of a young women’s spiral towards insanity and her strive towards social acceptance. Plath writes of Esther Greenwood, a very talented and successful scholar, who receives the chance to intern for a magazine in New York City. This internship is when the audience is given their first glance into Esther’s lack of feelings and empathy towards her own well being. The novel remotely mirrors the renowned author’s experiences with hospitalization, clinical depression, years of electroshock therapy and its last effects. The author’s personal connection to the topic gives the book such a sense of realism, that the reader feels as though they are living through the experience.

According to the data from the Center for American Progress and Elle Magazine, “Nearly 30 percent of women report experiencing discrimination in the workplace.” However, this report is only based on the environment in employment settings. Women experience and visually see gender roles and inequity against females in everyday surroundings, and they are often accepted and practiced without difficulty. Similarly, in the novel, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, Esther experiences different societal expectations throughout her life in hometown and New York, which helps her realize that she does not fit into either of the society; moreover, she grows weary as she loses her identity and passion, in search for who she is.

The Bell Jar was written by Sylvia Plath and published in Britain under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas in January 1963, merely a few weeks before her suicide. In summer of 1953, Plath was awarded a summer as a guest editor at the women’s magazine Mademoiselle, and her internship in New York City would ultimately inspire Plath to write The Bell Jar. The novel lightly fictionalized Plath’s life under the facade of Esther Greenwood, right down to the method of her failed suicide attempt and extensive shock therapy. For instance, in Chapter 10, Esther decides to write a novel and states: “My Heroine would be myself, only in disguise.”

Of the two readings we were given to select from for our Midterm Assignment, I chose to conduct my initial psychosocial and diagnostic assessment on the character, Esther, from the semi-autobiographical novel “The Bell Jar”, by Sylvia Plath. The protagonist in the novel is a 19-year-old girl from the suburbs of Boston growing up in the 1950’s who has accepted a summer internship working at a prominent magazine in New York City. It is made clear from the beginning of the novel that Esther’s move has resulted in a possible adjustment disorder as she narrates her feelings of sadness, misplacement, and disconnectedness from reality.

The works of Sylvia Plath have always been at least slightly controversial; most of them have themes of feminism, suicide, or depression. Plath was born in 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts, and by the age of twelve she was reported to have had an IQ of about 160 (Kelly). Growing up in an age in which women were expected to be nothing more than conservative housemaids, Plath stood defiant against the views of society, choosing to expose any misogynistic prejudices or hateful prospects against mental illness through her writings (Allen).

Throughout the story “The Bell Jar” by Sylvia Plath, Esther’s mental health deteriorates overtime due to various factors in her social environment such as double standards. The novel begins with Esther’s internship at the Ladies’ Day magazine in New York City. Despite living the life every girl wishes to live, Esther is dejected and feels disengaged with the environment around her; thus resulting in the beginning of an identity crisis. Through the events of the story, gender double roles in the areas of education, careers, virginity and marriage affect Esther’s life significantly and it consequently leading to Esther’s confusion with her identity within the society. During the 50s, women were seen to be inferior to and dependent on men as

By just reading Sylvia Plath’s works of writing, it is apparent that she had an infatuation with portraying negative and brutal thoughts. For example, her poem “Daddy,” she clearly expresses her rage towards her deceased father. The poem is full of contradiction and the interpretation is up the reader. Pieces like this gives insight into Sylvia’s mental sanity, which was questioned at times. In her early