How Did Sylvia Plath Face In The 1900's

A woman’s virginity was considered to be precious as pureness was really important for a girl. Women were only allowed to have sex after marriage; whereas men could have sex before marriage. According to Esther, her virginity is a big factor that is weighing her down. The conflict between losing her virginity before marriage or after marriage causes her to become confused about what would

Societal definition of female success in the 1950s included concerned about virginity, physical attraction, and lovely home and so forth contributed to increased Esther’s anxiety. She felt over pressured about the cultural norm about virginity at the time. According to the Bell Jar, as a young woman, she is expected to keep their virginity until she is

Another common aspect of both the women’s lives is that they both dated Buddy Willard. When Esther began to have a relationship with Buddy, she thought that her relationship with him could go somewhere, that he could possibly be her husband one day. When she is in his room one night, they are talking and having wine, and Esther asks Buddy if he has ever had an “affair”. She expects him to say “no”, but he says, “Well, yes I have” (70). This is shocking to Esther. She thought Buddy was innocent, but he had been pretending the whole time. She tells Buddy to tell her about it, so he doesn’t think it bothered her that he said “yes”. He tells her that while working at this hotel in Cape Cod for the summer, one of the waitresses seduced him, and that’s how he lost his virginity. Esther and Buddy eventually part, but she doesn’t break up with him because he had slept with the waitress, it was the fact that he didn’t

She disappears and runs away from her family to be with a soldier. The patriarch requires the woman to obey the man, whether it be her father or her husband. She becomes pregnant and is abandoned by her lover. The child dies leaving Esther completely alone. She shows herself as an incapable mother as she fails to nurture her child. She then becomes a prostitute to support herself as she has been exiled from society and rejected by her family. This is act is a clear breech of the patriarch, law, religion, and family ISAs. As an alcoholic, she returns to Manchester in attempts to help Mary avoid her fallen behaviour. “Prejudice (or policy) has endeavoured, and indeed too successfully, to last an odium on what is called a masculine woman; or, to explain the meaning of the word, a woman of enlightened understanding”(Robinson 72). Her actions in resisting the church’s ideology of a chased modest woman proves defiance is unacceptable. She seems to be a lively and unstoppable person which forces the community to punish and exploit her by sending her to prison. Prostitution is exposed and problematized which makes Esther an abject by society. Robinson notes, “were a woman to attempt such an expedient[sin], however strong her sense of injury, however invincible her fortitude, or important the preservation of character, the would be deemed a murdress”(Robison 5). Society continuously attempts to reform Esther through ISAs into an appropriate lady; however, she dramatically objects by preforming the

It is obvious to say that men and women experience life differently. In this context of Jewish identity in the pre war period, men and women underwent persecution of varying degrees. Within the Jewish community, the number of opportunities made available for men like Buxbaum are vast in comparison to those offered to a young girl like Esther. From the introduction at the beginning of his memoir, it is known that Buxbaum was able to attend Gymnasium, become a soldier, obtain his degree in medicine, and become a practicing doctor by the time he was 30 years old. From a young age, Esther was denied the chance to study, read, and pursue certain subjects, books, or goals because she was a girl.

At this point in time, women were thought to be have belonged in the home and were inferior to men due to it just being the cultural norm. That was just the way of life and how it had always been. Sentimentalism came to the American society around the 1800’s. This then lead away from arranged marriages and gave men and women free will of marriage based off of feelings, attraction and affection. Companionate marriages were thought to have given men and women equality in the marriage, but in reality husbands still continued to dominate the marriage because “male authority was deeply ingrained in cultural mores and according to Abigail Adams complained, husbands had “sovereign authority” over the family’s property” (Henretta, 2012). During

When Esther first arrives in New York, she doesn't have the same reaction that most of the other girls around her have. She enforces this reaction when she says “I guess I should have been excited the way most of the other girls were, but I couldn't get myself to react.” From a psychological perspective we could tell that something is deeply wrong with her. She is isolating herself from others. According to Saul McLeod, the author of the article called “Psycho dynamic Approach” states that “our behaviors and feelings as adults are powerfully affected by the unconscious thoughts” . This means that unconscious are a product of behaviors and feelings. She is unable to think in a rational way because of her inability to control the balance between her conscious and unconscious thoughts.

Throughout the novel, Esther struggled with what she felt how a woman in her society should act. At times, she feels as if there is no point to college because most women only become secretaries anyway. She feels as if she should be learning short hand and other techniques she should be learning for the secretary roll, however she does not want to. Esther wants to be a writer, however, during the time of the novel, society gave women the role as housewife. Esther felt pressure to settle down and start a family. No matter what accomplishments Esther achieves in her life, it doesn’t matter too much because they will not do her much in her later life. Everyone expects Esther to marry buddy and start a family. Once she becomes a mother, it would be assumed that she would give up her passion for writing. This discourages Esther because she is not sure that is what she wants with her life.

Esther, even after becoming the queen, yielded only power granted through her king. She feared that her friends may turn foe, therefore only trusted people chosen with caution to serve her purpose. The author’s main purpose is demonstrated through the illustration of women's roles in Persia. The author created an image of an average women in Persia and the most respectable of women, the queen through the portrayal of Esther’s life. Perhaps, in order to draw comparison and emphasise the sudden role change of Esther.

In Sylvia Plath's novel The Bell Jar, Esther Greenwood seems incapable of healthy relationships with other women. She is trapped in a patriarchal society with rigid expectations of womanhood. The cost of transgressing social norms is isolation, institutionalization and a lost identity as woman. The struggle for an individual identity under this regime is enough to drive a person to the verge of suicide. Given the oppressive system under which she must operate, Esther Greenwood's problems with women stem from her conflict between individuality and conformity.

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 was happy before she met George but was forced by society or, in this case, Mrs. Dickson who wanted her to pick a suitor. George wanted her to conform

Esther Greenwood is a woman of the 1950s who goes against the belief that women should marry; in fact, she declares, “I’m never going to get married” (Plath 93) while being proposed to by Buddy Willard. In the Victorian Era, it was largely men who grappled with the questioning and answering of the desires and needs of women, and in the 1960s, the patriarchal society determined the woman’s role. In her novel, Plath specifically points out the flaw in the system: men are not women, so they cannot accurately govern their needs or wants. After Esther’s rejection of Buddy, he claims, “You’re crazy. You’ll change your mind” (93). In another scene, Esther recalls, “I also remember Buddy Willard saying in a sinister, knowing way that after I had children I wouldn’t want to write anymore” (85). Buddy’s predictions about Esther’s future align with the “correct” attitudes for women of the time. Moreover, his decidedly “knowing” her needs and wants is indicative of his inner feeling of superiority over her: because he is of the dominant sex, his telling Esther how to feel is justified.

Esther feels as if she is in her own space and can’t escape as well as no one being able to get in. Esther uses quite a depressed and dark tone in this section of the passage to entice the readers into knowing how she once was, to how she is

Esther’s mother and society’s expectation as a woman, which is to be a good wife and a mother, suffocate and demoralize Esther’s dream as a professional writer. Esther’s mother wants her to “...learn shorthand after college, so I’d have a practical skill as well as a college degree” (Plath 40). Her mother believes that Esther cannot further advance her education as a writer and simply wants her to be a secretary since professional career for women was uncommon and discouraged because it disturbs the role as a married woman. These pressures often obliged her to fall into the societal expectations, to give up her higher education, and to marry somebody. However, she knew that the marriage and the babies were not for her, “because cook and clean and wash were just about