Social Issues In The Bell Jar By Sylvia Plath

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.

Sylvia Plath was a troubled writer to say the least, not only did she endure the loss of her father a young age but she later on “attempted suicide at her home and was hospitalized, where she underwent psychiatric treatment” for her depression (Dunn). Writing primarily as a poet, she only ever wrote a single novel, The Bell Jar. This fictional autobiography “[chronicles] the circumstances of her mental collapse and subsequent suicide attempt” but from the viewpoint of the fictional protagonist, Esther Greenwood, who suffers the same loss and challenges as Plath (Allen 890). Due to the novel’s strong resemblance to Plath’s own history it was published under the pseudonym “Victoria Lucas”. In The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath expresses the

Sylvia Plath is the author of the Bell Jar and was an American poet, novelist, and short-story writer (JRSM. June, 2003). The Bell Jar book was published in London a month before Plath’s death in January, 1963. The book was first published under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas, and then later published in Plath’s own name. Esther Greenwood is the main character in the Bell Jar. Esther suffered from mental illness and struggled against depressive environment and continuously aggravated madness that led to her suicide and death (JRSM. June, 2003). I ague that Esther’s mental illness was aggravated by her internal pressure and depressive environment in which she lived.

Esther Greenwood suffered through multiple difficult times that wore down on her mental state. She fell sick from food poisoning, was electrocuted through shock therapy, and underwent dangerous suicidal thoughts. Each time when she persevered through the pain, she emerged a stronger, newly-born person. In The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath uses plot development and characterization to illustrate that often times, painful experiences are necessary for a person to progress in life.

At first glance, the term “bell jar” does not particularly stand out except as the title of the novel. However, upon further scrutiny and thorough reading, readers can deduce that this term actually has a negative connotation throughout the novel due to the fact that Esther, the main character, literally feels confined inside a bell jar with no way to get out. Written by Sylvia Plath, the novel The Bell Jar focuses on how restrictions of society suffocate Esther to the point where she is unable to handle the stress anymore. Plath uses symbols in her novel such as the bell jar, fig tree, mirror, and numerous newspaper headlines in order to emphasize Esther’s inner struggles coping with the restrictions of society, and also how she finds connections

For most adolescents, the coming-of-age period can challenging and painful. For Esther Greenwood in “The Bell Jar” by Sylvia Plath, however, coming-of-age is literally life-threatening. As she notices the differences between herself and her friends and attempts to find meaning in her life, Esther regresses into madness, and then makes several unsuccessful attempts to end her life using various means. The source of Esther’s discontent, however, is never entirely clear. In, “The Bell Jar” by Sylvia Plath, the author expresses that Esther’s journey and events are that of a coming-to-age realization or story for her.

Throughout the novel, Sylvia Plath emphasizes the curious similarity of physical and mental illness as if to say that both are symbolic of a larger condition which is our life today. In the novel, Esther noticed that everyone she knows sits under bell jars of a sort. However, Plath is no sentimentalist and knows quite well that her

One is often enticed to read a novel because of the way in which the characters are viewed and the way in which characters view their surroundings. In the novel The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, Esther Greenwood is a character whose "heightened and highly emotional response to events, actions and sentiments" (Assignment sheet) intrigue the reader. One of her character traits is extreme paranoia that is shown in different situations throughout the novel. As a result of this, she allows herself to be easily let down, as she believes that all events that are unsatisfactory are directed towards her. Finally, it is clear that she attempts to escape this notion by imagining an idyllic yet impossible life that she

Throughout the course of Sylvia Plath’s 1963 novel, The Bell Jar, protagonist Esther Greenwood endures struggles as her fresh New York lifestyle takes a turn for the worse. She develops an unconventional obsession with death which hinders her in discovering her identity. Her new thinking style only makes the process of uncovering her true self even more excruciating, as suicidal thoughts cloud her mind and she spirals into a state of despair. During this period of immense struggle , she learns more about herself and the ways in which she interacts with others than she ever had before. The key line, “I smile, this must be how they laid the bodies away in the hospital morgue,” captures Esther Greenwood's fascination with death that contributes to her bell jar experience.

Sometimes, the books I choose to read and the things I choose to hear gives its own intentions of overwhelming me with forced ideas of “ intriguing strangeness” and in addition to thoughts of “demoralization”. In Sylvia Plath’s, The Bell Jar, these overwhelming intentions of forced ideas are met. Plath’s poetic style of writing unified with her bizarre life experiences, the setting in the mind of a 1950’s “psychotic” American woman, as well as the scenery of the life of the wealthy, the poor, and lustful, this story is highly recommended. Reading more about Plath herself, it was then that I had found out that her life was referred to throughout the story through the eyes of Esther Greenwood. From the first chapter, it was obvious that these signs of insanity had already occurred with gloomy and sorrowful feelings.

The Bell Jar is a novel written in, 1963 written by Sylvia Plath. It is a story about a girl who under goes many traumatic life events that had the destiny to make or break her. The things she used to enjoy in life are no longer bringing joy to her life. She can’t find anything that gives her the will to go on. The Bell Jar is a story that will take reader on a journey with a girl who lets the gender roles of 1950s get the best of her. She lets people tell her what she can and cannot do and loses what it means to become your own person. The Bell Jar teaches the audience about the expectations, opportunities or restrictions on American Women in the 1950’s. As gender roles have become more diverse between a man and a woman, it is still more

Perhaps the most famous work of Sylvia Plath’s is The Bell Jar -- a book that follows the mental deterioration of a nineteen-year-old girl named Esther through the narration of Esther herself. Although Sylvia Plath hated life in general and committed suicide at the age of 32 after her husband left her, the myriad autobiographical elements, metaphors, and motifs that appear throughout her works produce a beautifully vivid representation of people, the world, and life itself (“Sylvia Plath”).

According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, the definition of the word “bell jar” is, “a bell-shaped usually glass vessel designed to contain objects or preserve gases and or a vacuum”. Sylvia Plath’s title, The Bell Jar, symbolically represents her feeling towards the seclusion and inferiority women endured trapped by societes glass vessel during the 1950’s. The Bell Jar, follows the life of Esther Greenwood, the protagonist and narrator of the story, during her desperate attempt to become a woman. For the most part, Esther begins her life at college with lots of success, earning a scholarship and an internship to a fashion magazine corporation. However, Esther’s success is short lived and it begins to fade as she faces increasing pressures from the outside world. Eventually, Esther loses her internship and scholarship money pursuing relationships rather than focusing on her career and studies. Enthusiastically, Esther decides to move back in with her mother, but is then notified that she has been denied entry into her dream summer writing program. Losing her opportunity to participate in the writing program drives Esther into a deep depression, where she attempts suicide via overdose on her mother’s sleeping pills. In light of Esther’s cleverness to hide her body away, the police still find Esther in time and admit her into a psychiatric ward for rehabilitation. After a couple of months with insulin-electroshock therapy sessions administered by Doctor Nolan, Esther

Sylvia Plath uses many literary devices to convey her purpose in The Bell Jar such as symbolism. The Bell Jar itself is used as symbolic representation of the emotional state Esther is in. The glass jar distorts her image of the world as she feels trapped under the glass. It represents mental illness; a confining jar that descends over her mind and doesn’t allow her to live and think freely. Symbols of life and death pervade The Bell Jar. Esther experiences psychological distress which is a major motif in the novel. The death of Esther’s father and the relationship with her mother is a possible reason for her illness. Sylvia Plath expresses the difficulties Esther faces and parallels her struggle with depression and illustrates it using various symbols such as a fig tree, mirrors, beating heart and a bell jar throughout the novel.

Sylvia Plath, the author of The Bell Jar, writes in a very simple and ordinary but exceptionally unique way. She put her whole young genuine heart and soul into this semi-autobiography. Her first person point of view allows the reader to really engage with the characters thoughts, specifically Esther Greenwood and her perspective on everything. In The Bell Jar, Esther Greenwood encounters the coming of many things, including age and mental illness. While the coming of age is normal for the majority of society, the coming of mental illness is abnormal. With that being said, many may classify Esther Greenwood as abnormal and deviant but in all reality,