The Bell Jar By Sylvia Plath Essay

Sylvia Plath is known as a profound writer, depicted by her lasting works of literature and her suicide which put her poems and novel of debilitating depression into a new perspective. In her poem “Lady Lazarus,” written in 1962, her mental illness is portrayed in a means to convey to her readers the everyday struggle of depression, and how it affects her view of her world, herself, and even those who attempt to tackle her battle with her. This poem, among other poetry pieces and her novel The Bell Jar, identify her multiple suicide attempts, and how the art of dying is something she has become a master of. Plath’s “Lady Lazarus,” about her trap of depression and suicide attempts, is effective and thought provoking because of her allusions to WWII Nazi Germany and the feelings of oppression and Nazism that the recurring images evoke.

Depression is a serious topic throughout the world, especially in America. Depression can result in someone feeling completely alone. There is no direct cause for depression in adolescents, but it can be brought on by the maturing process, stress from failure in some sort, a traumatic or disturbing event such as death, or even a break up. Sure, everyone has an off day here and there, where they feel like they shouldn’t even bother getting out bed in the morning, but to feel this way day in and day out is something most don’t experience. The Bell Jar is a very accurate and helpful tool to see what deep depression is like for someone, their thought process, and the actions they feel obligated to take when they

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.

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

In the novel The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath the prime character, Esther Greenwood, struggles to handle life in her own skin. She feels as though she is trapped in a glass bell jar with no escape because of her incapability to comprehend herself. For example, in chapter one Plath states, “‘My name 's Elly Higginbottom,’ I said. ‘I come from Chicago.’ After that I felt safer. I didn 't want anything I said or did that night to be associated with me and my real name and coming from Boston” (Plath 11). In this quote, Esther alters her life story demonstrating her lost sight of her true identity. In addition, Greenwood talks about losing control over her life as a stormy cloud rolls in, shadowing her every move. To further explain, Greenwood voices, “Only I wasn 't steering anything, not even myself. I just bumped from my hotel to work and to parties and from parties to my hotel and back to work like a numb trolleybus. I guess I should have been excited the way most of the other girls were, but I couldn 't get myself to react. (I felt very still and very empty, the way the eye of a tornado must feel, moving dully along in the middle of the surrounding hullabaloo.)” (Plath 2-3). This citation exemplifies Greenwood’s inability to grasp her life through her boredom with traditionally enjoyable activities. Greenwood has difficulty steering her life in any direction because of she fails to discover her inner self.

Numerous people suffer from depression at some point in their lives. Some cases are more temporary, while others last longer. Author Sylvia Plath, who suffered from depression, wrote an autobiographical novel entitled The Bell Jar. In her novel, Plath uses a fictional character to walk her readers through her personal experiences (Plath 1-244). She describes in details the character, setting, plot and theme (1-244).

Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar (1963) focuses on Esther Greenwood’s quest to freedom of oppression. Esther lives in a world where women are objectified and placed under a figurative bell jar. Buddy Willard as well as other men in the novel place Esther in this bell jar by projecting their negative views of woman onto her. The bell jar is symbolic throughout the whole novel because it is responsible for much of the trouble that Esther experienced. It caused her pain, questioned if she could really live up to her potential, and reduced her as a woman. Since she lives under this bell jar Esther’s growth as a person is stunted because she allows Buddy and the negative experiences in her life to rob her of what it is to be a woman, however she is reborn when she embraces her essence, and uses those negative experiences as stepping-stones that lead to a newfound confidence.

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.

According to the Oxford dictionary, the definition of the word “bell jar” is, “An environment in which someone is protected or cut off from the outside world”. Sylvia Plath’s title symbolically represents her feeling toward the seclusion and inferiority women endured in society 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. Esther begins her life at college with lots of success, earning a scholarship and an internship to a fashion magazine corporation. This success is short lived, however, and it begins to fade as she faces increasing pressures from the outside world.

Depression is often referred to the “common cold” of mental illness because it effects more than nineteen million Americans with in a single year (Cervoij). Although the symptoms of depression usually don't entirely go away, about eighty percent of Americans agree that treatment has helped them (Goldberg). In Sylvia Plath’s novel The Bell Jar, the protagonist Esther Greenwood, experiences what it is like to go through depression. Sylvia Plath’s novel not only expresses the profound effect depression had on Esther, but proves that she was able to regain her strength back through care and recovery.

Every woman is somewhat pressured to abide by conventional standards. Society necessitates that a woman is kept in a confined space that forces them to live a life which is contrary to what she would choose for herself. It is evident that in both the novel The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and the poem “She Rose To His Requirement” by Emily Dickinson that women suffer from gender roles and societal pressure, however whereas Plath illustrates a woman who attempts to rebel against traditional gender roles, Dickinson depicts a woman who has lost control of her life and is now accepting her role as a wife. These texts display three views on the expectations of women—how women are pressured, how gender roles impact women, and

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 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

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.

In The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath there were many prominent female characters that Esther came into contact with that had an affect on her life. The individual women all behaved quite differently and gave Esther a different, and at times confusing, sense of what it was to be a woman. They spanned from Doreen, the sensual and experienced friend who had little concern with conforming to rules, to Mrs. Willard, the stereotypical housewife who willingly became a floormat to be walked all over by her husband. Throughout the novel, Esther compared herself to these different women and often found that she didn’t fit in with any of them. She felt as if she must become a certain type of woman but wasn’t attracted to the lifestyles of any of the women that she met, making it hard for her to find her own identity. The restrictions that were placed on Esther as a woman and the ways in which she was expected to conform to society fueled her depression and made it hard for her to discover and accept her identity.