The Bell Jar By Sylvia Plath

Plath’s novel gives a unique account the hypocrisy women faced in terms of their sexual experience. Through the eyes of the main character, Ester Greenwood, the novel focuses on the struggle between what women were beginning to gain and the antiquated notions of female purity and innocence. Ultimately, The Bell Jar critiques the gendered double standard women faced regarding sex in the mid-twenty-first century in its exploration of purity, equality, and freedom.

As one of the most renowned and well-known literary critics in the world of composition, Harold Bloom has self-importantly granted himself the privilege of specifying the reasons as to why we read. From human connection to self-actualization to the acquirement of knowledge, he adheres passionately and unquestionably that “the strongest, most authentic motive for deep reading…is the search for a difficult pleasure.” Bloom, as an experienced critic, fully recognizes the task of judging a book for its merit.

Ariel, The Bell Jar, Daddy. Sylvia Plath had an extremely complicated lifestyle, and it very much reflected in these books and poems she published. Each one represented a different hardship Plath experienced, yet one in particular stood out above them all. ‘The Bell Jar’, a novel about a young woman named Esther, living in New York City for a one month internship, who is lost and depressed in her world, feeling like no one understands her. The book’s writing techniques include imitating personal events Plath went through.

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.

In light of the semi-autobiographical novel known as The Bell Jar, written by Sylvia Plath, there are apparent literary devices in which emphasize the novel thematically. Historically, the novel was published during the heart of the burgeoning feminist movement in the United States of America around 1971. Thus, it rendered Plath to become an icon of the feminist movement due to publication of such a novel that detailed the coming of age story from a woman’s perspective who struggled with external and internal complications in which thwarted her ability to grow and transform as a woman in the restrictive society of America in the 1950s. The story is loosely based upon Plath’s personal experiences disguised under a woman known as Esther Greenwood,

Suicide was a major problem among many generations of teens that grew up in brutal societies. In the 1950s, suicide was not widely mentioned, and many people suffered without any treatments. In the novel The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath, Esther tried to kill herself multiple times. Her life was planned by the society, and she was pressured into fitting in with others. Esther’s mental problems took over her life, and caused her to lose out on her teen years. She was a successful college student, who won scholarships, and was working at a fashion magazine. However, she went through many events that caused her to accept suicide as a way of running away from her problems. In the novel The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath, Esther’s mental illness began to have an effect on her when she interfered with Buddy, Marco, and Dr. Gordon.

When asked to describe hell, the phrases “eternal damnation,” “a place of unquenchable fire,” and “a place of hopelessness” often come to mind. No matter your culture, beliefs, or religion, hell is universally painted as an endless pit of infernal darkness that is the destination for society’s undesirables and unwanted. In short, hell would not be a pleasant place to take a vacation to. In The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath’s controversial 1963 novel, the main character Esther Greenwood experiences what it is like to live in hell first-hand. She suffers through an internal turmoil that is initiated by her insecurities of being inadequate and having an uncertain future. This internal turmoil made her dive into the depths of depression, and subsequently, was the catalyst for her attempted suicide. Her friends family, and doctors deemed her crazy because of her actions, and this ultimately landed her a spot in a mental asylum. This stay in the asylum is one of the times when the readers get an in-depth look into Esther’s mind and feelings; during a visit from a church minister, she explains to him: “I [Esther] believed in hell, and that certain people, like me, had to live in hell before they died, to make up for missing out on it after death, since they didn’t believe in life after death, and what each person believed happened to him when he died” (202). Thus, through Plath’s exceptional writing, this small section of the book fully presents a microcosm of Esther’s state of mind throughout the novel; she feels as if she is, quite literally, living in hell.

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

Girl, Interrupted and The Bell Jar both on different levels reflect the authors Susanna Kaysen and Sylvia Plath’s life story. The Bell Jar especially becomes very similar to an autobiography to Sylvia Plath’s life because the events

Esther Greenwood distinguishes a psychological space of the bell jar which separates her self from the 1950’s America. Esther’s disillusionment of social and gender standards allows her to believe that there is air to breathe out side this confinement. To purposely live in a emotion of isolation and indifference in order to obtain her sense of security, Esther has form a psychological space around her which is the bell jar. However, it has come to the readers attention that the protagonist has a need to realise that feeling of being reduced to an object as a human being brings an institutional

It is evident that she is painfully aware of her approaching melancholic depression as evidenced by her opening statement, “I knew something was wrong with me that summer” and later, "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, 1971). Throughout the novel, Esther holds the wits and self-awareness to know something is or has been stewing within, while simultaneously having a skewed perception of the world around her. Feelings of helplessness and entrapment are illustrated by the metaphor Esther has created “The bell jar” that suggests she has lost control of herself. Esther describes the bell jar as a symbolic meaning of the lenses in which she see’s life through; a trapped space where she lives in “her own sour air”, separated from the world

One’s inner metamorphosis begins with the general disillusionment with one’s surrounding environment. Such a disillusionment can come in quick succession, as with that of Esther Greenwood in The Bell Jar, or more gradually, as that of Antoine Roquentin in Nausea. The Bell Jar begins with the reader experiencing this subconscious disappointment along with Esther as she struggles along her dream internship at a fashion magazine in New York City. “I was supposed to be having the time of my life,” (Plath 2) she quips at one point. Her ideal cosmopolitan life began to reveal its rotten insides to her as she spends her summer in the fashion sphere of New York. Her disdain for this lifestyle begins as she witnesses her fellow interns’ gratuitous exploits, “When I woke up… I think I still expected to see Doreen’s body lying there in the pool of vomit like an ugly, concrete testimony to my own dirty nature,” (24) continues with her sexual experiences that fall far short of her expectations, “…he just stood there in front of me and I kept on staring at

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’s novel, “The Bell Jar”, tells what it is like to be depressed and contemplate taking your own life. Sylvia Plath actually did committed suicide. Throughout this story, there was one thought that kept running through my head with every detail she described. As I read the story, I continued to focus harder and harder about a friend of mine. I have had this friend since elementary school and she is very much like Esther Greenwood. I was able to understand Esther’s thoughts and feelings at certain points of the novel through this previous experience.

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.