The Bell Jar Examines The Public And Private Worlds Of Madness, By Sylvia Plath

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.

It is said that people cannot truly know themselves, but must rely on reflections in mirrors, photographs, and other people in their lives. Unable to see themselves as others see them, people often get confused and end up detaching themselves from reality. Author Sylvia Plath was a bright, young woman with an interest in poetry and writing. However, after the death of her father, she developed neurosis and attempted suicide for the first time using sleeping pills, but was unsuccessful. She uses her depression and suicidal tendencies as a foundation for her novel, published two weeks before her successful suicide.

While it is sad, it is interesting to see how depression can slowly break down an individual to someone who feels nothing but apathy. For people who struggle with the illness, no happy thoughts can changed how they perceive the life and the world around them. It’s not as easy as getting a massage or thinking happy thoughts to change their mood and take away all that sadness, emptiness, and all that negative self-talk. The “Bell Jar” is a contemplation of the despairing life of Esther Greenwood and her descent into darkness. She personifies the actual mental struggle and the tumultuous life of the author, Sylvia Plath who, at a very young age suffered from clinical depression.

author’s life as she grows up while developing a multitude of mental illnesses. By the end of her

It has been thought that The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath depicts Esther’s identity re-birth; with her attempted suicide functioning as the catalyst for this transformation. While this may at first appear apt, I think Esther’s supposed alteration at the end of the book is very ambiguous and indefinite; constructed like this purposely rather than being a distinctively obvious self-renewal. The resulting effect leaves readers to ponder over whether she really has completed a successful transformation, resulting in a new and improved version of herself, or whether she may end up just lapsing back into her previous ways following discharge from the asylum. What the ending does do however, is to position Esther in such a way that hints at new, tentative steps being taken towards adulthood and individual autonomy; accentuating gradual development from her previous self, consisting of alienation and identity loss.

It is clear that the short story depicts the life of a mental sick woman who is experiencing large depths of

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

To start off is the theme of social anxiety in Sylvia Plath’s Mirror. This poem is about a mirror that spends most of it’s days reflecting the wall, but occasionally, it is the friend of a man or woman. One day, a woman comes to stare into its depths,

What does mental illness really feel like, and how does it affect people? This is a question Sylvia Plath explores in her novel The Bell Jar. In The Bell Jar, the main character, Esther Greenwood seems to have it all. She’s in New York City, working as a guest editor for a fashion magazine. Despite her life seeming marvelous on the outside, she can’t escape feelings of gloominess and darkness, clear signs of depression and mental illness.

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).

Throughout the book The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath we see that Esther's has many of these exact symptoms. So by definition Esther suffers from Depression in one of its variations in addition to quite possibly other mental illnesses. For that reason Esther Greenwood’s ultimate breakdown in the end of the Novel is not too shocking. Although attributing her ultimate mental breakdown solely to her mental illness would be awfully simplistic and detrimental to one’s understanding of the book. Instead it becomes quite clear that, though at its core it was Esther’s mental illness that lead to her breakdown, it was catalyzed and reinforced by the pressures and expectations on and of women during the early 1950s.

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.

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.

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 is a famous American poet and short story writer. She is commonly known and is famous for her poems, while her short stories get the smaller end. As we dig a little deeper into the author we can see that Plath’s short story writings are characterized as dynamic and are known for having an explosion of feelings and emotions. At the same time she has a tendency to work with madness and depression, all with a touch of reality. Jonny Panic and the Bible of Dreams was the first book where Plath demonstrates her short story writing abilities. This book is a collection of 13 short stories; all these stories have nothing to do with one another. This collection of stories, demonstrates all of Sylvia Plath’s different writing