The Bell Jar Overview Questions

For Esther, the bell jar symbolizes madness. She is inside an airless jar that gives her a negative look at the world and prevents her from connecting with the people around her. She feels as if she is trapped under the jar and people from the outside world are watching and judging her. Sylvia Plath titled the book Bell Jar because it symbolizes how Esther feels, and it shows how she feels, being cut off from the normal world. It is Esther’s own metaphor for describing what she feels like while she is suffering her nervous breakdowns. Even though Esther can see through the bell jar to the outside world, the glass jar changes the image of the world for her. Leaving her with the suffering view of a

Insecurity is a major part of The Bell Jar. You can see Esther minimizing herself based on what men and society thinks. This is a hot topic especially for teen girls. There is always going to be something wrong with your appearance, we are truly never fulfilled with what we have. And for Esther it is not just her that brings herself down it is men. All of her failed relationships led her to believe she was not

To begin with, Plath’s father died when she was eight. Even though she did not know him for long, this haunts her and causes her to harbor resentment against her mother, saying that “[she] hate[s] her” (Plath 203). Also, the way Esther talks about her first suicide attempt makes it seem to the reader that she is being “rushed…to sleep” (Plath 169). She wanted to block out the world, so she climbs into a hole in her cellar. She overdoses on sleeping pills; she is not thinking death, she is thinking sleep. Esther wants to escape into somewhere else without losing it all in death. Even as she is crawling into the hole, she gives the earth character by describing it as “friendly” (Plath 169). She creates a fantasy to distract herself from her problems, even as she attempts suicide. Her living, her field of study, is creative writing and literature. At one point, Esther even tries to write a book; she is constantly trying to get away from reality. When she awakens, she finds that she can escape no longer; finally she must confront her demons at the

As the name of the book implies, the bell jar is a reoccurring symbol in The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. A bell jar’s shape looks similar to a bell and completely covers the object it is over such as insanity swallowing you up; in this case, the bell is like a symbol for insanity. When Esther “felt… at peace” she mentions the bell jar is “hung, suspended” and that “[she] was open to circulating air” illustrating the idea Esther experienced a moment of tranquility and was able to breathe sane air (215). Another instance Plath uses the bell jar is during Buddy Willard’s visit to Esther later in the book; while Esther sat in the asylum with Buddy she thinks to herself about “[the] girls” who also sat “under bell jars…” (238). In the asylum, the

Though it is the title of the book, the actual idea of the bell jar, or Esther’s state of seclusion from the rest of reality because of mental illness, is not mentioned at first Esther does not know what to make of this

In the Bell Jar I felt I was very different from Ester in my experiences with being down on yourself like she is. At different points in my life from when I was younger I have been down about certain whether it was being made fun of or people playing mean tricks on me. I always found a way to overcome these annoying and bad times in my life. It could be that I had a family that would help me through it but I never allowed these petty things get to me. I knew that they where not true and ignoring it was the best way for me to get through it. Though I was never depressed like Ester letting these small thing get to you is the first step to going to down her path that I think she could have gotten herself out of quicker. She lets little things

Esther’s feelings of emptiness in the “middle of the surrounding hullabaloo” of New York indicate her inability to fully appreciate her opportunity. She is distanced from the other girls, lacking the excitement and reactions that they express towards the city. As “the eye of a tornado”, Esther remains lifeless and confused in the thrill of the reward. Although she has earned a rewarding opportunity, her lack of ambition alienates her from the rest of the group. Her feeling of depression in contrast to the excitement that is expected of her deteriorates and overtakes her life.

The author starts here, because this is where the internship for the magazine starts. This is also when she starts to feel numb and feels that something is wrong with her. This is the beginning of Esther 's journey with this feeling of nothing. The author wants us to go through the experience of thinking something is wrong. That she doesn’t feel anything with her. Plath wants us to feel that realization with Esther. She wants us to actually realize that feeling of nothing. Of feeling numb and not having any emotion of anything at all. Besides being sad. She introduces one of the only people she connects with during her time in

Esther only sees the pain and suffering in her story and in her suicide attempts, but after reading the headlines we see that the rest of the world sees the struggles and sadness that Esther must be going through. They see her story as sensual and as a young woman who is struggling within herself. Joan says she was inspired to go to New York to attempt suicide after hearing about Esther's story. Although we are not sure how this inspired Joan, we assume she thought if she went to New York she would be in the news like Esther. The headlines show Esther that what she see can be interpreted in a completely different way by

The novel starts out with Esther getting the opportunity of a lifetime to work for a fashion magazine. She gets to live in a fancy hotel. She gets glamourous clothes and expensive gifts, but she does not enjoy any of these luxuries. Esther, instead of making this the time of her life, describes herself as being “very still and very empty, the way the eye of a tornado must feel, moving dully along in the middle of the surrounding hullabaloo”(3). In the beginning, I was unable to understand her feelings because I would love to live in a hotel and get glamourous clothes and gifts, but then I started thinking about my friend and I began to understand Esther better. The experiences I have had with my friend have helped me to connect to Esther 's problems. My friend always feels trapped and judged. She always feels like there is some great expectation that she has to achieve. This pressure that she puts on

Esther wants to feel in control of her own life and future. She spends all of her school years working her way to the top, so that she would be able to support herself later on. Yet, Esther continuously feels pressure about how she should aspire to marry and find the right man.

Esther undergoes shock therapy in an effort to magically cure her; Esther begins emerging from an enlightened womb. Esther’s renewal parallels that of a newborn infant; this common literary motif of transforming into the unknown for the better pinpoints Esther during her troubled hours. After a turbulent period of questionable shock treatments, Esther seems to have entered a “cured state” (Smith Bundzten, 35). Esther is, in a sense, reborn again. She is “born twice--patched, retreaded, and approved for the road” (Plath, 244). Her experiences have allowed to become stronger and gain stability

Before Esther’s encounter with Marco she was experiencing life in New York through many different perspectives. She struggled to decide if she was going to conform to social expectations for women, or pursue her dream of becoming an author like the women she was working for at the magazine. Esther contemplates back and forth the two different lives that are seemingly ahead of her, but although she wants to be her own woman she is still bothered by the fact that society thinks she needs a man as in the quote “What a man is is an arrow into the future and what a woman is is the place the arrow shoots off from” (Plath 72) which was often quoted by Mrs. Willard. Esther finds it hard to drag herself away from societies expectations. She later quotes, “ The last thing I wanted was infinite security and to be the place an arrow shoots off from. I wanted change and excitement and to shoot off in all directions myself…” (Plath 83) Up to this point, Esther has said she does not want to get married, but she seemingly is bothered by the fact that she has yet to meet

In conclusion, although Plath portrays Esther as the victim of the stringent societal demands, her perfectionism plays an additional role in her downfall. Esther has insatiable expectations when it comes to scholarships, winning prizes in contests and her career in journalism, as well as possessing pride in observing her surroundings. When Esther admits she ‘liked looking on at people in crucial situations’, her detachment from other people is evident: she watches on, engulfed in her own suffering even as others undergo difficult times. As well as the gender

At the end of the novel, Esther wondered on whether the bell jar would descend and trap her again. Remember that this is a semi-autobiographical novel made by Sylvia Plath. In Plath’s life, she also underwent the shock therapy under the care of a doctor similar to Dr. Nolan. She successfully committed suicide a month after The Bell Jar’s publication. Therefore, this just means that the bell jar descended on her again even after her freedom from insanity and