The Bell Jar Research Paper

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.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath tells the story of a gifted young woman’s mental breakdown beginning during a summer internship as a junior editor at a magazine in New York City in the early 1950s. It was first published in January 1963 under the pseudonym Victoria

Sylvia Plath’s novel, “The Bell Jar”, tells a story of a young woman’s descent into mental illness. Esther Greenwood, a 19 year old girl, struggles to find meaning within her life as she sees a distorted version of the world. In Plath’s novel, different elements and themes of symbolism are used to explain the mental downfall of the book’s main character and narrator such as cutting her off from others, forcing her to delve further into her own mind, and casting an air of negativity around her. Plath uses images of rotting fig trees and veils of mist to convey the desperation she feels when confronted with issues of her future. Esther Greenwood feels that she is trapped under a bell jar, which distorts her view of the world around her.

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.

What makes The Bell Jar so relatable and well different from other books is the fact that it is based on problems and finding the light. For example Esther, the main character, faces the problem of being a young lady in the fifties when women didn't have as many opportunities as men. Kind of like now, it is not as bad as before but women today still face the discrimination and the uncertainty when being in a position of power.

The Bell Jar and Its Affiliates Frequently, a writer will express the same symbols and themes in a variety of their works. This is the case with Sylvia Plath, who not only wrote a multitude of poems, but also wrote the renowned novel, The Bell Jar. Three of Plath’s poems that share similar elements to her novel are “Lorelei”, “Daddy”, and “The Applicant”. These ideas include death beckoning the characters, an unstable family unit, and sexism towards women. The poems “Lorelei”, “Daddy”, and “The Applicant” can be compared to Plath’s novel The Bell Jar, by examining the key themes and characteristics of the works.

People's lives are shaped through their success and failure in their personal relationships with each other. The author Sylvia Plath demonstrates this in the novel, The Bell Jar. This is the direct result of the loss of support from a loved one, the lack of support and encouragement, and lack of self confidence and insecurity in Esther's life in the The Bell Jar. It was shaped through her success and failures in her personal relationships between others and herself.

In The Bell Jar, Esther finds it extremely difficult to put her thoughts into words. She loses friends as she is unable to communicate with them. She lacks relationships due to her silent behaviour. “The silence depresses me. It isn’t the silence of silence. It’s my own silence,” (Plath 18) she says. Although at first Esther feels upset by the lack of connections she has, she loses motivation to even try and explain herself to others. Unlike Mr. Chance in The Cloud Chamber, and Deborah in I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, Esther’s mental state does not improve, and she is unable to resolve lost connections. Esther’s mother tells her, “the cure for thinking too much about yourself is helping somebody who is worse off than you” (Plath 161). However, in her case, she’s so disconnected from the people who were once a big part of her life, that she doesn’t know who to reach out to. She doesn’t see herself being capable of maintaining stable and happy relationships with others when she can’t even maintain her own happiness.

The Bell Jar, Written by the Author Sylvia Plath takes place in 1940’s and 1950’s, and brings up the topic of male oppression and the absence of feminism, and the toll it can take on women, specifically the main character Esther. The novel also embarks upon the topic of mental illness, and electrical shock therapy, during this era, and how it affected the character of Esther. What is interesting is that the novel had numerous parallels to the life of its author, which she portrayed through the character of Esther. Like Plath, Esther lost her father at a young age, they both were intelligent where they worked at an internship at a women’s magazine in New York, both were effected by a mail dominated society, and also both suffered from mental

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath is a book about a young woman who is facing life the unexpected way. Esther is trying to place the puzzle pieces in order but it isn't quite working. There is a different view of humanity in this book and it gives chills to read what she went through. Esther goes through struggles that show her true colors within throughout the book. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath dips into the idea for the search of social identity, the idea of “melting pot”, and what the American Dream really means to oneself.

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,

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

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 importance in American history stems from the literary eminence of her writing, and her works show the rigid conditions of mid-twentieth century women. Plath's significance really comes from the ways in which she opened doors with her writing that prior to her have never been explored before. She was a feminist-martyr who challenged a patriarchal society. She posed questions that no one else seemed to be asking about the role that I woman plays in society. Her book The Bell Jar, displayed a protagonist who struggled with basic questions about sex. Questions like, if I decide to have sex before marriage am I a bad person? Why can men have sex with multiple people and women can’t?