The Success Of 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.

It is exceedingly common for humans to use fictional writing in order to express their hardships in life. It is clear to researchers that Sylvia Plath wrote The Bell Jar for this sole purpose. Plath faced many struggles in her short life, all of which were explained in her novel. There are a plethora of studies that easily show the similarities between The Bell Jar’s Esther Greenwood and Sylvia Plath. They both faced trauma, depression, and issues with self worth.

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

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.

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.

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.

Esther Greenwood suffered through multiple difficult times that wore down on her mental state. She fell sick from food poisoning, was electrocuted through shock therapy, and underwent dangerous suicidal thoughts. Each time when she persevered through the pain, she emerged a stronger, newly-born person. In The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath uses plot development and characterization to illustrate that often times, painful experiences are necessary for a person to progress in life.

The suicide of Sylvia Plath is still felt today as she died due to the expectations society set on her as a woman in living in the mid 1900s. In her autobiography, Plath creates a character by the name of Esther Greenwood that gets thrown into the loop of life predestined for her by society and feels these expectations pile upon her. Her inability to cope leading up to her suicide attempt turns into a wake up call. The pressures society in the 1950s put on Esther affect her perception of society and cause a decline in her mental health. In the novel, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, Esther feels the pressure of society, turns away from the influence of the people closest to her, and struggles with her mental health.

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

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.

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

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.

Through the character of Esther, Sylvia Plath explains the struggles of women in the male dominated society of the 1900’s in her semi-autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar. Some of the many problems women faced during this time were marriage, motherhood, and feminism. Throughout the novel, Esther is influenced by many people and struggles to find herself in a patriarchal society. Thus, Plath, through her semi-autobiographical novel, is able to expose problems women faced in the 1900’s.

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.