What Are The Stereotypes In The Bell Jar

With good intentions, John controls his wife's life and makes all decisions for her, whether she agrees with them or not. His wife is full aware of the restrictions that her husband has imposed on her, but she is recessive to his control and often agrees with him. However, she fails to see “signs of her confinement: the bars at the window, the gate at the top of the stairs, steel rings on the walls, and the nailed-down bestead” (Korb). Because she is unable to escape from the isolation that her husband has kept her in, the woman seeks relief from the yellow wallpaper and she creates an imaginary relationship it. In fact, the worst thing her husband should not of done is give his unstable wife an object that is not appealing to focus on. In doing so, he has given her an opportunity to let her mind wonder and create objects that no one else sees. John, however, does not give any thought to this because after all, he thinks he knows what is best for his wife.

In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator, already suffering with Post-Partum Depression, is further constrained when her husband John prescribes her resting treatment for her illness. John clarifies that she must lie in bed in the same, enclosed room, refrain from using her imagination and especially abstain from writing. This, in turn, forces the narrator deeper into her

Due to their behavior, both men lead their wives to rebel. John’s controlling behavior causes the narrator to abandon him by going completely mad. First, she questions John’s pronouncements. The narrator believes that congenial work, with excitement and change would do her good (p.297). Next, she focuses on the wallpaper. She describes its negative features noting that patches are gone as if school boys wore it out (p.298). Upset by her husband’s actions, the narrator decides to begin writing in secret. . It reaches the point where the narrator has to hide her writings from him, because he gets upset if she even writes a word (p.298). -After time passes, we see her obsession grow. John seems to be oblivious to the narrator’s conditions, telling her “you know the place is doing you good” (p.299). She notices that the pattern is torturing (p.303). Finally, she begins to see a woman hiding behind the pattern (p.304). Looking for the woman in the pattern gives her something to look forward to (p.305). Ultimately she comes to believe that she is the woman in the wallpaper and wants to free herself. She begins peeling off the paper through the night, and by morning removes all the paper she could while standing (p.307). The narrator even begins to contemplate jumping out of the window, but does not

In the beginning of the novel, Buddy was introduced as an intelligent, and a high self-esteem character. His was meant to marry Esther, and become a doctor in the future. Buddy was one of the major reasons that Esther went through suicidal phases in her life. First, Buddy’s mother, Mrs. Willard, always tried to force the society’s views on women. ‘“What a man is an arrow into the future and what a woman is the place the arrow shoots off from”’ (72). In essence, Mrs. Willard pointed out that women are just their husband’s fan and nothing more than their husband in anyway. The double standards on women discomfort Esther, since she was informed

Esther did not know what she especially wanted with her life. Jay Cee stated to Esther that not having an idea of what she wants, will not get her very far because Esther is

The narrator further comments “If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression- a slight hysterical tendency- what is one to do...Personally, I disagree with their ideas.” This quote shows how much influence John has over the narrator’s actions and how much control John has over the thoughts of his families and friends. Not only can one see John’s control over his wife and relatives, but one can also see the narrator’s take on everything. The narrator further comments “I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus but John says that the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad. So I will let it alone and talk about the house.” This quote not only exemplifies the control John has on the narrator’s decisions but also the extent to which the narrator realizes she has a problem. Furthermore, the story is titled the yellow wallpaper which is located in the room that she lives in. By telling the narrator to ignore her illness and do nothing, John starts the narrator on the path to complete mental

The husband, John, in the "Yellow Wallpaper" doesn't see the seriousness of his wife's deterioration because following along with the beliefs of that time, he thinks its impossible that a woman could have a mental illness. With so little to do and virtually no stimulation, the narrator's mood varies. She realizes that she's starting to see shapes in the yellow wallpaper. She becomes completely obsessed with the wallpaper, and even believes that her husband is trying to see the shapes before she can. Finally, she succumbs completely to her

Esther, a young woman striving unsuccessfully to find her place in the world, constantly perceives herself in such a way that emphasizes the strong disassociation and alienation she feels from her natural self. This is first evident at the start of the novel when she sees her reflection inside a New York elevator: "I noticed a big, smudgy-eyed Chinese woman staring idiotically into my face. It was only me, of course. I was appalled to see how wrinkled and used up I looked" (17). Here, Esther does not recognise herself; instead she describes her appearance as that of a foreign

The narrator makes an effort to follow John’s recommendations in order to get better, but she feels the need to express her feelings. The wallpaper seems to provide an outlet for self-expression as she resolves to “follow the pattern to some sort of a conclusion” (Gilman, “Yellow” 10). She also thinks that there must be a better treatment for her depression. As John is dismissive of her needs, she protests silently against the cure. She continues to write a journal in secret, hiding it from John and his sister. The increasingly violent imagery in her narrative expresses her suppressed anger and foretells her oncoming madness. She observes that the curves in the wallpaper pattern plunge violently and she hates the faded color, design,

Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar focuses on Esther Greenwood’s life with depression and the social factors that have caused it, one of these being her mother. Mrs. Greenwood does not think she is actually sick and mildly supports her treatment. Her true opinion becomes apparent when she mentions how this will all pass like “a bad dream.” Moreover, it will most likely be part of her entire adult life and influence her life-choices for many years to come. Esther has spent the hardest months of her life without her mother’s support, and it is highlighted at this point in the

The mantra drilled into Esther’s head as she was growing up was that she had to remain pure and virginal until she was married. To Esther, this meant that men would have to do the same. She didn’t understand that if

My Reaction to an Exhililarating Story The “Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is about a husband and wife that do not have a very strong marriage. He was manipulative and influenced her in a negative way. They rarely communicated as a couple and were never very affectionate. In some relationships, wives cannot get up the courage to leave a relationship let alone get a formal divorce.

She knew she either had a pathway of acceptance if she becomes a housewife or a pathway where she will be judged by others for following her dreams of writing: “The fact that Esther felt she couldn’t follow her dream of writing depressed her, and eventually led to her destruction” (Scholes 3). Making a living from writing is not rational profession keeping in mind the time she lives in. The role she reaches for goes against what society found acceptable for women and makes Esther feel inferior to men. She believes she must accept her fate, as she does not have the ability to fight the madness consuming her. This madness builds up and leads to her breakdown that reveals how sickening she felt giving into societal norms. Before she gets to her breakdown, Esther ends walking around the Boston Common with a sailor as the character Elly Higginbottom; thinking of going somewhere where no one knows

Going off of this, Buddy wants to marry Esther when he gets better from his tuberculosis outbreak. I feel as though people who are looking at Buddy from the outside think he would be the perfect person to marry because of his looks, brains, and how ambitious he is. However, for Esther, he does not understand why she wants to write poetry. I can totally relate to this part of Esther’s life, however, because I had a boyfriend in my past who everyone thought was tall, dark, and handsome. They thought he was the kindest and smartest man alive. On the flip side, he was only ‘good for his looks’. His personality was deadly,

The Bell Jar is considered the first American feminist novel by many people.The main character is Esther Greenwood.Esther thinks that she faces sexual double standards in society.She has stable thoughts about her sexual status.She is a virgin and this constantly weighs on her mind.As she says ''When I was nineteen, pureness was the great issue. Instead of the world being divided up into Catholics and Protestants or Republicans and Democrats or white men and black men or even men and women, I saw the world divided into people who had slept with somebody and people who hadn’t, and this seemed the only really significant difference between one person and another.(Slyvia Plath,The Bell Jar,s.66)''She believes that a woman must be avirgin when she gets married.But she assumes the same for men.But she discovers that Buddy Willard is not a virgin.He has