Why Did Sylvia Plath Write The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar is rich with an array of motifs, all which serve to sustain the novel’s primary themes. A motif particularly prevalent within the first half of the novel involves food, specifically Esther Greenwood’s relationship with food. This peculiar relationship corroborates the book’s themes of Esther’s continuous rebirthing rituals, and of her extreme dissatisfaction. The interrelation with food functions in two distinct manners: literally and figuratively. This analysis will concentrate on the figurative role of food in The Bell Jar, and how it denotes Esther’s overall state.

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.

To make matters worse, when she arrived home a letter awaited her saying that she had been rejected from Frank O'Connor's short story class. She was almost positive that she would get in and was deeply devastated when she received the rejection letter. Both the disappointment of New York and the rejection from the coveted writing class that she counted on started a deep spiral into clinical depression. Pressure was building up between her mom pushing her to return to her old self and her inability to sleep or read. Plath felt despondent. She even had an unsuccessful attempt at suicide by hiding herself away in the crawl space of her cellar and taking an overdose of sleeping pills. However, Plath was found and immediately institutionalized. Plath described this time as the blackest in her life saying in A Birthday Present “I would have killed myself gladly that time any possible way” (Malmsheimer 531).

Sylvia Plath’s wit, sarcasm, and myriad of emotions in The Bell Jar are all shown throughout. Esther Greenwood, whom represents Plath in the novel, feels trapped in a bell jar that is society. Esther never truly learned how to be an independent individual herself, so she is simply dependent on others and follows their way of life being that she is highly indecisive. Esther Greenwood’s insanity is influenced by her role within the society of the 1950s and by the dominance of males which she had to learn to coexist with. Her state is a repercussion of her standing as a female in society during the 1950s.

The postwar 1950s launched the modernist period in English Literature, which suggested a more pessimistic perception of society through societal nonconformity, decay, and alienation. Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, a parallel to her life, expresses Esther Greenwood’s character in pursuit of morality in the reality she faces in the modern society. Esther discovers that the society is not as pure as it seems and has underlying truths behind its deceptive appearance. To emphasize her realization, she mentions the color white two hundred-fourteen times in the novel. Although the color white often symbolizes purity, goodness, and innocence, Esther gives white a negative connotation in the novel. Esther depicts the reality of the society as fabricated through the recurring motif of the color white, which symbolizes hopelessness and a stigma in the optimistic society.

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 by Sylvia Plath is a realistic fiction novel that tell the story of a young women’s spiral towards insanity and her strive towards social acceptance. Plath writes of Esther Greenwood, a very talented and successful scholar, who receives the chance to intern for a magazine in New York City. This internship is when the audience is given their first glance into Esther’s lack of feelings and empathy towards her own well being. The novel remotely mirrors the renowned author’s experiences with hospitalization, clinical depression, years of electroshock therapy and its last effects. The author’s personal connection to the topic gives the book such a sense of realism, that the reader feels as though they are living through the experience.

The first time I ever read The Bell Jar, was when I was 15. I remember thinking about how raw the author, Sylvia Plath, must have felt while writing this. There will never be a time where I can read this story, from beginning to end, and not cry. In this story, I empathize with wanting control, with wanting equality and not double standards, and with wanting several lives, not just one. I know this book means a lot to me, and I am sure it means just as much to other people as well.

The Bell Jar was written by Sylvia Plath and published in Britain under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas in January 1963, merely a few weeks before her suicide. In summer of 1953, Plath was awarded a summer as a guest editor at the women’s magazine Mademoiselle, and her internship in New York City would ultimately inspire Plath to write The Bell Jar. The novel lightly fictionalized Plath’s life under the facade of Esther Greenwood, right down to the method of her failed suicide attempt and extensive shock therapy. For instance, in Chapter 10, Esther decides to write a novel and states: “My Heroine would be myself, only in disguise.”

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, 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,

Throughout a person's life, they find themselves at a crossroads at many different points, from deciding a career to picking a partner. As youth exit their teen years, they are faced with difficult decisions concerning the trajectory of their life past high school, but the endless possibilities that are now available to these young adults undermine their ability to make a unbiased, unstressed decision. With an emphasis on being able to do it all, they are left unable to choose due to fear of abandoning the other options. This cultimating stress leads to certain youths blindly following paths that are praised by those around them, rather than addressing their own goals and wants, and making an informed decision. In Sylvia Plath's coming of