The Bell Jar Essay

The Bell Jar, a coming of age, semi-autobiographical novel, by Sylvia Plath follows the life of a troubled young girl named Esther Greenwood, her slow descent into mental illness and then her subsequent recovery. The second half of the book details Esther's mental breakdown, her incarceration and stumbling recovery whilst the first half uncovers the protagonists, narrators day to day struggles which go on to contribute to her eventual breakdown . Throughout the novel, the reader comes to understand

Compare and Contrast: “The Bell Jar” and “Daddy” Literature and art, in general, can convey very strong, powerful feelings and provide emotional relief for the artist. Although Sylvia Plath likely meant for her works to be interpreted as simple fiction they are littered with autobiographical details. The characters are not meant to be herself, still, what she writes about the mental condition and feelings of the narrators are proven to be her personal thoughts, evidenced by the events of her life

her novel The Bell Jar. In The Bell Jar, the main character, Esther Greenwood seems to have it all. She’s in New York City, working as a guest editor for a fashion magazine. Despite her life seeming marvelous on the outside, she can’t escape feelings of gloominess and darkness, clear signs of depression and mental illness. In her novel The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath uses the bell jar to symbolize Esther’s mental illness and the feelings of confinement it causes. The symbol of the bell jar is first used

Esther was the main character in the novel the Bell Jar. Esther faced multiple challenges throughout her life and tried many ways to overcome them. Sylvia Plath is Esther. Sylvia Plath’s most popular written novel The Bell Jar creates a theme of someone being viewed as successful but, struggling with their internal feelings. Esther dealt with many problems through her years being in a great writing business. Though there were many lessons learned in this novel there were many that the main character

Annotated Bibliography Bonds, Diane S. “The Separate Self in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar.” from “Women’s Studies”, Vol 18, No. 1, (May 1990), pp 49-64. Gale Research, 1999. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 28 Sept. 2014. According to Bonds, Esther fails to establish an autonomous, or separate self, and ultimately resorts to “culturally-ingrained stereotypes of women.” Bonds notes that in the first part of Plath’s novel, both the commitment

Sylvia Plath was an American author and poet. Her death at the age of 30 by suicide was the end of her long struggle with mental illness throughout her life, chronicled in her most famous work, her fictional, but inspired by her life novel, The Bell Jar, cited for its feminist themes and exploration of mental illness. Plath is considered one of the greatest poets and novelists of the 20th century, whose works were influenced by her mental illnesses, and still have relevance today. Sylvia Plath

your partner forever and always. Yet men are allowed to rampant on other women and their wives just let it happen because it is seen as a normal thing in the 1950’s but heaven forbid a woman tries to see other men that women would be mocked. In The Bell Jar Esther is cheated on by her boyfriend and she responsibly breaks it off but still has small feelings for the man. This book shows very well how the women are clearly stately or inferior to men and the men are morally weak. In the beginning of the

According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, the definition of the word “bell jar” is, “a bell-shaped usually glass vessel designed to contain objects or preserve gases and or a vacuum”. Sylvia Plath’s title, The Bell Jar, symbolically represents her feeling towards the seclusion and inferiority women endured trapped by societes glass vessel during the 1950’s. The Bell Jar, follows the life of Esther Greenwood, the protagonist and narrator of the story, during her desperate attempt to become a woman

“I felt surprisingly at peace. The bell jar hung, suspended, a few feet above my head. I was open to the circulating air” (Plath) Esther Greenwood is a character that goes through a journey of mental illness. Towards the end of the book in chapter eighteen, Esther is still in the psychiatric hospital, and she was just woken with her doctor, Dr. Nolan by her side. Dr. Nolan then led Esther outside to get some air. The theme of innocence in Esther’s life is what keeps her young and full of life, and

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? Sylvia Plath is still relevant today with