Jar

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

According to the Oxford dictionary, the definition of the word “bell jar” is, “An environment in which someone is protected or cut off from the outside world”. Sylvia Plath’s title symbolically represents her feeling toward the seclusion and inferiority women endured in society 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. Esther begins her life at college with lots of success, earning

presentation of the character. Esther does not fit into the definition of an American like Betsy a “Pollyanna cowgirl,” patriotic and optimistic. This could be caused by Esther's German background. The common thread of disillusion is apparent in The Bell Jar due to Esther's increasing lack of identity and unfamiliarity with herself. This is manifested when she sees a disembodied version of herself "a big, smudgy-eyed Chinese woman", feeling as though she is “melting into the shadows like the negative of

Kai Zhang Mrs. Coghill P. 4 AP Literature November 30, 2014 The Bell Jar Overview Questions 1. Esther faces an increasing sense of anxiety concerning her future. She is constantly worries what about her future. Her anxiety leads to a severe depression and several suicide attempts from which Esther slowly recovers through asserting her independence and controlling her own destiny. Silence also leads to Esther’s depression, “The silence depressed me. It wasn 't the silence of silence. It was my own

understood and her actions seem reasonable. While Esther is certainly mentally ill, she experiences moments of clarity in which she can address her own sadness. She describes her illness as a bell jar, a recurring metaphor for confinement, in that wherever she went, she would be “sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air” (Plath 207). Esther feels trapped within her own head, plagued by the same thoughts of insecurity and despondency over and over again. Following her suicide attempts

On January 14th of 1963, Sylvia Plath had finally completed The Bell Jar after approximately two years of writing. This novel could have been considered a partial autobiography, because the main character Esther Greenwood eerily represents Sylvia Plath. There are a number of references to Plath’s real life throughout the book, too many for it to be considered a mere coincidence. Within the story, Esther Greenwood considers and attempts suicide quite frequently. Could this novel have been foreshadowing

Identity is fragile and is a characteristic that every person must discover without hiding behind inexperience’s and excluding themselves from the outside world of reality or else their own personal bell jar will suffocate them alive. The Bell Jar, a semi-autobiographical novel written by Sylvia Plath portrays how a young woman with too many identities and unrealistic expectations overwhelms herself to the point that she contemplates and attempts suicide multiple times. Esther Greenwood, a young

Bell Jar is Esther Greenwood’s struggle with changing her female bildungsroman into a male bildungsroman and this constant struggle is her undoing. Her undoing simply results

Throughout The Bell Jar and The Color Purple both women are subjected to societal constructs that dictate the course of their lives. Although Celie and Ester come from different experiences and upbringings, they both endure the restricted freedoms, frustration, cruelty and violence that have been thrust upon women throughout history. In The Bell Jar Esther uses the fig tree story as a metaphor for her life. The fig tree and the figs upon it represent the opportunities and paths Esther's life could

Sylvia Plath’s novel, The Bell Jar, shows that the mores of America contribute to the mental deterioration of some of the most creative and introspective of people. The novel is basically an autobiography-one which is a strange mix of mundanity, grotesqueness, barbarity, nature, and glamour. Something dark and insidious perturbs the author’s stand in protagonist, Esther Greenwood, in both traumatizing and prosaic circumstances. The novel remains iconic in American culture due to its resonance with