McLean Hospital

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 when she is no longer innocent it leads her to

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

Gordon, who gives her electroshock therapy, makes matters worse with her mental health. She finds herself in a crawlspace swallowing sleeping pills thinking suicide is the answer, but is fortunately found days later. From staying in a few hospitals, Esther is taken to a psychiatric institution, where she meets Dr. Nolan. While there, she receives successful electroshock and insulin therapy sessions unlike the previous Doctor. While she is there, she Meets Joan, a high school friend

The bell Jar by Sylvia Plath is a bildungsroman fictional novel, and documents a first person account of Esther Greenwood’s struggle with depression from her late teens to early twenty’s. During Esther’s final path of destruction, her encounter with Marco leads her to one of many revelations about societies expectations for women and this reality along with many other factors sends Esther to her near demise. Before Esther’s encounter with Marco she was experiencing life in New York through

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath also addresses the tensions between expectations regarding traditional female roles and the increasing demands and opportunities of paid labor. In the summer of 1953, The Bell Jar opens. Esther Greenwood, a brilliant young woman, is functioning as an editorial intern at a famous women’s magazine in New York city. Although Esther has an academic promise and aspiration, she feels demoralized about her future and disconnected from society. In addition to her early symptoms

The book the Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and the short story the yellow wallpaper by Charlotte Gilman are both about two women who have severe mental issues. On top of that Both females also fall under many stereotypes during the time of the 1950s. Esther falls under the stereotype of a young american girl who goes to New York. Esther is expected to marry a rich young man, and what she calls a home wife. A wife that cooks,cleans, and does whatever the husband tells her to do. THe female in the yellow

Sylvia Plath suggests that in certain cases there are gaps in what people expect of a person and what that person actually experiences; add that with depression and the expectations of women in the 1950s, and there will be certain distortions in individual thoughts. Esther, the narrator of the The Bell Jar, contradicts every aspect of what is expected of a women in this time period. Society and the way it works seems to drive Esther mad, possibly claiming what is expected of certain groups can ,perhaps

Sylvia Plath, a very talented writer and poet, focuses on two very prominent themes in her works: death, specifically suicide, and suffering. In her only novel, The Bell Jar, the protagonist, Esther Greenwood, takes the reader on a journey that explores the life and struggles of a young female poet and a tragic heroine. Esther's experiences reflect those of Sylvia Plath's. Plath describes her life as she saw it, confessing her thoughts and feelings to her audience. In her poems, "Perseus", "Lorelei"

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

Often times in life, the pressure from peers and the status of which one must live up to tends to corrode one’s character. The dawn of the twentieth century saw much change in the legal progressions of women, as they finally gained their rights. Although having reached such accomplishments, women still did not maintain equality in societal expectations. The Bell Jar, first published under the pseudonym “Victoria Lucas”, persists as a confessional novel that embodies Sylvia Plath’s struggles with