Smith College

The Bell Jar is the story about a young woman named Esther Greenwood. Esther is a college student who is working as an intern at Ladies Day magazine in New York City in the summer of 1953. Although she knows she should be excited about this once in a lifetime opportunity, she finds herself feeling restless, isolated, and hopeless about her future. While living in New York, Esther goes on a few dates and on the last date before returning home to Massachusetts she is sexually assaulted. Throughout

At first glance, the term “bell jar” does not particularly stand out except as the title of the novel. However, upon further scrutiny and thorough reading, readers can deduce that this term actually has a negative connotation throughout the novel due to the fact that Esther, the main character, literally feels confined inside a bell jar with no way to get out. Written by Sylvia Plath, the novel The Bell Jar focuses on how restrictions of society suffocate Esther to the point where she is unable to

Until six months ago, I was not a feminist. Yet I wasn’t exactly not one either. If asked, I’d probably say sure--I guess. (What’s the alternative, a bigot?). Mostly, though, I was indifferent. My political preoccupation was economics, and social issues seemed distant in importance. One October night, economic policy was the last of my concerns. A loner by nature, I'd long denied any need for close social relationships with same-age peers. But my mental composure unexpectedly fractured as I spun

Have you ever expected yourself to be exactly what society wants and imagines you to be? Well Esther Greenwood is an intern that works at a very popular women’s magazine as an editor in New York City. She is only nineteen and expects everything in her future to be perfect, but as any normal young women coming into society she is overwhelmed with expectations and goes into depression. While in depression, she starts going on all these dates with random men, then the last man she is with tries to assault

Literary Devices Character “There was no emotion in her eyes, no sense of the person behind it… At the girl's throat was a necklace of human tongues … Just for a moment the girl looked at Mark Fossie with something close to contempt” (O’brien 105). From the introduction of her character, Mary Anne Bell, seemed like the typical American girl, but that changed within time. Her character at first was flat and dull; she behaved in the way any “girl next door” type would. Coming to Vietnam to her was

Doreen, who is one of the other interns. Doreen is disparate compared to the other wealthy girls, which many of the other interns do not appreciate. Esther describes her as, “I’d never known a girl like Doreen before. Doreen came from a society girls’ college down South and had bright white hair standing out in a cotton candy fluff round

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 is an anti-coming of age novel. Plath’s novel focuses on Esther Greenwood a young college student on the cusp of adulthood. At the beginning of The Bell Jar, Esther is a young girl and relatively innocent compared to the world she’ll soon find herself in. Esther goes through all the usual rites that signify a young woman coming of age, college, marriage proposal etc. Ultimately however these experiences and the pressures they put on Esther break and permanently

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

In the beginning of "The Bell Jar" it explains that although this girl named Esther shows great promise and is very ambitious, she also shows great doubt in her abilities to achieve her goals. The doubt she feels in her abilities isn't made much better, as cultural pressure and popular belief of what character for all women must be takes its toll on her. After her boss scolds her for not knowing what she wants to do, Esther goes on a few dates. The last date she goes on ends with her date trying