Analysis Of Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar

Improved Essays
Sylvia Plath; Along with authors such as Virginia Woolf, Simone de Bauvoir and Marguerite Duras, is one of the biggest female authors of 20th century. The Bell Jar shares more characteristics with Sylvia Plath’s life than just a semi-autobiographical novel. The main character of the book, Esther travels to New York to work as an intern in a fashion magazine, just like Sylvia Plath did. They are both poets, who lost their fathers at the age of 8 and both Esther and Sylvia Plath slowly falls into insanity. In her novel, Sylvia Plath tells the story of her first depression and how she managed to overcome it, or rather, how she delayed it. The Bell Jar is considered one of the first feminist novels of its time because the protagonist questions …show more content…
Unlike men, women have the risk of having a baby. Getting pregnant before marriage is shunned in the society and is completely unacceptable while men carry no such risks as if they are free to do whatever they want. Women are treated as if it’s a necessity to get married and have children. For a woman to save her virginity for her future husband is considered the “normal” thing to do, and this can be seen in 20th centuries society as well as our society now and anything that goes against it is almost unthinkable in the judgemental eyes of society. However Esther, and Sylvia Plath believes in equality between men and women and says that it’s hypocrisy for a non virgin person to expect a virgin partner. “Ever since I’d learned about the corruption of Buddy Willard my virginity weighed like a millstone around my neck. It had been of such enormous importance to me for so long that my habit was to defend it at all costs. I had been defending it for five years and I was sick of …show more content…
Men and the women who conformed to men in this system could be happy while she couldn’t do so. In the book, even during her healing process, Esther rejects the reign of men by saying “What I hate is the thought of being under a man’s thumb, A man doesn’t have a worry in the world, while I’ve got a baby hanging over my head like a big stick, to keep me in line.”

The Bell Jar is a piece that Sylvia Plath has written because there was a voice she couldn’t silence in her, as she says. The problems of women and Esther at 1960’s is also the problems of our generation. It’s a book that everyone who feels stuck between the teeth of life should

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    Furthermore, the title is an extended metaphor of her suffocation from relationships and work which prevents her from connecting with the people around her. A bell jar is an inverted glass jar used to protect and display delicate objects or to maintain a vacuum. But for Esther, the bell jar symbolizes madness. “...wherever I sat - on the deck of a ship or at a street café in Paris or Bangkok - I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air” (178) - She feels as if she is inside an airless jar that changes her perspective on the world because no matter where she goes, she is trapped.…

    • 1387 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    If losing one’s virginity while unmarried would be marring to a woman, it shows how little men valued women’s abilities and contributions to society at the the…

    • 1402 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Gow embodies this discovery with Coral, a woman who suffers from depression after her son dies in the Vietnam War, utilising her self-acceptance to demonstrate an individual's’ ability to change perspective upon experiencing personal revelation. “I’ll sort things out … I’ll be right as rain... ” Coral metaphorically states, in first person, her conscious decision to acknowledge and improve her mental health, discovering that personal evolution is key to changing her outlook of human nature. The audience realises an individual’s inevitable change in perspective, following this discovery. This concept is Plath’s primary theme in The Bell Jar as Esther’s view of the world is dependent on her ability to discover solace within her mental illness. Plath uses the motif of ‘the bell jar’ to symbolise Esther’s depression, metaphorically alluding to improvement of Esther’s perception of her world, “The bell jar hung, suspended a few feet above my head.…

    • 1167 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Purity Myth Summary

    • 691 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Whereas, if a man went out and bought a pack of condoms they would be congratulated or even encouraged by other people, this contrast displays the clear line between women’s socially constructed identities regarding the concept of virginity and the issues that are arising from…

    • 691 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath is the story of a young, vivacious college student who struggles with her everyday college life and her successes. It leads her to over-work her mind and have a nervous breakdown. The novel is a journey through the mind of the young college girl, Esther Greenwood, and her slow descent into insanity. It is an intriguing insight at how the mind works, or in Esther’s case, turns against her. Esther is a young college student who has had much success is her life.…

    • 323 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Plath’s poetry here, could be related to image of the “bell jar” by her contemporary researcher. The same stifling environment. Esther Greenwood, another of Plath’s heroines in her autobiographical novel , that narrates Plath’s twentieth year of her life, feels as though she is trapped “blank and stopped as a dead baby” (1972; 265). This image reminds one of the bottled foetus preserved in the laboratories. By the end of the poem, the mother is stripped of all humanity, when the speaker persona states; Ghastly Vatican.…

    • 359 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I bought the audio book for The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, which was narrated by Maggie Gyllenhaal. The bell jar she refers to is a metaphor of how she feels suffocating, stewing in her own “sour air”. (Plath, S.) She also refers to the bell jar as something many people around her seem to have that are in denial, perhaps not even just in their own madness, but about everything. In chapter 7 Esther bring up feeling inadequate.…

    • 765 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The novel itself reflects the events of Sylvia Plath’s life through her writing and her autobiographical character, Esther Greenwood. Esther and Sylvia both love writing and expressed their perception of society within their feelings and their writing. Esther Greenwood lives and experiences Sylvia Plath’s life and pain through the novel. They both have depression, attempted suicide, been in institutions and has experienced feeling worthless and oppressed through society and the male figures in their lives. The Bell Jar is just a novel of Sylvia Plath telling her story through the character Esther, except Sylvia Plath succeeded in killing herself at the age of thirty after multiple attempts, while Esther gets an interview at the end of the novel to determine whether or not she is free to leave the institution.…

    • 774 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    At it’s core, The Bell Jar serves to challenge the social norms of the 1950s, and challenges the prevailing notion that women were dependent on and inferior to men. Esther struggles with the expectation that she should abandon her hopes and dreams for motherhood and a career in domestic duties. The novel also questions the idea that motherhood is the ultimate in femininity through grotesque images of pregnancy and birth, Esther sees the birthing room as a oubliette describing the birthing bed as “some awful torture table”. Esther notices that her worth is based on her ability to have children: “You oughtn 't see this,” Will muttered in my ear. “You 'll never want to have a baby if you do.…

    • 1424 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    One integral metaphor within The Bell Jar is that of the fig tree, which Esther uses to describe her life. She envisions her life as a fig tree spreading out its branches into various futures she could have. One branch symbolizes what society expects of her: to have a husband, children, and a “happy home” (Plath 84). Other branches symbolize a combination of what society expects of her and what she expects of herself: to be a “famous poet,” a “brilliant professor,” or an “amazing editor” (Plath 84-85). Lastly, other branches reflect her innermost desires that will only please herself: to travel, have “a pack of…lovers with queer names and offbeat professions” and to be an Olympian (Plath 85).…

    • 1965 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    How Much Should the Author’s Life be Known Authors Sylvia Plath of “The Bell Jar” and Justin Torres of “We the Animals” both incorporated many of their personal life events and struggles into their debut novels. By incorporating their hardships into their literary work, the two books provide an extensive look into both of the author 's frustration and fanciful imagination. In “The Bell Jar”, the protagonist, Esther Greenwood, is first described as a studious girl who, through her education, was granted a summer magazine internship to New York City. Instead of using this opportunity to network and grow as a writer, Esther begins to fall into an increasingly severe depression. She is constantly plagues by her repressed sexuality which forces…

    • 844 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Sexism In The Bell Jar

    • 1272 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Bell Jar was written around the 1950’s and 1960’s, when women were expected to adhere to specific societal norms. Often, these norms included being a mother of children, staying at home cleaning or cooking, and being an obedient wife. Society placed high importance, along with these expectations/behaviors, on the women while they were at home or in public. Society accepted women who met all these factors. Esther, a character in The Bell Jar, and Sylvia’s autobiographical figure, lacks all of these factors and therefore does not fit the norm of society during the 1950’s and 1960’s.…

    • 1272 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Sylvia Plath suffered from depression throughout her life, which led to her poetry and novels to have a dark tone. One can assume that Esther is an extension of Plath herself, which explains how Plath wrote such a poignantly realistic story around this character. The Bell Jar includes the elements of voice which enhance the grippingly real…

    • 1117 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    that can be replaced as easily as the kitchen mat that represents the insignificance of Mrs. Willard (Bonds 54). Esther only manages to free herself temporarily. She feels better at the moment, but The Bell Jar is still hanging over her head. She has not succeeded in fulfilling her aspirations but instead learned how to live in the world of her time, gained control and confidence in her decisions and came to terms with her complicated personality. This outcome can be considered an important achievement and a kind of liberation.…

    • 1448 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Feminism In The Bell Jar

    • 1388 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Bell Jar written by Sylvia Plath is a novel that describes the life of Esther Greenwood, a successful woman unraveling at the idealist image of woman set out by society. These images are seen throughout the novel when looking at Esther’s internship as a magazine editor. The idea of being a proper housewife shakes Esther and the idea of it makes her mentally sick. She is also surrounded by the idea that motherhood is the only acceptable situation for women in society. These ideologies are not what Esther is about.…

    • 1388 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays