3. The Psychological Outcomes of Women in the Bell Jar The Bell Jar is a story of a young woman struggling with her mental health. Many factors including social oppressions reveal in the novel led her into madness. Esther Greenwood the protagonist of the novel experienced breakdowns in her life which led her at many times to suicide.
3.1 .The Protagonist’s Madness and the Woman initiate mental Illness Sylvia Plath describes her long term depression that blocks her mind her scope of writing. Most of her work depicts her life. Her troubled psyche also becomes apparent in her writing. Thus, madness becomes an important factor in Plath's work. This actually reflects how much she suffered from her mental illness, which includes electroshock therapy. Moreover, Plath's suicide attempt is because her mental illness. In her life Plath worked hard to achieve success but during her early success she experienced her first breakdown. As a result, her …show more content…
That is why G. Perloff says that, "Throughout the novel, Sylvia Plath emphasizes the curious similarity of physical and mental illness as if to say that both are of a larger condition which is our life today” (507). The Bell jar opens with the following sentence: "It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York” (1). The terrible electric shock therapy that Dr. Gordon makes her undergo is a frightening counterpart of the Rosenbergs ' punishment; Esther feels shattered to see the after effects of the shock treatments of other patient in the hospital. And it creates a fear in Esther's mind so she says, "Each morning, when I heard the nurse knock with my tray, an immense relief flooded over me, because I knew I was out of danger for that day " (217).This reaction of Esther actually portrays the mental disturbances she has gone through in the
3.1 .The Protagonist’s Madness and the Woman initiate mental Illness Sylvia Plath describes her long term depression that blocks her mind her scope of writing. Most of her work depicts her life. Her troubled psyche also becomes apparent in her writing. Thus, madness becomes an important factor in Plath's work. This actually reflects how much she suffered from her mental illness, which includes electroshock therapy. Moreover, Plath's suicide attempt is because her mental illness. In her life Plath worked hard to achieve success but during her early success she experienced her first breakdown. As a result, her …show more content…
That is why G. Perloff says that, "Throughout the novel, Sylvia Plath emphasizes the curious similarity of physical and mental illness as if to say that both are of a larger condition which is our life today” (507). The Bell jar opens with the following sentence: "It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York” (1). The terrible electric shock therapy that Dr. Gordon makes her undergo is a frightening counterpart of the Rosenbergs ' punishment; Esther feels shattered to see the after effects of the shock treatments of other patient in the hospital. And it creates a fear in Esther's mind so she says, "Each morning, when I heard the nurse knock with my tray, an immense relief flooded over me, because I knew I was out of danger for that day " (217).This reaction of Esther actually portrays the mental disturbances she has gone through in the