Mental Illness In Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar

Every year thousands of people die due to a struggle with mental illness. Mental illness can lead to suicide and other forms of self-inflicted harm. Far too few people understand what it is to struggle with mental illness, and many see it as a choice or lack of will. These things lead to stigmas surrounding mental illness exacerbating the struggles that people with mental illness already face. Many authors have tried to write books describing mental health but no one has approached writing these books like Sylvia Plath. Plath combines both science and her own personal experience to write a novel that enlightens all of what it is truly like to face mental illness and stigmas surrounding it. The Bell Jar dives into the reality of life with mental illness following the perspective of Esther Greenwood, a young girl who, when diagnosed with anxiety and depression, faces many stigmas and stereotypes that …show more content…
Sylvia Plath uses her writing including, The Bell Jar, as a reflection of her struggle with depression and anxiety and as an insight to help bring further enlightenment to the knowledge regarding mental illness.
Those close to Plath and those who have studied her work relate the struggle in The Bell Jar back to Plath’s life, stating that it was a direct reflection of her life. Research has indicated that Platt’s story was “[i]ntensely autobiographical, Plath's poems explore her own mental anguish, her troubled marriage to fellow poet Ted Hughes, her unresolved conflicts with her parents, and her own vision of herself”(“Sylvia Plath”). She was retelling her life to try and get it into words and get out her emotions she was bottling up because she didn’t think that an actual autobiography would interest others and they would be hurt by her writing. Research has also shown that Plath uses her writing to express her