The Theme Of Death In Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar

Esther never got to say goodbye to her father and she blames her mother for it. Mr. Greenwood’s death seems surreal to Esther, she never came to terms with her father’s death. She thinks about all of the things that her father would have taught her had he been alive such as; German, entomology, and being a Lutheran. After Esther attempts suicide she is admitted to a mental hospital, called Caplan. Mrs. Greenwood visits Ether there on Esther’s birthday and brings a bouquet of roses with her. Rather than feeling grateful for the flowers, Esther tells her mother to save the flowers for her, Esther’s, funeral. Esther later throws away the flowers and tells Dr. Nolan, Esther’s phycologist, that she hates her mother. Mrs. Greenwood feels guilty for …show more content…
Her cowardliness causes her to become self-absorbed and become indifferent to her mother’s feelings. She is confused about her identity, everyone has different expectations of her and she does not know who to please. She feels oppressed in a society that does not understand her which further fuels her unhappiness. The Bell Jar is a semi-autobiographical novel. The author of the novel, Sylvia Plath, had many of the same feelings as Esther Greenwood. Plath, like Esther, was not religious. She lost her faith after her father’s death. Plath’s first suicide attempt consisted of her crawling under her house and taking her mother’s sleeping pills. After she was found in the crawl space she was admitted to a mental hospital, where she received shock therapy during her six-month stay. Her stay in the hospital and her college expenses were paid by Olive Higgins Prouty, who survived a mental breakdown earlier in her life. Esther’s hospital expenses were paid by a writer, Philomena Guinea, who heard that Esther is depressed because of her writing problem. Philomena Guinea was also admitted to an asylum when she was at the peak of her writing career. Philomena decides to help Esther by paying for Esther’s medical costs until she is better. After six months Esther seemed better so she was released from the mental hospital and she went back to college, much like Esther. Plath got married to a writer and had two kids. However, Plath’s husband had an affair and the couple divorced. Plath later tried to commit suicide by driving her car off a bridge, into a river, which Esther contemplated when she was driving to Caplan. Plath took her life one morning. While her children were sleeping, Plath placed her head into an oven; she died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Is Sylvia Plath’s death an indicator of how Esther’s life would