Quotes From The Bell Jar

The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath is about a girl named Esther who is a young women from the suburbs in Boston. She is working for an editor in New York interning at a magazine during the summer. She feels like she doesn’t fit in or belong with society and this is leading to depression. After many suicide attempts, her mother sends her to a psychiatric institution where she meets a female doctor named Doctor Nolan who eventually helps her overcome her problems and depression. I chose the signpost “Again and Again”. Because Esther keeps mentioning things related to death and suicide, it is significant to the story. One important quote that Esther said was, “The idea of being electrocuted makes me sick, and that's all there was to read about in the papers.... It had nothing to do with me, but I couldn't help wondering what it would be like, being burned alive all along your nerves. I thought it must be the worst thing in the world” (Plath 1). Esther said this right at the beginning of the book after she heard the story of the Rosengburg’s being executed. Back then people would be executed by getting electrocuted. This quote was significant to the plot or story because it foreshadows what happens at the end. This foreshadows Esther going …show more content…
It wasn't the silence of silence. It was my own silence” (Plath 18). She's talking about how depression has a dampening effect on her thoughts, it silences her ability to read and think and do and be anything. It could also mean that everyone has a social life and is enjoying their life except her. Nobody listens to her or hears her, therefor she lives in silence. Silence could also mean a state of depression where it has a strong and hurtful effect on her thoughts that could be positive. These quotes she keeps saying about depression are trying to get the message out to the reader about how she is feeling inside and to get people to sympathize with