Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar

Jay Scott published his article the “Jarring approach to Bell Jar” in The Globe and Mail; Toronto, Ont. His article begins with an introduction to Plath’s life before he begins to talk about Larry Peerce’s film interpretation of her novel The Bell Jar. Sylvia Plath’s novel The Bell Jar can be described as one of the most depressing books ever written. Unfortunately for Plath, the novel has part of her story that is roman-a-clef, meaning they are based on her actual life. In 1950 Plath started attending Smith College and in 1952 she became a student editor for Mademoiselle just as Esther does (Scott). Furthermore, Plath describes her experience at Mademoiselle as an “unbelievable merry-go-round month” (Scott). While she was working at Mademoiselle Plath was able to meet with many famous people of her time including Vance Bourjaily who was an American novelist, Elizabeth Bowen who was known for her fictional stories based on her life in London during World War II, and Paul Engle an American poet and longtime director (Scott). …show more content…
Even with her life that would have made other girls jealous Plath attempted suicide twice. After her first attempt, she was hospitalized and received electro-shock treatment. Her time in the hospital can be described as a “time of darkness, despair, disillusion- so black only as the inferno of the human mind can be- symbolic death, and numb shock- then the painful agony of slow rebirth and psychic regeneration” (Scott). Plath’s time in the hospital psych ward helped her become better, and during that time she wrote the novel The Bell Jar but not long later she tried to commit suicide and was successful this time. The Bell Jar is a bildungsroman, it tells the story of Sylvia Plath’s troubled life through Esther’s