Bell System

Transitioning into adulthood is hard for any gender but it was especially difficult during the 1950s, a socially conservative time. As a woman in the 1950s, transitioning to adulthood was difficult and for Esther it was nearly impossible. Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar provides the opportunity to view a young woman's journey into early adulthood during a period where gender roles, double standards, and social norms severely restricted the options and opportunities available to women. Further, when…

The novel, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, is about a young woman name Esther Greenwood who is working for a magazine company as a temporary editor in New York. While working for a magazine company that often threw many female stereotypes at her, Esther is found in between either her sweet, innocent and safe friend Betsy, or the more daredevil, outgoing and rebellious friend Doreen. Seeing as Doreen is very open on a sexual front, Esther finds herself having a difficult time between the societal…

author Sylvia Plath definitely impacted American culture by writing about her battle with mental illness, like depression and her views on women's role in society. The roles for women in America at that time were not what Plath wanted. In novel, The Bell Jar, Plath shows her troubles with conflicting identities. Between trying to please her mother, trying to become successful, relationships, and mental illness. She also was considered a feminist because of her work about gender roles for women.…

The North Church located in Market Square of Portsmouth, NH was originally built in 1657 and was rebuilt in 1854, with the latest restoration in 1978 (CITE). The church was primarily built using brick, wood, and stone to commemorate the colonial style of Portsmouth and its ancestors beforehand. Brick is the primary material used to give the building a more structured look and show that the town has not drifted from its colonial roots. The brick also provides the building at the time a more…

The symbol of the bell jar is clearly an important idea, as the book is titled after it. After reading this novel, the reader understands Esther feels she is trapped in a fishbowl of emotions, an idea Esther explains as a “bell jar, with stifling distortions” (241). Esther fears this bell jar, because she associates it with her depression. This looming jar seems like it should “descend again”, terrifying…

herself. As written in “The Bell Jar”, in Sylvia Plath’s book The Bell Jar her main character Esther is constantly searching for her identity through the novel which put pressure on her to become something greater. Esther ends up losing her sanity because she searches so much which leads her to her depression. (The Bell Jar, 30). Sylvia Plath uses Esther in her writing to show what she went through as a way to deal with her depression. As Helene Henderson writes, The Bell Jar is about a college…

I am sorry that I missed your cal'ls today. Im not long home with Eti in bed. I spoke with Sally Glossop today and she advised me to keep Eti out of school untill after half term. She thought that it would cause far to much anxiety to come to school at a time like this. I must say that I do agree with her and so would anyone else that is working with Eti on a mental/ medical level. I know you need your attendence numbers up and you need to keep ofsted happy but I must put Eti first. As you…

This excerpt from Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar describes the main character’s feelings that madness separates her from the outside world. Referring to those feelings as the “bell jar,” Plath explores the themes of reality, sexuality, and femininity. Plath also creates a tone of hopelessness and gloom as the main character battles with suicidal depression. Esther Greenwood is full of academic promise and ambition. She should be thrilled with her progress towards her career, but she feels…

wondered if her depression was neurotic or psychotic.” The main character from “The Bell Jar” is similar to her in this way, often falling into fits of depression, even breaking into tears when a photographer asks her what she imagines herself doing in the future. Is there a young woman in this world who hasn’t experienced this mental stress? In a social environment with tremendous pressure placed on women, Esther (The Bell Jar) has a tumultuous relationship with food. She consumes luxurious…

who I am, I’ll be free.” In The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, the main character Esther is left at loose ends when the novel ends as to whether or not she will be released from a mental institution. As the reader follows Esther’s descent and ascension from her mental illness, it is wholly unclear as to what will become of her at the end; however, it is heavily implied that Esther is released from the mental hospital because of the metaphorical “shattering” of the bell jar and acceptance of her…