Don McLean

Causes and Impact of Depression in The Bell Jar “The longer I lay there in the clear hot water the purer I felt, and when I stepped out at last and wrapped myself in one of the big, soft white hotel bath towels I felt pure and sweet as a new baby” (Plath 49). The aforementioned “purity” is attributed to transformation, the washing away of the dirt as she descends into a cleaner self. Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar morphs this idea of sanity and purity twisting it to make us all question if a glass…

Daddy and Lady Lazarus are poems written in 1963, by Sylvia Plath and were shortly released after her death. Sylvia Plath is a famous American poet born in October 27, 1932. Plath was really depressed since at the age of 10 after her Father's death. She tried to commit suicide multiple times and failed.Plath's famous Poems “Daddy” and “Lady Lazarus” are mainly influenced on her depression and her complex relationship with her Dad and her husband Ted Hughes. Ted hughes leaving Plath left her…

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…

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…

How Much Should the Author’s Life be Known Authors Sylvia Plath of “The Bell Jar” and Justin Torres of “We the Animals” both incorporated many of their personal life events and struggles into their debut novels. By incorporating their hardships into their literary work, the two books provide an extensive look into both of the author 's frustration and fanciful imagination. In “The Bell Jar”, the protagonist, Esther Greenwood, is first described as a studious girl who, through her education,…

a. Jeffrey Eugenides and Sylvia Plath both carefully create characters that exist to exhibit the lives of teenage girls, and their inherit suffering during adolescent. The lives of these teenage girls in The Virgin Suicides and The Bell Jar are shaped by mental illness and isolation, stemming from a withdrawal from society and any kind of community thereafter. The Lisbon Sisters and Esther Greenwood are more often than not, forced to interact with communities and families that prove to be…

Sylvia Plath can very easily be considered one of the brightest minds in all of confessional poetry. She wrote hundreds of poems in her lifetime and three books: “The Colossus”, “Ariel”, and “The Bell Jar”. Despite all of her brilliance, she was plagued with a sea of mental illnesses. “The Bell Jar” was written to chronicle the events that occurred before and after her first suicide attempt. Her most famous poem, “Daddy”, mentions how she tried to join her father in death. There is even a…

The Bell Jar was written around the 1950’s and 1960’s, when women were expected to adhere to specific societal norms. Often, these norms included being a mother of children, staying at home cleaning or cooking, and being an obedient wife. Society placed high importance, along with these expectations/behaviors, on the women while they were at home or in public. Society accepted women who met all these factors. Esther, a character in The Bell Jar, and Sylvia’s autobiographical figure, lacks all of…

Elements of Voice: The Bell Jar The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath is a timeless literary classic. One reason that this novel has transcended the ages since the 1960s is Plath’s expert use of the elements of voice. Few novels may stand the test of time. A vast knowledge of author’s craft is necessary to create a story that is intricate and detail-oriented without becoming overly specific and unrelateable. Sylvia Plath suffered from depression throughout her life, which led to her poetry and novels…

Often described as a perfectionist, Sylvia Plath was an enviable, popular, academically successful college student when her losing battle with depression began. Having published her first poem at eight years old, Plath was a writer at her core, and her journey with mental illness can be revealed and analyzed in her writing which gave Plath a method of coping with and externalizing her many debilitating anxieties. In her many published poems, stories, and essays Plath covers topics on identity,…