Smith College

Jill Ker Conway grew up in an oscillating household, experiencing economic failure, personal tragedy, social isolation, and eventual financial success. A gifted student, Conway eventually fled Australia, citing psychological distress and professional stagnation. Conway’s upbringing was largely similar to a rural American girl in the middle twentieth century. Facing social limitations, economic hardship, and controlling parents, Conway received similar autonomy to female Americans. However, her…

will throw in a single sentence paragraph to act as a shifting point. These single sentences might have the same tone as the paragraphs that surround it as they indicate a shift in topic and not a shift in tone. Esther speaks about her experience in college with definite apathy. In order to transition from describing Esther’s experience in Botany to her experience in physics Plath uses the single sentence paragraph, “The day I went into physics class it was death.” A feeling of frustration and…

Ariel, a collection of Sylvia Plath’s poems released in 1965 after her suicidal death, transmit melancholy and agony to anyone who reads it. This depression in her poems was caused after her husband, the poet Ted Hughes, left her for another woman. Plath’s writing style has always been criticized for being excessively autobiographical and because of her continuous suicidal suspicion. However, Plath has never been criticized for the irony of the poem “The Applicant” compared to the rest of her…

Emily Dickenson’s poem titled My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun – is one of the many poetic works she created in her lifetime. The staple ambiguity of her poetry is ever present in this poem, which reflects the eccentric nature of Dickenson herself. This poem reflect the anger within her life and show how she is carried away by the male personified version of her anger and becomes an instrument of his. This poem offers an inside look into Dickenson’s psyche, as it show that she feels empowered by…

A young woman as herself is only trying to find her true identity and to establish a clearer perspective from which to view herself and the world she is living in. Plath states, "So poor she can't afford a magazine, and then gets a scholarship to college and wins a prize here and a prize there and ends up steering New York like her own private car... I guess I should have been excited the way most of the other girls were, but I couldn't get myself to react," (Plath, Chapter 1). This description…

In the book “The Bell Jar” by Sylvia Plath the theme is family before anything. Family is the most meaningful concept on earth. Your family cares, loves, and protects. Without your family you would be nowhere. Having your family will help get past your troubles, support, and help succeed in the future. First, in the beginning of the book, Esther did not have a connection with her family. “My own mother wasn’t much help” (39). Esther’s mother was callous on her. Her mother had to take care of 2…

transitioning into adulthood, Esther takes a step back and regresses into madness. All the beginnings of this lady are usually disastrous and disorienting including her first time in New York, her first marriage proposal as well as her success in college (Sylvia 44). Despite being young, Esther prefers death and decides to end her life by committing suicide instead of discovering and finding new meanings in life. The author applies numerous symbolic explanations in The Bell Jar, as well as many…

life after college she always seems to either be unsure, or has a different answer every time. When she was with her boss she said, “I’ve always thought I’d…

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and Thelma and Louise (1999) are both similar in that they are both strong feminist texts, addressing and discussing the issues of women’s rights in early and modern society. To represent this issue, as well as others within the text, both employ the use of characterisation, the development of the protagonists, and themes. Characters in the two texts play an important role in expressing the limited freedoms and rights of women and the societal conventions they are…

Susan Glaspell, born in 1876 was an American play writer, novelist, journalist, and actress. In her time, she wrote many short stories and plays which began appearing in magazines and journals. One of Glaspell’s best works was a one-act play called Trifles written and performed in 1916. While working as a journalist for Des Monines Daily News, she covered the 1900 murder of John Hossack which is where she received the inspiration for the loosely based play and in 1917 was turned into a short…