Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar
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In The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath expresses feelings of depression leading to suicide mirroring her own personal torment and fears. Plath was known as a poet, and The Bell Jar was her only novel. The main character is Esther Greenwood, and the novel describes the conflict which develops in this woman and which finally disrupts her mind as she faces the need to emerge from the sheltering world of school and the university to enter the adult working world which makes more complex demands on her. The woman has a strong intellectual ability which has served her well in the academic world. However, she is also ill at ease with people and has few social skills. She desires to show more sophistication in social venues than she actually possesses, and this leads her into a series of disastrous encounters with others, and especially with men. At the end of the first section of the book, Esther expresses her frustration about being unable to do well socially as she throws away all the clothes she has purchased for her month in New York. She is ostensibly reacting to the encounter with Marco, who hates women, but her frustration goes beyond this. At this point, we can see that her sanity has been balanced precariously and that it is now about to break down as she returns to the enclosed world of Boston and to a summer with the mother she fears. She has tried to achieve social integration, and now she has surrendered to her inability to do so.
. . .
gh an air crackling with blue light, and with each flash a great jolt drubbed me till I thought my bones would break and the sap fly out of me like a split plant. (Plath, 1971, p. 161)
The result does not seem to be what is desired, for the experience only makes the patient feel more guilty and more isolated: "I wondered what terrible thing it was that I had done" (Plath, 1971, p. 161).
The image of the bell jar is used for the madness that descends on Esther, and Esther sees herself as suffocated by this see-through device that seems to come down over her and enclose her, isolating her from her surroundings and preventing her from breathing. Sometimes the bell jar recedes, leaving her feeling more like herself:
All the heat and fear had purged itself. I felt surprisingly at peace. The bell jar hung, suspended, a few feet above my head. I was open to the circulating air. (Plath, 1971, p. 242)
This is after a session of shock therapy, and the doctor tells Esther that she will have shock therapy three or four times a week for as long as it takes.
In The Bell Jar, Plath describes through her character the depression that she herself felt, leading to her own suicide attempt in 1953. She described her suicide as a suffocatin
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Sylvia Plath, Esther Greenwood, Plath Shock, Esther Esther, Jar Plath, References Alexander, bell jar, shock treatment, Bell Jar, Howe Colt, Press Plath, plath 1971, Suicide Prevention, sylvia plath, colt 1991, academic world, grollman 1988, endured shock treatment, pp 385-387, real world, main character, plath 1971 161,
Approximate Word count = 1408
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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