The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath

8/17/2003

Picture yourself slipping into insanity - to a place where killing yourself is the logical thing to do. You don't have to be depressed. You don't have to feel stressed. Your life isn't what you expected, but it is livable. This is hard to project, isn't it, unless you've been there.

Esther Greenwood has been an overachiever all her life. When The Bell Jar opens, Esther is narrating the period of her life where she is one of twelve college students on special assignment for a month with a fashion magazine in New York City. She has won scholarships through college. She won the contest for this temporary, high profile, job and public relations stint. Between the work needed for the magazine and the functions the twelve women are expected to attend, she is extremely busy. The woman she is closest to in the bunch, Doreen, often skips the functions and goes off with her older, sophisticated male friend. Occasionally Esther joins them, and fends off trouble at times because of it.

When the assignment is over, Esther returns home with her mother, expecting to be invited to a special summer writing class. The invitation doesn't come through, and for the first time in years Esther is at loose ends. Listening to her narration, the reader begins to suspect something is wrong. Esther's writing is lucid - the thoughts she is portraying are not. They are troubling. When she starts describing her thoughts on the different ways she should commit suicide, we know for certain that she has a problem.

The Bell Jar is an edgy novel, deceptively easy to read. That is part of its power. It is simple to follow Esther's narration and go along with her choices.

Plath has taken her own experience, thinly disguised the characters, and turned it into a compelling book. Although this takes place in the 1950's, many of the social troubles are the same today. American culture stresses high achievement. Sexual relations tension is always around, with different double standards now than in the fifties. Family relationships have their ups and downs, and some families have more troubles than others. Any or all of these stressors can put one over the edge. Esther (and Plath) goes deep when she goes over.

I find it interesting that Esther calls Buddy a hypocrite when he admits to having had an affair that lasted over a summer. I wasn't born when this is supposed to have occurred, but thought it was accepted that men would "know" other women before they decided to settle down. It was an acknowledged double standard that at the same time, good girls were to remain virgins until their marriage. Losing her virginity was a major issue for Esther. Again, I'm guessing it's because of the attitudes of the times. From what I know of the era, it would have been shocking for a woman to have openly admitted to the sexual feelings and actions.

The illustration of the bell jar as the cover of her insanity is excellent. She talks about being covered by this jar, with no escape or change. When she finally felt it lifting, I could envision the release she was starting to feel. The Bell Jar never explains itself. It is the first person narrative of Esther's perceptions. It's a slice of her life. It's a vivid picture of the inside of a mind through insanity as well as the precursor and the healing. Whew!

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