The Bell Jar tells the story of Esther Greenwood, an A grade student, who gradually succumbs to depression. Plath details with astonishing frankness the terrifying treatments used and also the difficulties of being a woman in the 1960’s.
A Semi-autobiographical Novel From Plath
Sylvia Plath referred to many of her own experiences when writing this novel. She suffered from depression from her teens and would have undergone all the treatments described within the novel. Unfortunately, however, they were ultimately unsuccessful as she committed suicide shortly after the novel's publication.
By looking at the biographical book Letters Home: Correspondence 1950-1963, which is built up from her letters home to her mother, it is clear to see the parallels between reality and the novel.
It is also clear from the terse and graphic language that the novel echoes Plath’s own life. She opens one paragraph with: ‘That morning I had tried to hang myself.’(p166) It is unsentimental in its depiction of depression and has an almost matter-of-fact tone in its description of the consequent actions of those suffering from the illness.
Morbidity and Death Imagery in Plath's Novel
Within the very first line the themes of death and depression are made apparent: ‘It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs.’ Almost immediately we are faced with an image of death and also with one of the most intrusive treatments for depression at the time; electric shock treatment.
Throughout The Bell Jar, the morbid imagery continues. There are references to tombstones, funerals, cadavers and knives throughout the novel, even the scene of a birth is described as a torture table. Death haunts Esther. She sees it every where she looks, it is as though it is calling to her, beckoning her to its presence.
Loss of Identity in The Bell Jar
The central element of Esther’s depression is the sense that she is losing her identity. At the beginning of the novel she is a student who is constantly getting A’s and winning prizes. Gradually this part of her begins to slip away and she begins to fail. At one point she sacrifices her clothes to the wind: ‘Piece by piece, I fed my wardrobe to the night wind, and flutteringly, like a loved one’s ashes, the grey scraps were ferried off to settle here, there, exactly where I would never know, in the dark heart of New York.’ (P118) She is scattering herself. She is killing off the identity she had created for herself while in New York and she is leaving herself bare and naked with the vague hope of finding another, better fitting, identity to clothe herself in.
She questions who she wants to be and finds it difficult to imagine a future for herself. While on the brink of killing herself her heart asserts: ‘I am I am I am.’ (p166) It is as though it is mocking her. She does not want to be, she wants endless silence. She has lost who she is and hasn’t the energy to find a new sense of self.
At the beginning of the novel she has bought new clothes and wears make-up and is studious. As the depression sets in she neglects herself. She no longer washes, she doesn’t take her pyjamas off, she sees it all as pointless. She also feels she can no longer read or write and she cannot even sleep. She is stuck in a perpetual state of wakefulness where all she can think about is how she is no longer what she was.
Feminism
Sylvia Plath is seen as many as being an influential feminist writer. Within the novel Esther battles against her role as a woman and is often subjugated by the men around her. They constantly assert their authority and often leave her broken. Her father died while she was young and there is a sense of blame on him for her illness. Buddy Willard, who was once her boyfriend, constantly tries to undermine her and when he teaches her to ski she breaks her leg almost to prove a point. She is also almost raped and when she eventually loses her virginity she suffers a haemorrhage. These incidents are all symbolic of the patriarchal society in which Sylvia Plath lived.
The Bell Jar
The title of the novel refers to the over-riding sensation that dominates Esther’s depression. She describes the feeling at the beginning of the novel: ‘I felt very still and very empty, the way the eye of a tornado must feel, moving dully along in the surrounding hullabaloo.’ (p3). She is in a vacuum. She feels nothing. She is numb and is powerless to act. She is forced to stand idly and watch as life passes by in a blur of colour.
This feeling is illustrated when she sees dead babies pickled and floating in jars. In these bell jars life is suspended. Esther feels as though she were one of the babies. . She states later as the depression tightens its hold: ‘The air in the bell jar wadded round me and I couldn’t stir.’ (p195) She feels as though she is slowly being suffocated by life. She is locked within a casement of glass. She watches and listens to the muted sounds beyond, unable to connect with anyone and unable to hope that one day the jar may lift and she will be able to breathe again.
Text used: Sylvia Plath The Bell Jar. Faber and Faber, 1999. ISBN: 0-571-20033-8
Jade Weighell - My name is Jade Weighell and I have a BA in English and Drama and an MA in English Literature. I write book reviews and have been ...
