Sylvia Plath? Have you heard of her? Well, Sylvia Plath is a well-known poet, novelist and author. Plath was born during the great depression influencing her writing style. At a very young age she lost her father and since then she began lose faith. She also became ambivalent about religion all throughout her life. Plath was a very smart student and was accepted into Smith College in America. During her stay in college she was accepted as an editor for a magazine, during she spent time in New York. Plath started to write the bell jar in which during this time she started to feel depressed. She tried electroconvulsive therapy but it did not work. She decided to commit suicide by overdosing herself but failed. Later on her life she then tries to commit suicide and then succeeded by inhaling gas from the gas oven and suffocated.
A lot of critics said that ‘The Bell Jar’ parallels Plath’s life and thus making them. The story a biographical fiction. The protagonist of the bell jar is Esther Greenwood. She’s a very fragile girl. However, she is indeed confused about everything around her. She tends to overthink a task or is either not contented with what she does. She is also emotionally unbalanced. Esther showed relevance to the author Sylvia Plath. Plath showed her traits through Esther. Somehow, as I inferred, Plath might have been keeping track her actions through Esther.
The Essay on Bell Hooks
bell hooks Bell hooks, a feminist theorist and activist, wrote Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center in 1984. In the third chapter of the book titled The Significance of Feminist Movement she tried to explain the main ideas of true feminism, as after the second feminist wave many of them were interpreted wrong. Unfortunately the feminists themselves became the reason for the misleading. As the ...
The Bell Jar was written during the great depression and was published on 1963. Therefore this gives the readers and idea that this took place in America during the great depression. Some parts in the story took place in New York. During the time Ester was in New York. The setting was a great influence on the story. During the 1960s, women started to become more liberal and they started to become more independent. Esther was crossed between being the old type of girl which Plath described as Betsy who was prude and innocent or the liberal woman, Doreen who was not afraid of change. New York is best known as the city that never sleeps and I think that New York was a fast moving city for Esther which made her emotionally unbalanced. ‘The Bell Jar’ is written in a first person’s perspective.
Plath might have used this point of view to show the readers what the protagonist of the story is feeling, seeing and viewing at that moment. The readers will have a better view of the protagonist’s point of view but not the others. The story has a lot of characters and they are described through the protagonist. These characters are described indirectly. This is because the story is in the first person’s perspective and it is Esther who is describing the characters and not the author directly. The way the author indirectly describes the characters were very impressive. Plath made it seem like that all characters were important. She linked the characters to the protagonist and this made it seem that these sub characters were a huge impact on Esther. The Bell Jar is a prose however it is written as if it were a poem.
The Bell Jar’s diction was very coherent and understandable. Plath’s lexical choice was very vivid. Example would be from chapter 1, in the beginning of the story “I feel very still and very empty, the way the eye of the tornado must fell, moving dully along in the middle of the surrounding.” By carefully choosing the words, the imagery of the context comes to life. It appeals to our five senses. Plath achieved this feeling in The Bell Jar. He choice of words were really something that made the story come to life. There were a lot of flashbacks all throughout the story. This shows how Esther thinks. She reminisces, remembers every single detail from her past. This also shows us that Esther can’t let go of the past easily and that she remembers every single detail. The flashbacks were shown as if they were part of Esther’s stream of consciousness. This means that whenever she thinks of something, she suddenly goes back to the past and starts remembering things.
The Essay on Isolation and Alienation in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar
In Sylvia Plath’s modern novel, The Bell Jar, the main character Esther isolates and alienates herself throughout the book because she mentally ill. Because her descent into a deep depression is slow and she leads a productive life when the reader first meets her, this descent seems rational to the reader in the beginning. Esther has an artsy soul. She is a writer and dreamer. When she does not ...
The theme of The Bell Jar would be societal pressure. Esther, all throughout the story, was pressured to succeed in everything she does. Despite the fact that she is still uncertain to which career she wants to pursue. She is constantly monitored by people around her, seeing to her every move. People around her are pressuring her to decide she wants to be. Another theme would be feminism. The author, Sylvia Plath, was a feminist. She believed that females should have equal rights. The story was a little bit biased to the female’s side. Plath talked about the females in a positive way and the men in a negative way. Examples would be when the Plath portrayed Mrs. Greenwood, Esther’s mother, to be a working mother who provided for both herself and Esther. Another example would be Jay Cee, who is Esther’s boss.
During those days, authors and poets would not use a woman to be the head of a small organization or company. Buddy Willard, Dr. Gordon, Lenny and Marco were all portrayed to have a negative relationship with Esther and they were also portrayed as negative characters overall. I think that Plath wanted to show the readers that women can be the same as men. The Bell Jar It was very reflective of Plath’s life and I think the story was indeed impressive however there were points wherein I got really confused. Usually it would be the parts wherein Plath would demonstrate a flashback out of nowhere. The story is classified as a biographical fiction. I inferred that the story was an insight on what is going on Plath’s head at the time. I also inferred that The Bell Jar is actually Plath’s diary and she wanted to show the world what actually happened to her.
