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Depression In The Bell Jar

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The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath is published as a novel, but many consider it a semi-autobiography due to the similar events Plath has gone through, conveyed through the character Esther Greenwood. Esther remarks “How could I write about life when... [I have no life experience]” (Plath 121). This book is a testament to the life experience Plath lacked but finally achieved through her young adult life as she struggled with finding herself and her battle with depression. For many, this piece of literature stands as a book of femininity and offers a look into depression, something that was uncommon in the the 1960s (the time frame of original publishing). These two overwhelming themes, femininity and depression, travel with Esther as she moves back …show more content…

It first comes to light when she receives a letter denying her entry into a summer program at Cambridge University. Along with this refusal and her indecisiveness on what she wants to do with her future, her depression slowly creeps over her and encases her until she “‘...can’t sleep... can’t read...’” and could not write anymore (Plath 126). Esther’s depression eventually led her to try to take her own life on multiple occasions. These unfortunate situations eventually lead her to a mental institution, where she would receive help, this help consisted of medication and shock treatment therapy. Shock therapy in the 1950s was inhumane; the patient would be fully conscious and would feel the electricity jolting through their head: “‘...with each flash a great jolt drubbed me till I thought my bones would break’” (Plath 143). This traumatizing experience will later cause her to be suspicious of future doctors, for the fear of receiving shock therapy again, and allow her condition to worsen. Shock therapy is still in use today but is reserved for only the worse cases of depression. “The practice of it has changed where the patients are now unconscious when receiving therapy” (NAMI). Even though, she had an awful first experience, she would resume the treatment again with another doctor. Shock therapy would eventually lead to her improvement, which would eventually to her release at the mental

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1. Introduction Published in 1963 under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas, The Bell Jar has aroused the interest of scholars all over the world. One of the most often discussed characteristics of The Bell Jar is its use of similes, metaphors, and symbols. Throughout The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath employs rhetorical devices to paint a vivid picture of its protagonist Esther. This essay will discuss how Sylvia Plath uses figurative language to represent Esther’s feelings of insanity, anxiety, and freedom.

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Esther lived a complicated life where she had no support from those close to her, such less support slowly causes her mental illness to escalate. She received little attention and support from her mother, who just wanted her to learn shorthand and live a life like any other girl her age. Esther wanted to be more than just an ordinary woman. By the end, Esther obtains support from other people she met throughout the novel and this helped her get out of the depression. Sylvia Plath’s novel, The Bell Jar, describes characters who influence Esther’s depression which suggests that depression is avoidable if the person suffering from depression has the support and attention necessary from the ones close to them.

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I really liked Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. Plath did an outstanding job making the main character seem like a real person with real struggles that I feel many people could, in some way, identify with. Sure, I’m not a young woman trying to make it in New York, but I can relate quite a bit to Esther. I can relate to the fact that she got a important internship and moving away from home, because, though to a lesser extent, I moved to college here because I got my scholarship. I can relate to how Esther feels like she is not truly like anyone else, but somewhere in the middle.

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In “The Bell Jar”, Esther Greenwood realized that Buddy Willard, the man she has been dating for several years, is an arrogant man. As Esther explains to Buddy her desire to be a writer, he simply dismisses her: “I also remembered Buddy Willard saying in a sinister, knowing way that after I had children I would feel differently. I wouldn’t want to write poems anymore” (Plath 85). His point was that women had no need for careers, it was their duty to be married and bear children.

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Doreen, one of the other women whom Esther worked with in New York showed similarities with Esther in terms of her ability to see through the hypocrisies of society, however she approached these matters in a very different way. Instead of contradicting social norms and conventions by pursuing knowledge and success like Esther, Doreen manages to always see the lighter side of their situation and strives to enjoy herself as much as possible. She also had a very relaxed attitude towards sex, which made her a sort ‘poster girl’ for the early days of the sexual revolution. The effects of the sexual revolution in the 1950’s on girls are clearly visible in Doreen and Esther.

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