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Depression In The Bell Jar

839 Words4 Pages

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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