Distorted Ways Of Life In Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar

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Distorted Ways of Life “The air of the bell jar wadded round me and I could not stir” (Plath 186). Esther Greenwood the protagonist of the novel The Bell Jar explains her life and how she feels as if she lives underneath a bell jar. Esther also feels as if she can not control her own life not only because of the bell jar illusions, but also because she can not find herself. Sylvia Plath, the author of The Bell Jar, uses Esther, the protagonist as a catharsis to illustrate her desire for control through her use of symbols and women’s roles in the U.S. society.
Sylvia uses symbolism throughout her novel; the first symbol presented in the novel is “the bell jar” (Forbes). The bell jar represents madness and the struggle between a young woman