The Bell Jar is a poetic re-telling of Sylvia Plath’s life when she was 19 years old. Most of the events in The Bell Jar, if not all, are parallel to Plath’s real life experiences. So similar, in fact, that the book has been deemed an autobiography by some.

Sylvia Plath was born in Massachusetts to her mother, a high school teacher, and father, a German immigrant. However, when Sylvia was eight, her father passed away, leaving just her mother and herself. Sylvia was a bright young girl, accomplishing a lot in her earlier years. She published poetry, art, and stories in her youth. When she was nineteen years old she won a scholarship to Smith College. It was there where she suffered a mental breakdown. And thus, Esther Greenwood