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The Bell Jar Essay

448 Words2 Pages

I finished The Bell Jar this morning and I found it to be a good though uncomfortable text to read. I loved Esther and how Plath developed her as a witty yet venerable girl who resisted the idea that she had to conform to convention. I felt Plath showed an earnest portrait of a young woman, struggling with growing in a repressive society and realizing how this affected her and her ambitions. I appreciated the humor in which Plath delivered difficult subject matter and how she used Esther to transport us through a journey of an individual with mental illness. I think the text criticizes the restrictions society placed on, and the attitudes of men towards women both as mates and having a submissive place society, during this time in American history. Plath explores these issues in the first part of the text with Esther as a medium. In the second part of the text, we see …show more content…

Plath’s portrayal of Esther, and her abstract and delusional thoughts showed in the hospital and later the mental ward at the city hospital and first part of her stay at the private mental institution. However, she began to get better. I think this was a central idea I picked up on in the second half of the text. Not just Esther’s journey back to relative sanity, but also the importance of proper medical treatment for Esther’s mental disorder being key to her recovery. The imagery of Esther at the city hospital mental ward reminded me of a movie I saw called ‘The Snake Pit”. The film showed a woman who had a mental illness and was sent to a state mental hospital where patients were merely housed, not treated. The text ends with the idea that mental illness can be successful addresses and in Esther’s case but not always as with Joan’s suicide. Plath makes it clear that mental illness is far more debilitating to an individual and that may just be waiting to

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