The Bell Jar Plath

In Sylvia Plath’s novel, The Bell Jar, she depicts a conflict of inner world and reality of the main character, Esther Greenwood. This conflict is represented by different ways, which all reflect the symbol ‘bell jar of madness’ in Esther Greenwood’s life. In order to illustrating and change of Esther’s mental world, Plath describes Esther’s life experience in New York City during her internship and after she comes back to Boston. Besides, within different life experiences, Plath also uses the relationship and connection of characters to demonstrate the change of Esther mental world. Other people’s opinions and expectation influence and affect Esther’s choice in both good way and bad way, and it also a cause of the conflict of her inner world

In the first chapter, Plath writes, “I guess I should have been excited the way most of the other girls were, but I couldn’t get myself to react. I felt very still and very empty, the way the eye of a tornado must feel, moving dully along in the middle of the surrounding hullabaloo.” (Plath 3) These sentences reflect Esther’s isolation in New York City and disharmony of society. She studies hard to get scholarship and has the chance to come to New York City, however, harder she tries to pursuit her ideal life more she finds she can’t fit in the society. In order to further emphasize Esther’s empty mental world, Plath brings another girl, Doreen, into Esther’s life, and creates a comparison of Doreen and Esther. Doreen is a very beautiful girl who is confident and never follows the social convention. In Esther’s mind, Doreen is an ideal model of living a life. She wants to have the freedom just like Doreen does. However, the relationship and connection with Doreen doesn’t let Esther feel more comfortable in the city, on the contrary, she feels herself is letting up and slowing down. Plath describes in her novel, “After nineteen years of running after good marks and prizes and grants of one sort and another, I was letting up, slowing down, dropping clean out of the race.” Her bell jar of madness become to emerge during the time she spends with Doreen and other girls in New York City, where she can’t find herself to match the reality and fit in the