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The Bell Jar Research Paper

1297 Words6 Pages

Liberation in The Bell Jar On the surface, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath is an autobiography loosely based on the life of Sylvia Plath herself and her struggle to find her own identity. Because Esther Greenwood's dreams are held back by gender roles in the 1950’s, she must learn to let go of these roles and grow as a person. Esther’s life and thoughts are extremely commonplace in her time period and continue even today, with many people telling women over and over that they can not find any glory in anything but femininity. It is with this notion that Esther and others like her wrestled with: "If a woman had a problem in the 1950's and 1960's, she knew that something must be wrong with her marriage or with herself.” This was coined "housewife's syndrome" by a Cleveland doctor who first noticed this trend. But for women like Esther- young, single, and educated- their problem is that society did not provide them any more career options than wife, mother, or secretary. Due to this fact, the Women's Liberation movement begins, but only after women like Esther become free. The road to …show more content…

The other women, like Mrs. Greenwood, pity these neurotic, unfeminine women, in whom Esther is included. Mrs. Greenwood does not understand Esther's condition. She knows Esther is not happy, but sees this unhappiness as her failure in caring for her child. Rather, her failure is not striving for and pushing her daughter towards complete independence. Yes, Mrs. Greenwood wants Esther to learn shorthand so she will be more marketable and able to support herself, but she will still be under the control and influence of men. Sadly, Mrs. Greenwood does not urge Esther to be her own boss or to become a boss; that is unheard of in Mrs. Greenwood's world. Unfortunately, feminine women dominate the world Esther is forced to survive

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