The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

THE BELL JAR

by SYLVIA PLATH

The classic novel written by the Sylvia is an autobiographical one that takes its course through the critical phase of the author’s life. The story entirely written in first person makes us read through the mind of the Protagonist and the narrator, Esther Greenwood. It's as if we are viewing the world through her own eyes, hearing all of her thoughts and feeling her every single thrill of fear, disgust, delight, and shock. The novel goes through transition phase of Esther from a naive adolescent to an experienced woman encountering terrible experiences of her life. Concerned almost entirely with the education and maturation of Esther Greenwood, Plath's novel uses a chronological structure to keep Esther at the centre of all action. Other characters are subordinate to Esther and her developing consciousness and are shown only through their effects on her as central character. The principle elements of youth- growing up, struggle for name, alienation, ordeal of love and gradual self-discovery have been reflected through the novel.
The book portrays a women's entry into the throes of depression. Esther's character contains unusual strength to challenge the society. She is a woman lost in between several stereotypes she tries to make her own. Esther is attractive, talented and lucky, but uncertainty plagues her. She has a very unconventional way of dealing with reality. She has got numerous awards her poetry and a scholarship at a prestigious women’s college. She gets a month long job in a fashion magazine in New York. She has got everything to be called a perfect life except her depressed soul. Her surrounding expects her to be cheerful but her dull, melancholy nature doesn’t allow her to be happy. A great deal of the novel concerns the expectations that others have for Esther with regards to behaviour and her future, as well as the expectations that Esther has for other. This is most explicit in the societal expectations that Esther feels concerning decisions about a possible career and family. Esther feels that she is pressured to succeed in whatever career she chooses, despite the fact that she cannot yet even decide on which career path she will pursue. In addition, Esther also feels pressured concerning proper codes of behaviour, particularly with regard to sexuality. She is constantly monitored by others, including her mother, who gives her a pamphlet on female sexuality, and even her neighbours.
The idea of sexual equality in the society is also brought to light. Women are supposed to remain virgin and pure but their male counterparts are free to involve in any pre-marital relationship. As Esther presents the issue, the men hold all the interesting jobs, and the women have no choice but to stay at home and cook, clean and have children. They are supposed to provide emotional warmth and security while the men fulfil their ambitions in the world. Esther cannot bear the thought of such a life, which she would have if she married the conventional Buddy Willard. She would have no better prospects if she married the interpreter or any other man of her acquaintance. As she puts it, "This seemed a dreary and wasted life for a girl with fifteen years of straight A's." Buddy, who has no patience with the fact that Esther wants to write poetry, tells her that after she is married with children she won't want to write poems any more. This prompts Esther to think, "May be it was true that when you were married and had children it was like being brainwashed, and afterward you went about numb as a slave in some private, totalitarian state."
The problem is compounded for Esther by the fact that many women have accepted the rules that men have made for them, so she is left with no role models on which to base her life. The suicide attempt is the climax. It is through her attempt at suicide that Plath shows the reader Esther's inability to cope with reality and her inability to mesh with the traditions of her time. Eventually as Esther improves, the hospital officials grant her permission to leave the hospital from time to time. During one such excursion, she loses her virginity to a Harvard university professor named Irwin. Though she bleeds profusely after it yet she feels relieved to relinquish her virginity and its attendant worries; she describes her virginity as “a millstone around my neck.” Esther’s mental health seems greatly improved. Esther can now empathize with others, and think of something other than her own pain. She also demonstrates the maturity and strength that are the rewards of surviving such a harrowing experience. When Buddy visits, his selfish, thoughtless immaturity contrasts with her cool strength. Like someone much older, Esther assures Buddy that she is fine, and generously soothes his fears that he causes women to go mad.
The style of the novel is relatively informal and reads much like Esther is conversing with you personally, however, beneath the informal dialect lies powerful imagery and symbolism. The chief symbol throughout the novel is the bell jar itself. Esther identifies this when she states that “her illness as a gigantic bell jar that descends upon her, imprisoning her, suffocating her, isolating her from others, and distorting her view of the world.” She feels her life restricted to a bell jar while undergoing treatment and her recovery as her freedom but she is aware that the bell jar can descend at any time on her life.
Through the use of simple speech, and the slang of the times, Sylvia Plath was able to pull the reader into Esther’s life. Certain aspects of the style are skilfully and subtly used, in order to reflect the changes in Esther’s mental and emotional conditions. Early in the novel, the sentences and paragraphs are of average length and flow logically. As the novel continues and Esther's condition deteriorates, they shorten. As Esther moves toward recover, the style does shift back, and the novel is again written with longer sentences and paragraphs that are logically connected.
Plath also employs the technique of defamiliarization in the novel. When Buddy Willard suggests that they play a round of the traditional children's game--I'll show you mine if you show me yours--she looks at his naked maleness and reacts this way: "The only thing I could think of was a turkey neck and turkey gizzards and I felt very depressed." The repeated description of fig tree brings to light the symbolism behind it. Early in the novel, Esther reads a story about a Jewish man and a nun who meet under a fig tree. Their relationship is doomed, just as she feels her relationship with Buddy is doomed. Later, the tree becomes a symbol of the life choices that face Esther. She imagines that each fig represents a different life. She can only choose one fig, but because she wants all of them, she sits paralyzed with indecision, and the figs rot and fall to the ground.
What makes the novel so moving—and often so marvellously funny—is that the protagonist is just as innocent as she is frighteningly perceptive.
Review by
Basant Kumar Bhuyan2009ph10710