Analysis Of Societal Pressure In Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar

In The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, societal pressures cause conflict, leading to a choice between one's wishes and the expectations of society in which being incapable to choose causes insanity and mental illness. Throughout history, the manners in which humans act pertains to the ideals at a certain time period, specifically in the novel women in the 1950s were expected to be pure, subordinate, dainty and childbearing. Societal pressure leads people to either one of three paths: conformity, rebellion or indecision, each having pros and cons.

In the Bell Jar, Plath demonstrates how societal pressure has the power to brainwash those who conform to the pressure. Dodo Conway is the epitome of the 1950s woman. She lives an exclusive, affluent

life. Dodo is a woman that “everybody loved,” and was the “talk of the neighborhood,” exactly the societal standard. In addition Dodo’s home is seen as “bigger,” “suburban” and private, indicating a high social status with a respectable amount of seclusion from society. In addition to having a spacious home, Conway also has “six children,” and is likely to bear yet another child to continue the legacy. Furthermore to enhance the idea of societal control, women are receive a narcotic after childbirth in order to forget the “windowless corridor of pain,” which has “brainwashed” women into delivering more children. Esther feels that the women are tricked into enduring more excruciating pain in the name of fitting in. Plath makes a statement about her opinion toward indoctrinated people by naming a pious follower of societal expectations, Dodo. A“Dodo” is defined as someone without “common sense” (urban dictionary) and also as a person with “old-fashioned” ideas. Thus illustrating Dodo as a person brainwashed by society ideals. The people who yield to society forfeit their innate freedom of expression.
Another path that people are able to take is the path of rebellion, which enables them to keep their own views versus succumbing to expectations. The nameless middle-age prostitute in which Eric sleep with is one of these people. Society tells women to save their virginity for marriage whereas, men are free to dabble in passionate romantic acts, particularly sexual actions. According to ideals, the “best men,” stayed pure for their wives however this was not a requirement and if in fact the men had already lost their purity, at least they would be capable of teaching their spouses. The way in which society is structured encourages infidelity because men don’t see their wives as suitable for intercourse. The nameless woman is regarded as a “whore,” is severely judged and and becomes an outcast. She is referred to as “fat,” with “rat-colored skin, degrading her and making her seem distant from the glamorous expected life of women in high society. However even though she is exiled from society she is able to be herself and do as she pleases.
The third path in which Esther chooses is the path of indecision, she is unable to choose between appeasing herself or society causing a downward spiral.

Esther is at conflict with herself and she uses the fig tree of a symbol of the many paths she can take and it was as a “wonderful future beckoned and winked” from each path. The dilemma is that Esther can’t decide to choose a path and then the figs went “black…and…plopped to the ground at [her] feet.” She wants “two mutually exclusive things,” and refuses to pick one because she would rather “fly back and forth.” Since Esther is incapable of making a choice she loses all her options which leads her to develop depression. It starts out with Esther realizing that she more of a free-spirit “Pollyanna Cowgirl” like Betsy. From there Esther stopped being able to focus, it was as if her “mind glided off” (147). Esther starts not being able to write her letter are loopy and seem as if they were “blown askew.” Esther wonders what is wrong with herself, the psychiatrist Dr. Gordon only seems to make her wonder “what terrible thing” she had done. Eventually matters escalate to the point that Esther is trying to come up with ways to kill herself. Finally she realizes that her trouble lies not in physically state but in a mental state “deeper…and…harder to

get.”