Throughout Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, Esther Greenwood’s unsuccessful suicide attempts stem from her evolving relationship with Buddy Willard. Esther’s way of expressing herself is through passing away, in which her constant desire to die roots itself in her multiple suicide attempts. However, she does not follow through with committing suicide which demonstrates her reluctance to end her life. Since Buddy holds much significance over the way she thinks and makes her decisions, his hypocritical comments cause her to re-evaluate her attitude towards him. Esther’s changing notion of Buddy provokes her to further explore her feelings for him, where if she killed herself, she would have no longer been able to look into her true feelings for him. …show more content…
I thought he was the most wonderful boy I'd ever seen” (Plath 52). Esther’s contradicting descriptions of Buddy illustrate the insecurity that derives from her mental illness. Plath’s juxtaposition of the two words “hypocrite” and “wonderful” convey a challenging characterization of Buddy, which reflects on Esther’s mental illness. Due to the fact that the novel is written through first person, Esther’s feelings are unfiltered and unbiased which conveys a sense of the honest perception of Buddy. Esther’s troubling ability to make a solid decision on what to feel emulates itself in Esther’s failure to commit suicide. This inadequacy Esther has within herself contributes to her suicidal thoughts, however she is unable to fulfill them. “My trouble was I took everything Buddy Willard said as the honest to-God truth”(Plath 57). Esther goes on to say, “(I knew buddy was a hypocrite, pg number?).” Esther acknowledges that she is a hypocrite alongside Buddy by specifying explaining that even though she “knew”, she still believed everything he said. In Esther’s second accusation of Buddy being a hypocrite, Plath’s use of the term “knew” gives Esther some sort of security and confirmation in what she is saying. Since Esther is mentally ill, her statement are not always reliable, therefore she ensures that he really is a hypocrite by using “knew”. In addition to Esther’s restriction from expressing her true feelings towards Buddy, she is unable to follow through with her suicide attempts, which is a way of expressing
The Punishment Given to Esther Price I think that as soon as you read the information that is above the source which explains who written about it. The writer, John Doherty, was an active trade unionist which would mean making the mills sound bad was in his advantage. This clearly gives you the impression before you even read it that it's going to be biased against the Greg's and their punishment of Esther Price. In the first sentence it mentions that the mill had apprentices but in this account it is "apprenticed".
---------------------------------------------------------------------- This essay will compare the ways in which the novels "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath and "Quicksand" by Nella Larsen deal with relationships, paying particular attention to how this aids the characterisation of Esther Greenwood and Helga Crane, the central characters respectively. It will explore their relationships with other characters in the novel, especially how the authors use relationships to fulfil their writing aims. It will also discuss the relationship between the protagonist and the reader, and how successfully this is achieved through the novel's language. Finally, it will attempt to compare the ways in which they relate to the world around them, which is particularly fascinating as although both novels could pass as fiction, they are largely autobiographical, raising the question of why the author's chose to tell their own life stories in this relatively detached way.
Plath uses metaphors to describe the protagonists entrapment, suffocation and torture. Bill Gibson (2000) clearly defines the purpose of the metaphorical bell jar, stating that the “bell jar is a entrapment, and a way of placing one on a display of sorts, behind a glass”. Hence, Plath uses the bell jar to describe how she feels- an object, to be stared and looked upon. - mom low ideas of mental illness- So plath uses the imagery of the bell jar to convey the suffocation and isolation that is felt by all women. Also, the unlimited expectations that society creates for women and esther’s failure to achieve the expectations leads to her sorrow and disillusionment. Hence, esther
Sylvia Plath wrote the semi autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, in which the main character, Esther, struggles with depression as she attempts to make herself known as a writer in the 1950’s. She is getting the opportunity to apprentice under a well-known fashion magazine editor, but still cannot find true happiness. She crumbles under her depression due to feeling that she doesn’t fit in, and eventually ends up being put into a mental hospital undergoing electroshock therapy. Still, she describes the depth of her depression as “Wherever I sat - on the deck of a ship or at a street a cafe in Paris or Bangkok - I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air” (Plath 178). The pressure to assimilate to society’s standards from her mother, friends, and romantic interests, almost pushes her over the edge and causes her to attempt suicide multiple times throughout her life. Buddy Willard, Esther’s boyfriend at a time, asks her to marry him repeatedly in which she declines. Her mother tries to get her to marry and makes her go to therapy eventually, which leads to the mental hospital. Esther resents the way of settling down and making a family, as well as going out and partying all night. She just wants to work to become a journalist or publisher. Though, part of her longs for these other lives that she imagines livings, if she were a different person or if different things happened in her life. That’s how Elly Higgenbottom came about. Elly is Esther when Esther doesn’t want to be herself to new people. Esther’s story portrays the role of women in society in the 1950’s through Esther’s family and friends pushing her to conform to the gender roles of the time.
In the end of the novel, Esther at last, comes to terms with reality. She has got to stop living her life according to what others expect of her. She needs to start living her life for “her”. After Joan commits suicide, Esther believes that unless she turns her life around, she will also commit suicide. Esther saw so much of herself in Joan, that when Joan ended her life she was frightened that she would follow in her footsteps, due to the fact that she had throughout the entire novel. Once Joan was gone, Esther was truly free. The part of Joan that was reflected in Esther vanished. The “bell jar” that had been suffocating her was finally lifted.
Sylvia Plath’s novel, “The Bell Jar”, tells a story of a young woman’s descent into mental illness. Esther Greenwood, a 19 year old girl, struggles to find meaning within her life as she sees a distorted version of the world. In Plath’s novel, different elements and themes of symbolism are used to explain the mental downfall of the book’s main character and narrator such as cutting her off from others, forcing her to delve further into her own mind, and casting an air of negativity around her. Plath uses images of rotting fig trees and veils of mist to convey the desperation she feels when confronted with issues of her future. Esther Greenwood feels that she is trapped under a bell jar, which distorts her view of the world around her.
The mood of the story, The Bell Jar is very gloomy and depressing. Throughout the book, the main character Esther struggles with her mental stability. She can't quite get a grip on what her role is as a woman in society during the late 40’s and early 50’s. She struggles with the fact that she is most likely going to end up as a stay at home mom or house wife. She doesn’t like this idea. During the beginning of the book Esther is doing an internship over the summer for a magazine in New York. She stays at a hotel while she is there. The book takes the reader through the slow process of spiralling depression as Esther gets more and more unstable. The book shadows Plath’s own descent into depression but gives an inside look into her thought process. A month after the book was published, Plath committed suicide. She said the book was semi-autobiographical and that the people and events in the story happened but she changed the names. Its obvious while reading the book that Esther is already very unstable to begin with.
One’s identity is the most important lesson to be learned. It is vital part of life knowing who you are in order to live a fulfilled life. Without knowing your identity, and the way you perceive life, it is difficult for others to understand you, along with a struggle to live a happy life. In Sylvia Plath’s “The Bell Jar,” Esther Greenwood struggles to find her own identity, and in the process, she develops a mental illness which helps her discover the person she is on the inside.
On the surface The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath is a loosely based autobiographical account of a young woman's search for identity that is eventually found through mental breakdown. Because Esther Greenwood's aspirations are smothered by traditional female roles, she must find herself through purging her mind of these restraints.
The book of Esther tells the faithfulness of one woman and her uncle. It is only one of two books that contain the heroism and bravery of a woman heroine. The story of Esther accomplishes two profound things, the first: “To demonstrate God’s providential care of his people, even those outside the land of Israel, and 2) to commend the observance of the feast of Purim by relating how it originated” (Breneman 289).Unlike the rest of the Bible the story of Esther does not directly state or talk about God, but instead shows God’s plans for all of our lives and how in all frightening moments of life, He remains faithful to those who trust and have faith in Him. “In spite of the omission of any name for deity, there is no other book in all the bible where God is more evident, working behind the scenes, than in this book” (Willmington 200). In order to understand who Esther was as a woman and her significance in the history of the Jews, we must first examine the circumstances and other individuals that impacted the events leading up to and after Esther became queen.
The book of Esther tells of a courageous young woman who uses her mind to please God. She becomes the wife of a great king and allows for protection of her own people, the Jews. Esther is a great role model for women of modern day times because of her strength, nobility, and honesty. She portrays a woman with power that most women of that day did not have. The story of Esther has empowered women of all backgrounds and will continue to do so well into the future.
After finding out that she didn’t get into a summer creative writing course everything goes downhill for her and her suicidal depression comes out. She is forced to go to a Dr. Gordon and he proposes that she does shock therapy. But he botches the electroshock therapy and causes her depression to worsen. After Esther tries to take her life with sleeping pills she is taken to a psychiatric institution, she has a new doctor, Dr. Nolan. While at the institution, Esther goes through a electroshock and insulin therapy sessions and it is successful this tume. Also while at the institution she meets an old ex of her ex, Joan. They slowly make an acquaintance with each other. Later on, while Esther is getting better Joan takes her own life. The Bell Jar ends roughly a year later, with Esther going into her exit interview to see if she is ready to leave the
Life is full of endless amounts of beautiful encounters for every character in the novel The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, except for Esther. She suffers from a severe and complex mental illness that impacts her life greatly. Although it is clear that Esther suffers strongly from depression in the novel, Sylvia Plath chooses to tell her life abstractly through countless symbols and ironies to prove that Esther depression completely consumes her. Everything that Esther sees is through a lens of depression, which scews her outlook on life.
Esther’s psychological transformation from a perfectly healthy person ends up suffering from depression. Her influences around her have negatively shown Esther a negative path to take. The events during the 1950s such as the Rosenbergs executions have only made the transformation even powerful. Sylvia Plath’s life could be compared to the Bell Jar because she was in the same situation as Esther. Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis and psycho dynamic has addressed depression through the main character Esther.
One of the main reasons why Esther tried to commit suicide was the way she perceived her mother's actions, and the fact that she hates her mother: