New York in the 1950’s is bustling with people. Everyday there’s an event to attend, new places to see, and parties to follow. On the outside, it’s a lively atmosphere everyone would love, but even New York has its secrets. The Rosenbergs have just been electrocuted and their story is quickly circling the city. When the news reaches a girl named Esther, her outlook on life begins to change. At first it’s a slight change, but throughout the book it spirals into the immense problem depresion. In The Bell Jar, electrocution represents Esther’s three stages of depression: pain, death, and treatment. Esther’s first stage of depression is in the form of pain, shown by her incident with the lamp. Esther remembers an occurrence when she was younger where she was trying to move a lamp and instead it severely shocked her. Whenever she tries to move something or change an aspect in her life, it just ends up causing her more pain than before. She describes her pain and says, “I screamed… I didn’t recognize it, but heard it soar and quaver in the air like a violently disembodied spirit” (144). Her scream is like her inner struggle with herself. She doesn’t know where its coming from and it doesn’t seem like it’s her pain, but it’s there and it’s slowly tearing her apart. Although some parts of her pain are in her head, she has …show more content…
physically pain to accompany that. When she’s being shocked, she “tried to pull her hands off, but they were stuck” (144). This results in her hand being burned and leaving a mark on them. This pain can represent her feelings of being stuck and not being able to move or change her ways in her environment and life. Esther’s encounter with the lamp reveals her inner thoughts and physical pain in the world. The electrocution of the Rosenbergs are the first use of electrocution in this novel. They were condemned to execution by electric chair. Their death caused an uproar from the people since the process used seemed to be horrific and evil. This shocking event in society paves the way for Esther's emotional state. As the book goes on, her pain develops into a need and want for death. She begins to realize her change when she says, “I knew something was wrong with me that summer, because all I could think about was the Rosenbergs” (2). Their death is just the beginning of a series of events that shapes Esther's somber mood. The electrocution of the Rosenbergs represents the shocking views of society and Esther's initial outlook on death. The use of electrocution appears again but in the form of treatment this time.
It’s ironic how one shock is meant to kill and the other is meant to cure. The doctors decision to electrocute Esther in order to help her mental state is both disturbing and unsettling. Esther’s discomfort is shown when the nurse says “don’t worry” and grins down at her. In response, Esther tries “to smile, but [her] skin had gone stiff, like parchment” (143). Although her views on death have changed, her original fear of death is shown again during this treatment. Slowly Esther begins to heal as she is treated. This treatment is the final stage in Esther’s
depression. The use of electrocution in the novel The Bell Jar represents Esther’s three stages of depression through pain, death and treatment. Throughout the book Esther develops a new outlook on life and slowly sinks into a self depression. From the very beginning of the book she is seen thinking about the Rosenberg’s execution via electric chair, and the dismal mood carries on throughout the entirety of the book. Her pain drags her through her everyday routine to the point where she tries to commit suicide. The use of electrocution as a symbol shows how simple acts can impact a person, shaping them into one of fear and suffering. Although Esther did experience the stages of pain and almost death, she was ultimately treated and helped through her process. This treatment indicates that no matter a person's suffering, there can always be hope for a better ending.
The listing plath uses builds detail but also creates a long rambling effect, the repetition of the connective “and” emphasises the endless opportunities that are available to Esther. While many women would dive at the opportunities that are available, esther’s response to the dilemma of choosing is negative. She feels burdened with the dilemma and feels “dreadfully inadequate” therefore due to esther’s negative perception of self makes esther belief that she is unqualified to make a decision. But why does esther feel this way? What is the cause of the hesitation? - is it because of her mental illness?
...which were dead in mothers’ belly, were placed in the bottle. To Esther, this image always linked to abnormal growth, suffocation and death: “The air of the bell jar wadded round me and I couldn’t sir” (p.178). The latter part in the novel, Esther experienced a serious of symbolic events, and she began all over again and was ready to new life. However, what waited for her was still the contradiction that the society put on women, and the value of women could not be totally reflected as before. It could be predicted that in such society-value was distorted like the bell jar, Esther would be probable to fall into the “crisis of roles” and lost the courage for living again. The novel did not describe Esther’s “new born”, anyhow, the “new born” of the author-Sylvia Plath did not last for a long time.
and denies it an outlet, Esther conjures a great love for years that dissolves in
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.
Esther is cared for by two other woman, inferring she is a person of goodwill and people care for her. Ahsauerus is viewed as a man who is wrong, and immoral based on his clothing, posture, and facial expression. The relationship between the two leaves the viewer sympathizing for Esther as she is seen in a fragile state. Gentileschi is able to capture the agony of Esther by using different techniques and elements of art and constructs a painting that shows a
While in pursuit of a career in writing or poetry in New York City, she is diagnosed with severe, manic depression, which marks the beginning of the descent of the bell jar. After her internship ends, she attempts to commit suicide multiple times. The bell jar already begins to control her, symbolizing a tyrant in her mind. She feels horrified of what she is slowly turning ...
At the end of the novel, Esther finally see’s a light at the end of the tunnel. She finally realizes that there is hope for her to become healthy again. Once Esther realizes that she will not always feel as bad as she does, she also comes to the conclusion that all the negativity and questioning in her life have made her into the person she has become. Esther finally realizes what her true identity is and she is okay with who she has become.
...eginning to end. For a king such as Xerxes that could have all he desired and saw himself as a god, to love and want to give half of his kingdom to this woman of no noble birth could only be done through God’s power. For it was for such a time as this that Esther was called upon, and she executed all that God wanted for her.
In this chapter, Esther talks about the bell jar. She says that the sour air from her life is trapped in a bell jar. The sour air is all of the bad things that have happened, all of the things that have ever hurt her. She says that she breathes the sour air that is trapped in the jar, which causes problems in her life. I believe that she means she cannot get away from the sour things because she is constantly near them. You cannot escape air, and Esther cannot escape the sour parts of
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.
... scolded me, but kept begging me, with a sorrowful face to tell her what she had done was wrong” (226).The reason Esther is in this situation is because of her mom. Esther depression has reached its climax. The result of an unhappy relationship according to Freud has impacted 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:
...es these primitive standards, she becomes melancholy because she does not attune into the gender roles of women, which particularly focus on marriage, maternity, and domesticity. Like other nineteen year old women, Esther has many goals and ambitions in her life. Nevertheless, Esther is disparaged by society’s blunt roles created for women. Although she experiences a tremendous psychological journey, she is able to liberate herself from society’s suffocating constraints. Esther is an excellent inspiration for women who are also currently battling with society’s degrading stereotypes. She is a persistent woman who perseveres to accomplish more than being a stay at home mother. Thus, Esther is a voice for women who are trying to abolish the airless conformism that is prevalent in 1950’s society.
On the eve of her freedom from the asylum, Esther laments, “I had hoped, at my departure, I would feel sure and knowledgeable about everything that lay ahead- after all, I had been ‘analyzed.’ Instead, all I could see were question marks” (243). The novel is left open-ended, with a slightly optimistic tone but no details to help the reader fully understand the final step of her healing process. Esther desired to be free of social conventions and double standards, but consistently imposed them upon herself and on the people around her. Her evolution in understanding never reaches a satisfying conclusion, and the reader is also left with nothing but question marks.