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An essay on the life of sylvia plath
Poetic style of sylvia plath
An essay on the life of sylvia plath
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Throughout the entirety of The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, a central idea is raised that proves to be an essential part of who Esther Greenwood’s character really is. She constantly speaks of how, in her day and age, they live in such a patriarchal society where women are seen as having little to no importance. This idea of being completely submissive to a man is something that severely bothers Esther, but there is no doubt that she does want someone to love her. That is especially prevalent in the subject of marriage and starting a family. During this time, you didn’t get married because you were in love with someone, you got married because it was what you were expected to do; you didn’t have a choice. A minor character who personifies the
idea of uneasiness that marriage brings to Esther is Marco. He is introduced to the readers in chapter 9 as someone that Lenny, who is Doreen’s boyfriend, knows through one of his friends. Esther and Marco have their first encounter with one another when Doreen sets the two up on a date to go to a country club dance. To say the least, the night did not end how Esther would have hoped.
There are characters in every story to help build a meaning to what is being told. Just because the story is build upon a major character, that doesn’t mean that minor characters aren’t as important. Three reasons that minor characters are important is that they help develop the plot in the story, they can influence how the major character might act, and having minor characters intrigues the audience.
Everyone has a secret life that they keep hidden from the rest of the world. Lies are told on a daily basis in order to keep these lives stashed in the dark. In The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, the bees are the ones that have the most secret life of all. They each have their own specific role to play deep within the hive. It's obvious that the author had meant for some of her characters to portray the roles that these buzzing insects have to dutifully fulfill every duty. Lily and Zach are the field bees, August is a nurse bee, and the Lady of Chains is the Queen bee.
---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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.
Exploitation of Women Exposed in The Bell Jar and Enormous Changes at the Last Minute
The character I chose to analyze is Bonnie Grape from What's Eating Gilbert Grape, an American drama film directed by Lasse Hallström. Bonnie Grape is a Caucasian woman who is, approximately, in her mid 50’s and lives in a small town of Endora, Iowa with her four children, and has lost her husband seven years ago. Bonnie who is suppose to be the immediate care taker of all of her kids is shown to have abandoned all of her parental duties after her husbands passing and she hasn’t left the house for seven years. She has become completely housebound she sleeps, eats, and stays on the couch all day. Her day starts out with eating breakfast with the family, and then she watches TV all day. Even though she loves her children a lot, but she does not take any part in raising them. She also has become an object of ridicule or amusement many times children sneak on to the yard to catch a glimpse of her through the window. However, Bonnie sees no problem with her weight or her lifestyle, until one day when she has to make a trip to the town for her son. When Bonnie is leaving the town a crowd comes together around the police station to get a glimpse of Bonnie, and many also begin taking pictures of her. At this point, Bonnie realizes that she has become something that she never intended to be. In one particular scene Bonnie tells her oldest son Gilbert “I know what a burden I am. I know that you are ashamed of me. I never meant to be like this. I never wanted to be a joke” (Hallström, 1993). From Bonnie’s background information we can conclude that she is clearly facing some psychological problems, and in order to gain more information we would have to conduct more assessments.
In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, there is an abundance of minor characters. Three of these characters, Dill, Alexandra, and Calpurnia are especially significant because of the influence they had on Scout.
...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.
Minor characters are often more important than they initially seem, and can be just as engaging and complicated as major characters. Furthermore, protagonists are isolated without the people that surround and influence them subliminally. This applies to the intriguing minor characters one has the privilege of discovering in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Specifically, Lee uses minor characters to effectively disprove stereotypes and establishing setting. Not only do they influence the direction of the plot, but also Scout and her development as a character. Lee carefully selects minor characters to send important messages and reinforce themes by using characters as symbols. Fundamentally, the minor characters in “To Kill a Mockingbird” are crucial in making Harper Lee’s novel beautiful, moving, and believable enough to touch every reader.
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.
Bernard, Lauren. "TAKING ON A MOURNING HER MOTHER NEVER BOTHERED WITH: ESTHER’S ANGUISHED MEMORY AND HER RESISTANCE TO A DOMESTIC LIFE IN SYLVIA PLATH’S THE BELL JAR." Ed. Steven Axelrod.Department of English University of California, Riverside, 2009. Web. 5 Dec. 2013.
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.
Like most young adults, Esther, a nineteen-year old college student, also struggles with choosing her career after college due to the suppressed social conditions for women and her lack of confidence about herself. In the chapter seven, she adds up things she is not good at. Plath employs symbolism to demonstrate what Esther is not confident about. She cannot cook unlike her grandmother and mother. As cooking represents domestic work and women were supposed to do housework especially at this time, she expresses her uncertainty about being a good wife and mother. Also, she does not know shorthand, which signifies a practical job. Esther mentions that her mother has kept telling her that she needs to learn shorthand to get a job despite having a bachelor’s degree in English as women had difficulty in succeeding as professionals in their careers during the time. As a widow raising two children, her mother has to deal with family finances. Therefore, her mother emphasizes a practical standpoint in terms of ca...
One is often enticed to read a novel because of the way in which the characters are viewed and the way in which characters view their surroundings. In the novel The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, Esther Greenwood is a character whose "heightened and highly emotional response to events, actions and sentiments" (Assignment sheet) intrigue the reader. One of her character traits is extreme paranoia that is shown in different situations throughout the novel. As a result of this, she allows herself to be easily let down, as she believes that all events that are unsatisfactory are directed towards her. Finally, it is clear that she attempts to escape this notion by imagining an idyllic yet impossible life that she envisions in remote circumstances. It is clear that Plath's creation is a Novel of Sensibility as her writing not only possesses all of the qualities associated with this genre, it also effectively takes the reader into the story with the protagonist.
...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.