The Bell Jar

From ArticleWorld

The Bell Jar was written by Sylvia Plath in 1963. The novel was first written under the pseudonym of Victoria Luca. The story was a semi-autobiographical account of Plath’s bout with bipolar disorder. Sylvia Plath married English poet Ted Hughes and had two children by him, Farrar Hughes and Frieda Rebecca Hughes, who are now well-known artist and poet.

Synopsis

• The main character, Esther Greenwood, wins a scholarship in New York to work at a respected magazine at the time of the Rosenberg’s execution.[Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed in 1953, after having been found guilty of divulging U.S. Military secrets to the Soviets.]
• Esther friends are Doreen, is hedonistic, and Betty is a goody-two-shoes sorority girl. Greenwood also meets Philomena Guinea who eventually becomes her patron.
• Esther finds life difficult in New York and by the time she returns home to Boston she grows progressively more depressed. She sees a psychiatrist and receives electro shock therapy, which is handled badly.
• Esther makes several attempts on her life, the most serious on is in chapter thirteen of the novel. Esther swallows about fifty sleeping pills leaving a note behind.
• Esther survives and is committed to a mental hospital and meets another therapist named Dr. Nolan who recommends electro-shock therapy. Esther agrees this time the therapy goes well.
• At the end of the novel Esther has improved with the help of Dr. Nolan and is released from the hospital.

Thematic view

The book has feminist undercurrents, an example is when Ester’s boyfriend cheats on her with a waitress, but she is suppose to remain a virgin. Ester tries to subvert this idealism by purposely losing her virginity at the end of chapter nineteen.

Parallels

The book is riddled with parallel’s between Esther Greenwood and Sylvia’s Plath life

• Plath won a magazine scholarship at Mademoiselle in New York city.
• Plath had a patron named Olive Higgins Prouty who wrote Stella Dallas and Now, Voyager. Prouty funded Plath’s scholarship to study at Smith College.
• Plath’s also tried to commit suicide by swallowing sleeping pills.
• Dr. Nolan, Esther therapist in the novel is based on Plath’s own therapist, Ruth Beuscher.
• The hospital that Esther stayed in, Mclean Hospital is one where Robert Lowell and Susanna Kaysen have also been treated in.
• Plath to has had electroshock therapy.