Introduction
The “Bell Jar” is a novel written by American poet, novelist, and short-story writer Sylvia Plath. It’s a semi - autobiographical novel in which the names of the characters and places have been altered. It was published in January 1963, one month before she died by suicide (asphyxiation). The first time it was published under the pen name, "Victoria Lucas", and then posthumously ,in 1966, under the author's real name. The book revolves around the story of a young woman, Esther Greenwood, who has been highly ambitious since childhood and wants to become a poet. Plath has poured her own life experiences and the protagonist in the novel has been inspired by Plath's character. The book describes the mental breakdown of the protagonist and her eventual recovery towards the end of the novel. It is based on madness and sanity. The title of the book, "The Bell Jar", denotes the suffocation of the protagonist because she constantly feels caged inside an airless bell jar and gripped by insanity and depression, which disables her from connecting with the world around her. Esther constantly uses the term 'bell jar' as a metaphor to reveal her feelings of confinement and entrapment. She constantly feels trapped in her head and the same thoughts of self-doubt and dejection keep spinning around in her mind, she feels hopeless and depressed.
About the Author
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Sylvia Plath was one of the most eminent writers of her time. She was born on 27th October 1932, in Massachusetts. She studied at Smith College and Newnham College, Cambridge. She married a fellow poet, Ted Hughes, in 1956. They lived in America after marriage and then in England. They had two children. Plath was suffering from depression from the age of 20 and finally in 1963, at the young age of 30, she died by suicide. There are a lot of controversies that revolve around her life and death as well as her writing legacy.
The facade of her personality hid all her gloom. She was a perfectionist. And one such example of her perfection is her novel "The Bell Jar". However, this perfection was underlain with a lot of discontinuities and disparities of life. She was quite successful as she achieved numerous scholarships and was living a life that any other girl of that time could only wish for. In the 1950s, when women were subjugated and subordinated in society to the extent of being removed from colleges and being pushed into the domestic sphere, Plath achieved a lot in her life. A lot of arguments based on science were given, that going to universities and colleges could prove to be fatal for women. Evolutionary philosopher Herbert Spencer in the nineteenth century asserted that 'the deficiency of reproductive power 'among upper-class girls' maybe reasonably attributed to the overtaxing of their brains—an overtaxing which produced a serious reaction on the physique. This diminution of reproductive power is not shown only in the earlier cessation of childbearing, but it is also shown in the very frequent inability of such women to suckle their infants.' (Spencer 1896:485)
However, Plath was not very happy about it, she was unhappy with her own life. She worked in New York as an intern and using those experiences in New York, she wrote her brilliant book, “The Bell Jar”.
In the winter of 1962-63, after Sylvia Plath had separated from her husband, she stayed with her two children who had caught the flu and had no money. On the chilly morning of February 11 around four a.m., she died by asphyxiating herself. She closed all the doors and windows and put clothes under the doors so that not even some air could obstruct her work, and then after making sure that her children were safe, she put her head in the oven and switched it on. Before her death, she wrote extensively, several deep and powerful poems on death and other issues of psychic pain. She was in this kind of pain since the age of eight, ever since her father died. She suffered from loneliness, insanity, and depression almost all her life.
The novel gives quite a good exposure to the reader into the life of Sylvia Plath as she has written this book concerning her own life. She wrote about her life, in the novel, of the time she was doing her internship and it was published in 1963 in London.
The theme of the Book
The central theme of the book is a feminist one. The setting in the novel is that of the 1950s. This novel throws light on how if a woman lives her life to the fullest, fulfilling all her desires and ambitions and if she is talented, she has no place in society.
The protagonist in the novel keeps challenging the tyrannical norms that were made for women. For example, the idea that a woman belongs to a man and that she is the guardian of her chastity, hence she should not lose her virginity before marriage, is explicitly challenged by the protagonist. All these stereotypical ideas about women were some of the causes of dissatisfaction for Esther.
Esther is highly critical of the double standards of society towards men and women. She clearly states that she also wants to lose her virginity after knowing that Buddy Willard had slept with another girl and is no more a virgin. She says, "I couldn't stand the idea of a woman having to have a single pure life and a man being able to have a double life, one pure and one not "(Plath, pg. 85). She also shows deviance from the typical gender norms by saying that she never liked babies, and she doesn't want to have any, which was supposed to be the primary role of women in society. She is shown to be radical like de Beauvoir who considers pregnancy as enslaving in nature. "A lot of nutrition goes to foetus depleting the mother's health and strength. And childbirth itself is a very painful and dangerous process "(Ortner, 1974).
So, we see, Plath broke all the stereotypes about women by being financially independent and being self-determined about her body and mind.
Another theme that is seen to evolve during the novel is that of madness and sanity as perceived by society. She felt suffocated because of not being able to adjust to society as she always felt pressured about her performance because of gender. This intensified her pain of being separated from her father at the age of eight. She feels that her life should make her feel happy and glamorous, just the way New York City was, but she feels poisoned all the time. She felt that there is some defect in her and other people were normal, and it is her fault that she couldn't feel comfortable and did not perceive the city as others did. She developed mental illness and had to take electric shock treatments as well.
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Plot Summary
The setting of the novel is 1953. It is the story of a young ambitious woman, Esther Greenwood, who lives in the suburbs of Boston and desires to become a poet. She gets an internship in the glamorous city of New York. However, she is not at all excited by the city's glamour and nightlife. She feels suffocated all the time and pressurised to behave in a certain way. She has two prominent friends in the city, Doreen and Betsy. Both of them have contrasting personalities. Doreen is witty, rebellious, and sexual, whereas Betsy is a virgin, just like Esther. However, Esther wants to lose her virginity as her boyfriend, Buddy Willard, slept with another girl.
After she is rejected for the writing class, she spends her summer at home with her mother. Esther's father died when she was eight years old. She tried to write a novel, but could not write. She feels suffocated all the time and has no interest or hope in her life. Her mental state worsens to the level that she attempts suicide several times but was lucky enough as each time, she survived but still couldn't sleep and bathe for weeks. Once she overdoses on sleeping pills, which were prescribed to her for curing her insomnia and fainting.
Because of this, she gets admitted to a city mental hospital, where her situation worsens. She only gets electric shock treatments. Then she is shifted to an elite mental institute by Philomena Guinea, who had earlier taken care of Esther's expenses at college. There she meets a female psychiatrist, Dr. Nolan, under whom she shows signs of progression. She receives psychotherapy sessions as well as huge amounts of insulin to produce a "reaction," and again receives shock treatments. She starts to improve. She also tells the doctor about the metaphorical phrase of the ‘bell jar’, that how she feels entrapped in a jar all the time. She also tells her how she envies the freedom that men have and how she, as a woman, worries about getting pregnant. Upon which Dr. Nolan refers her to a doctor who fits her for a diaphragm.
In the same institute, she also meets one of her school friends, Joan, who had also dated Buddy Willard earlier. The novel gives us a hint that Joan develops a crush on Esther. Meanwhile, Esther also loses her virginity to a mathematics professor but bleeds a lot post-sex.
Joan dies because of suicide towards the end of the book and this incident proves to be very important as it helps Esther to gain back sanity and not think about losing her life. "I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am" (Plath, pg. 256)
And then finally, she recovers and returns to her college successfully.
Analysis of the Book
This story is of a young aspiring girl who desires to become a poet. She lives in an orthodox and stereotypical society, but she is highly critical of it. She never liked the gender-based discrimination which was quite 'normalised' even amongst the women.
The story is narrated in the first person, through the point of view of Esther, the protagonist. Everything that is happening to her is going on in her head. All the emotions encountered in the book, be it the thrill of fear, disgust, delight, and shock, everything is viewed through her lens.
The novel is written in a way that is very sarcastic and bitterly true. Some lines are worth quoting like, "There is nothing like puking with somebody to make you into old friends" (Plath, pg.45), which is funny, but at the same time, true. Though the story is not written in a chronological order, it is written in a very intelligent way, the pain and distress of the protagonist is very clear. The themes are covered beautifully in the book, be it feminism or insanity.
Conclusion
Sylvia Plath is the epitome of charisma and passion. The “Bell Jar” is one of the examples of her brilliant writings. It talks about a woman who does not fit into what society defines a 'woman' to be. It was banned as it talked about suicide and sexuality. The novel rejected the typical ideas of womanhood and motherhood which society has always defined.
The novel indicates that though it is not the same period i.e. the 1950s, yet the power of the novel still has not faded. It proves that Sylvia Plath, as a person and as a writer, continues to get into our heads in the new century as well.
WRITTEN BY- SEJAL
References
1. Plath, Sylvia. (1963). The Bell Jar.
2. Ortner, Sherry. 1974. “Is Female to Male as Nature Is to Culture” M.Z. Rosaldo and L. Lamphere (eds) Women, Culture and Society. Stanford: Stanford University Press (pp. 67-87).
3. Sayers, Janet. 1982. “Sexual equality as reproductive hazard” in the Biological Politics London: Tavistock Publications (pp. 8-27).
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