The Bell Jar
From Free net encyclopedia
The Bell Jar is Sylvia Plath's only novel, which was originally published under the pseudonym "Victoria Lucas" in 1963. The novel is semi-autobiographical, with the names of places and people changed to avoid causing offense. After Plath's suicide, the novel was published under her real name, and the novel did cause great offense. This resulted in a successful lawsuit by one individual (who is portrayed as "Joan" in the book), where the court ruled that the novel unfairly branded her as homosexual. Sylvia Plath's mother, Aurelia Plath, tried (unsuccessfully) to prevent the book from being published in the United States.
The book is often regarded as a roman à clef, with the protagonist's descent into madness paralleling Plath's own experiences with what is thought to have been bipolar disorder.
Plot summary
The protagonist, Esther Greenwood, gains a scholarship in New York City to work at a prominent magazine under the editor Jay Cee, at the time of the Rosenbergs' execution (Plath's real-life magazine scholarship was at Mademoiselle magazine). Esther is exhilarated by the rush of Manhattan, but her experiences also frighten and disorientate her. She appreciates the hedonism of her friend, Doreen, but also identifies with the piety of Betsy (dubbed "Pollyanna Cowgirl" by Doreen, because she's from Kansas), a 'goody-goody' sorority girl who always does the right thing. She has a benefactress in Philomena Guinea (based on Plath's own patron, Olive Higgins Prouty, author of Stella Dallas and Now, Voyager, who funded Plath's scholarship to study at Smith College).
Esther struggles to cope with life in New York, and returns to her home in Boston in low spirits. Esther becomes increasingly depressed, and finds herself unable to sleep. She sees a psychiatrist who quickly recommends electroshock therapy. By this time, Esther is suffering from intense insomnia, and is traumatised by the therapy, which was improperly administered. Esther's mental state spirals. She makes several obscure attempts at suicide (including swimming far out to sea in the hope of being swept away by the current) before making her most serious attempt at the end of Chapter Thirteen. True to Sylvia Plath's actual suicide attempt, Esther leaves a note saying she is taking a long walk, crawls into the cellar, and swallows almost 50 sleeping pills (part of her medication for insomnia). She survives, and is then sent to a mental hospital and meets Dr. Nolan, her therapist, who prescribes electroshock therapy and ensures that it is properly administered. Her stay at the private institution is funded by her benefactress, Philomena Guinea. Dr. Nolan is thought to be based on Plath's own therapist, who she continued seeing into adulthood, Ruth Beuscher. Under Dr. Nolan, Esther improves, and eventually, is released from the hospital at the climax of the novel.
The book has feminist connotations; for example, when Esther discovers that her boyfriend, Buddy Willard, had sex with a waitress over the summer, she sees the hypocrisy of the moral code of her generation (in that promiscuity in a man is acceptable, but in a woman it is not). In order to subvert the idealism that Esther recognizes as flawed, she immediately endeavours to lose her virginity as soon as possible. Whilst a resident of the hospital (which is based on McLean Hospital, in which Robert Lowell and Susanna Kaysen have also been treated), Esther loses her virginity to Irwin, a professor of mathematics at Harvard (Chapter 19), near the end of the book. After having sex with Irwin, Esther experiences uncontrollable haemorrhaging, and is admitted to a hospital.
The book is full of irony, especially in comparison to Plath's life. Esther continually makes reference to her hatred of children and how she would never have any — although very early on in the book, as she is beginning her narration, Esther makes a passing and somewhat enigmatic mention to cutting a plastic star-fish off a sunglasses case 'for the baby to play with'; Sylvia Plath did in fact have children with the English poet Ted Hughes; Nicholas Farr Hughes, and Frieda Rebecca Hughes, who is now a prominent artist and poet. There are also connections between Plath's life and the Rosenbergs. Plath was subjected to electroshock, and the Rosenbergs were executed in the electric chair; when she committed suicide, she left her two children behind, as did the Rosenbergs.
Some critics have likened the book to The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. It is widely considered to be the seminal read for teenage girls everywhere.
A film version (The Bell Jar-movie) was made in 1979.
- [1] The Bell Jar at the Internet Movie Database
- [2] Read the SparkNotes for The Bell Jarfr:La cloche de détresse