How Did Sylvia Plath Write The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath is the author of the Bell Jar and was an American poet, novelist, and short-story writer (JRSM. June, 2003). The Bell Jar book was published in London a month before Plath’s death in January, 1963. The book was first published under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas, and then later published in Plath’s own name. Esther Greenwood is the main character in the Bell Jar. Esther suffered from mental illness and struggled against depressive environment and continuously aggravated madness that led to her suicide and death (JRSM. June, 2003). I ague that Esther’s mental illness was aggravated by her internal pressure and depressive environment in which she lived.

In the novel, Esther Greenwood, the main character, is a young woman, from a small town, who wins a writing competition, and

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath tells the story of a gifted young woman’s mental breakdown beginning during a summer internship as a junior editor at a magazine in New York City in the early 1950s. It was first published in January 1963 under the pseudonym Victoria

The Bell Jar was published in the UK under a pseudonym, one month before Plath’s suicide in 1963. It is the only novel she ever published. It follows the life of Esther Greenwood, a troubled young woman from suburban Boston. Esther is an intelligent teenager and was given an editorial internship for a magazine in New York City as a result of her academic ability. Regardless of her potential and determination, Esther appears secluded from society and demoralised about her future. These early symptoms described to us from the beginning of the novel are foreshadowing her later suicidal depression. She feels pressured in conforming to the social expectations found of women in 1950’s America. For example, a young woman was expected to stay a virgin

Sylvia Plath’s novel, “The Bell Jar”, tells a story of a young woman’s descent into mental illness. Esther Greenwood, a 19 year old girl, struggles to find meaning within her life as she sees a distorted version of the world. In Plath’s novel, different elements and themes of symbolism are used to explain the mental downfall of the book’s main character and narrator such as cutting her off from others, forcing her to delve further into her own mind, and casting an air of negativity around her. Plath uses images of rotting fig trees and veils of mist to convey the desperation she feels when confronted with issues of her future. Esther Greenwood feels that she is trapped under a bell jar, which distorts her view of the world around her.

There are times when it seems that Helga is unknowingly saying these thoughts out loud, which only serves to add to her idiosyncrasies. The relationships formed on their journey, however unconvincing or bizarre some may seem, shape the novels and define the impressions on the reader. "The Bell Jar" is an unsettling account of a young woman's descent into psychosis, where Plath focuses on the individual, whilst exploring how Esther regards relationships and how they influence her search for her own identity. In a similar fashion, Helga Crane is on a continuous search for a genuine sense of self, a place she feels that she belongs.

At first glance, the term “bell jar” does not particularly stand out except as the title of the novel. However, upon further scrutiny and thorough reading, readers can deduce that this term actually has a negative connotation throughout the novel due to the fact that Esther, the main character, literally feels confined inside a bell jar with no way to get out. Written by Sylvia Plath, the novel The Bell Jar focuses on how restrictions of society suffocate Esther to the point where she is unable to handle the stress anymore. Plath uses symbols in her novel such as the bell jar, fig tree, mirror, and numerous newspaper headlines in order to emphasize Esther’s inner struggles coping with the restrictions of society, and also how she finds connections

The Bell Jar, a coming of age, semi-autobiographical novel, by Sylvia Plath follows the life of a troubled young girl named Esther Greenwood, her slow descent into mental illness and then her subsequent recovery. The second half of the book details Esther's mental breakdown, her incarceration and stumbling recovery whilst the first half uncovers the protagonists, narrators day to day struggles which go on to contribute to her eventual breakdown . Throughout the novel, the reader comes to understand that Esther feels there are few choices; in character a woman must be either the virgin or the whore, both of which are demonstrated by Esther's friends, Betsy and Doreen. This presents one of the key internal conflicts the protagonist, Esther battles.

Over the span of Sylvia Plath's 1963 novel, The Bell Jar, hero Esther Greenwood perseveres through battles as her New York way of life gets ugly. She builds up an unpredictable fixation on death which thwarts her in finding her character. Her new thinking style just makes the way toward revealing her actual self significantly all the more intense, as self-destructive considerations cloud her psyche and she spirals into a condition of depression. Amid this time of massive battle , she adapts more about herself and the routes in which she associates with others than she ever had some time recently. The key line, "I grin, this must be the manner by which they laid the bodies away in the healing facility funeral home," catches Esther Greenwood's interest with death that adds to her chime shake involvement.

The Bell Jar is the story of a young woman, Esther Greenwood, and her own journey of self identification. Throughout The Bell Jar, Ester’s search for her own self identity is evident through the way she views the world and the way it views her, the symbols used throughout the novel, and in her own gender. As a young woman in the 50’s, Esther is aware of

The title Girl, Interrupted “Interrupted at her music: as my life had been, interrupted in the music of being seventeen... What life could recover from that?” refers to the painting as she sees it as a distillation of her own experience. Just like the girl in the painting was interrupted so was Susanna and for two years she was unable to live the life that she wanted to. The Bell Jar is a metaphor used by Sylvia Plath to show that Esther is trapped inside her own head and is unable to escape the doubtful and insecure thoughts she has. It is also used as a metaphor for society as people are unable to escape from the expectation which society puts upon them.

Sylvia Plath was a troubled writer to say the least, not only did she endure the loss of her father a young age but she later on “attempted suicide at her home and was hospitalized, where she underwent psychiatric treatment” for her depression (Dunn). Writing primarily as a poet, she only ever wrote a single novel, The Bell Jar. This fictional autobiography “[chronicles] the circumstances of her mental collapse and subsequent suicide attempt” but from the viewpoint of the fictional protagonist, Esther Greenwood, who suffers the same loss and challenges as Plath (Allen 890). Due to the novel’s strong resemblance to Plath’s own history it was published under the pseudonym “Victoria Lucas”. In The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath expresses the

Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar is rich with an array of motifs, all which serve to sustain the novel’s primary themes. A motif particularly prevalent within the first half of the novel involves food, specifically Esther Greenwood’s relationship with food. This peculiar relationship corroborates the book’s themes of Esther’s continuous rebirthing rituals, and of her extreme dissatisfaction. The interrelation with food functions in two distinct manners: literally and figuratively. This analysis will concentrate on the figurative role of food in The Bell Jar, and how it denotes Esther’s overall state.

The novel The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath is an example of one of the many

Sylvia Plath was an English poet and short story writer born in 1900s. She was best known for her novel, “The Bell Jar,” and poems such as “Daddy.” Plath’s life, including her poetry, her sanity and her marriage was a cycle of ups and downs. After her death in 1963, Plath’s life was depicted in the 2003 film Sylvia, starring Gwyneth Paltrow.