In this particular scene of The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath, Esther is taking the train back to Massachusetts with streaks of Marco’s blood across her face. Her mother meets her at the train station and tells her that she did not get accepted to the writing course that she applied to. She is not too fond of the idea of spending her summer in Massachusetts. Esther gets a letter in the mail from Buddy, which said that he was falling in love with a nurse, however, if Esther goes to see him during the summer she may be able to win him back. She then writes on the back of the letter that she is engaged and never wants to see Buddy again. Esther is trying to leave her past and forget about the things that brought her down. When she tells Buddy that …show more content…
Esther is having a hard time accepting the person that she is trying to become. She views herself as an outlier and has little confidence. The loss of identity that she has created has a negative impact on who she is as a person. In another example, while Esther is in the elevator, she looks at herself in the mirror and does not recognize her reflection, “A big, smudgy-eyed Chinese women staring idiotically into my face. It was only me, of course. I was appalled to see how wrinkled and used up I looked,” (Plath 18). In her reflection, she views herself as someone she no longer recognizes. She has lost her identity of who she once was and now identifies herself as a …show more content…
Esther contradicted herself because she wanted things to be pure, but at the same time do things that would make her no longer pure by cultural standards. Over the course of the book, Esther describes everything as being so pure and so white. “When I was nineteen, pureness was the great issue,” (Plath 82). Esther wanted to reach the “boundary line” meaning to cross the line that divided things from being pure and impure. She had such an obsession over pureness that after the age of 10, she wanted to try out the path of impure things. Esther continuously tried many things in search to find the version of herself that she can finally
...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.
Esther losing her virginity leads to her being “half black with blood” (p.219), a symbol of blood to indicate a new her: “I felt a part of a great tradition” (p.219). Furthermore, blood symbolism is used when Marco, “a woman-hater” (p.102), attempts to rape Esther and when she resists, leaves her “with two strokes stained on my cheeks” (p.105). Plath uses the symbol to represent major defining milestones in Esther’s life, similarly to other situations, such as the suicide attempts. The blood symbolism also represents the violence that can attach itself to sex in a society where women are seen as lower, especially for younger women. In these situations, Esther believes she is reaching “a new condition in peace” (p.219), but often she is putting herself in dangerous situations. This is too similar to Holden, who hires a prostitute to lose his virginity as he has “never got around it yet” (p.83). Her young and nervous demeanour begins to make him feel “more depressed than sexy” (p.86), and this leads to a violent standoff between him and Sunny’s pimp. Both authors use characterisation and Plath uses symbolism to make a point about the confused mindset adolescents have; both males and females believe that it should change their identity drastically, however, the transition for each has a different purpose. The authors are attempting to convince the reader that adolescents are often misinformed about sex and this leads to the idolisation of losing their virginity; a negative belief that often leads to mistakes and hurt. Idolising this concept leads them to adopting it as a part of their
The character of Esther is widely criticized for her perfection as a character, both receiving positive acclaims and negative feedback. Esther’s reserved, quiet character illustrates the role of women during the Victorian period and what little impact on society women played. Critics of Bleak House generally praise the narration and Dickens’s use of Esther’s character, which gives direction to the novel.
Behrent, Megan. "Trapped in The Bell Jar." SOCIALISTWORKER.org 25 Mar. 2013: Web. 26 Oct. 2015. .
She then started going back to school, and she was so happy that she could go back she just wants to be able to make friends and have fun and be young. After a few weeks, Esther has come to the conclusion that her aunt was taken from her family and she is more worried than ever.
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.
Throughout that time period roles of women has been objectified to fit in a masculine society. Women were expected to be stay at home wives and mothers. Having children and a husband was the ideal life for women in the eyes of men in the time frame of this novel. Most of the novel is about the pressure and expectations that others have for Esther in regards to her future and the expectations Esther herself has for others. The bell jar is mostly populated with characters that are female stereotypes. Character such as Dodo Conway who is the pregnant women that is placid and content, flabby and misshapen, Doreen who possesses vulgarity and frivolity, Mrs. Willard who is a well refined, well mannered, also woman who lets her husband walk all over her. Jay CEE, a lady who follows her ambition but to society she doesn’t fit on the outside because she is more masculine. Mrs. Willard, a woman who represents society’s expectations. She life of a mother and a wife and believe, it is a woman duty to fulfill these roles. “What a man want’s is a mate and what a woman want’s is a infinite security” and “What a man is is an arrow into the future and what a woman is is the place the arrow shoots off from.” For all these women it is somewhat impossible for them to to assert their independence in this male dominated world and not be male dependent. These women crowds Esther’s mind and
Esther finds herself unable to concentrate and perform daily tasks. Therefore she decides to undergo a few sessions with Dr. Gordon, a psychiatrist, and even undergoes treatments of electroshock therapy. As the depression sinks in, Esther becomes obsessive about suicide, and tries to kill herself by crawling into the cellar where she subsequently ingested a bottle of sleeping pills. Esther's attempt fails and she is taken to a city hospital, and then over to a private psychiatric institution by the intervention of a benefactor. As Esther begins to recover, she develops a close relationship with her psychiatrist Dr. Nolan, and eventually leaves the hospital as a transformed woman.
Plath uses metaphors to describe the protagonists entrapment, suffocation and torture. Bill Gibson (2000) clearly defines the purpose of the metaphorical bell jar, stating that the “bell jar is a entrapment, and a way of placing one on a display of sorts, behind a glass”. Hence, Plath uses the bell jar to describe how she feels- an object, to be stared and looked upon. - mom low ideas of mental illness- So plath uses the imagery of the bell jar to convey the suffocation and isolation that is felt by all women. Also, the unlimited expectations that society creates for women and esther’s failure to achieve the expectations leads to her sorrow and disillusionment. Hence, esther
It is obvious that Esther is at a crossroads and feels torn by life. She best describes her feelings with the following passage: "I saw myself in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each a...
The fig tree is an important turning point for Esther, as she comes to the acceptance of her depression which causes her to now have a look at the world only through the lens of depression. From that point on, everything Esther sees is ever more hell-like and sad.
She claims that she has `always wanted to learn German` although `the very sight of those dense, black, barbed-wire letters made my mind shut like a clam`. Esther associates the language with her `German-speaking father`, who `cane from some manic-depressive hamlet in the black heart of Prussia'. I think that Esther`s stunt in progress is directly linked to the death of her father, and the little that she knows about him, and that a major factor contributing to her eventual suicide attempt is the fact that she used to be the best and no longer can be.
The beginning of the novel introduces the reader to Esther O'Malley Robertson as the last of a family of extreme women. She is sitting in her home, remembering a story that her grandmother told her a long time ago. Esther is the first character that the reader is introduced to, but we do not really understand who she is until the end of the story. Esther's main struggle is dealing with her home on Loughbreeze Beach being torn down, and trying to figure out the mysteries of her family's past.
The Bell Jar is an autobiography of a female sophomore. The girl-Esther, who is 19 years old, came from suburban area of Boston. As she had talent writing skills, she was invited to New York to serve as guest editor in a national fashion magazine office. In her one-month stay in New York, on one hand, Esther was cautious and conscientious to learn from an able and efficient female editor-Jay Cee, and she dreamt to follow Jay Cee’s successful step. On the other hand, she met various men and women in her colorful social life. These experiences reminded her of her life in women’s university, especially her relationship with her boyfriend- Buddy Willard. As the recollection often interweaved with reality, they brought Esther perplexity, discouragement and lost. Esther could not even more figure out the significance of reality as well as the goal of her own life. When her life in New York came to an end, Esther came back her hometown to spend the summer vacation with her mother. However, a new incident hard hit Esther- she was rejected by the writing course that she was given high expectation by professors in her university. The conservative atmosphere in the town made Esther feel days wear on like years. Esther denied completely that all achievements she got in past 19 years, and she even felt doubtful and terrified toward the future. Facing such heavy pressure, she was broken down totally. Since she was lost at that time, she tried to put an end to her life. After she was saved, she received psychological consultation in a psychiatric hospital. In this period, she rethought and relocated her position, and she rebuilt confidence step by step. At the end of the novel, Esther waited to leave hospital and she looked forward to starting a...
“Perhaps when we find ourselves wanting everything, it is because we are dangerously close to wanting nothing.” ( http://thinkexist.com/quotes/sylvia_plath/)