where she describes her time in the psychiatric hospital, McLean Hospital, in Massachusetts. She begins her story by questioning how it is that she ended up in the hospital. She also describes mental illness as a parallel universe and that people gradually catch glimpse of this universe before they fully enter this new world. The novel is not told in a sequential storyline, but rather is a series of events that happen during Kaysen’s time in McLean. It all started when she visited a psychiatrist
cab and sends her off to the psychiatric ward at McLean Hospital. In the cab, she doesn’t put up a fight or try and escape and once she arrives at the hospital, she signs herself in because she is of age. Even before then, while she was still in the therapists’ office she showed no sign of struggling against the force that was her doctor. Instead she willingly accepted the fact that she was tired and to go then rather than on Friday to the hospital. This passiveness is a dominant characteristic of
Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted took place during the 1960s, when the Vietnam War occurred amidst with many civil rights movements happening. Kaysen describes how and why she ended up in the hospital, being identified with Borderline Personality Disorder. Sylvia Plath, Elizabeth Wurtzel, and Susanna Kaysen all use their own experiences from mental institutions, their attempted suicides as symbols, and their feelings of depression as a common
vulnerability. In this memoir, Kaysen details her existence as a psychiatric patient diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder in a mental institution where time seems circular alongside a parallel universe where time is normally linear. The hospital itself becomes a paradoxical representation of both strict confinement and ultimate personal freedom. Through Kaysen's short, blunt phrase-like sentences, she forcefully impresses the shocking conditions she endured on the memory of her readers.
Literature is the superlative resource when one is attempting to comprehend or fathom how society has transformed over the centuries. Many written works—whether fictional or nonfictional—express the views of gender roles and societies’ expectations. Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar is an exemplary novel that explores these issues. Ester Greenwood was portrayed the superficial and oppressive values of the mid-twentieth century American society through her experiences of gender inequalities and social conformities
Sylvia Plath Research Paper Title The Bell Jar "place[s] [the] turbulent months[of an adolescent’s life] in[to] mature perspective" (Hall, 30). In The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath uses parallelism, stream of consciousness, the motif of renewal and rebirth, symbolism of the boundary-driven entrapped mentally ill, and auto-biographical details to epitomize the mental downfall of protagonist, Esther Greenwood. Plath also explores the idea of how grave these timeless and poignant issues can affect a fragile
The Bell Jar People's lives are shaped through their success and failure in their personal relationships with each other. The author Sylvia Plath demonstrates this in the novel, The Bell Jar. This is the direct result of the loss of support from a loved one, the lack of support and encouragement, and lack of self confidence and insecurity in Esther's life in the The Bell Jar. It was shaped through her success and failures in her personal relationships between others and herself. Through life
The Bell Jar is an autobiographical account of major events in Plath’s life. The book is a purgative expression of Plath’s solitary existence. It is the journey of Esther (fictional name of Plath) who had hard time in gathering courage to live life on her own terms. She had to fight against the ingrained beliefs, norms and expectations that society had woven into her. All through her life, Esther struggled to resolve the dichotomy between her real self and the ideal self that she was expected to
In spite of The Bell Jar being written about a woman named Esther, Sylvia Plath’s true personality can be seen throughout the novel as she writes about herself using the alias, Esther, to hide her emotions with the pressures that she faces on a day-to-day basis. Plath’s self-absorbed behavior is seen when a character refers to Esther, Plath’s alias, as wanting “‘to be everything’”. Plath’s narcissistic personality is shown as she is unable to decide for herself to the extent that she would rather
How does the author's treatment of relationships effect the characterisation of the heroines in The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and Quicksand by Nella Larsen? Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know ============================== How does the author's treatment of relationships effect the characterisation of the heroines in "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath and "Quicksand" by Nella Larsen? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This essay will compare the ways in which
Gordon’s hospital after having electroshock therapy, or ECT, also known as electroconvulsive therapy (Mayo Clinic). The light she sees upon receiving the ECT was blue, and she recalls the light she saw when she was shocked by the lamp was blue as well. When discussing
Sylvia Plath’s writing is often associated with dark, violent, and almost disturbing imagery and themes, and her first and only novel, The Bell Jar, is no exception to this. The Bell Jar follows the story of Esther Greenwood, a young woman living in New York City, and her struggles with mental illness throughout her life. Esther is more than a fictional character; her story so closely mimics Plath’s own life – so much so that The Bell Jar is considered to be semi-autobiographical by most. Everything
Societal Currents in the 1950s: The Critique of Social Issues in The Bell Jar and The Catcher in the Rye In the 1950s, the era of censorship and conformity had begun; deviations from social norms and roles were frowned upon, and it was common for information to be concealed from the public for their own good, while those who suffered from illnesses outside the normal realm of medicine were labeled insane and hidden away. The Bell Jar focuses on the life of Esther Greenwood, a young woman who, while
On January 14th of 1963, Sylvia Plath had finally completed The Bell Jar after approximately two years of writing. This novel could have been considered a partial autobiography, because the main character Esther Greenwood eerily represents Sylvia Plath. There are a number of references to Plath’s real life throughout the book, too many for it to be considered a mere coincidence. Within the story, Esther Greenwood considers and attempts suicide quite frequently. Could this novel have been foreshadowing
"Sylvia Plath is renowned as one of the most powerful American poets of the post war period. Her acclaimed poetry and prose are characterized by intense self-consciousness, accusatory despair, and disquieting expressions of futility and frustration," (Sylvia). Sylvia Plath was an American poet, who had a very unique way of writing. She used plenty of devices to radiate her life through literature and poetry. Plath only wrote one novel which was The Bell Jar shortly after she suffered from a suicide
The Street by Ann Petry was first published in 1948, and it gives an account of the lives of black women in the World War II era. Being a black woman herself, Petra gives a firsthand commentary about the social injustices that face the main character in the novel, Lutie Johnson. Lutie is a black single mother who faces social challenges such as sexism, racism, and classism in her chase for the American dream. In her chronicles of raising her son, Bub, she believes that if she works hard, and saves
Esther Greenwood faced pressures and expectations in The Bell jar unalike Holden Caulfield’s . Her character deals with the gap between what society tells her and reality. When Esther’s Scholarship takes her to New York. She knows she has a great opportunity and should make the best of it. Ester demonstrates that with this quote from the book. “I guess I should have been excited the way most of the other girls were, but I couldn't get myself to react. (I felt very still and very empty, the way the
The Bell Jar is arguably one of the hallmarks of twentieth-century feminist literature. By illuminating the plight of the self-proclaimed neurotic Ester, Plath’s novel explores a poignantly crafted world of several complex and realistic women. However, the story’s feminist message leaves the modern reader in want of more than the “white feminism” that Plath serves. The only remarkably marginalized characteristics of Ester are that she is a woman and mentally-ill; otherwise, she is white, middle-class
Sylvia Plath is an American author, poet and novelist. She was born in 1932 and lived only 30 years due to suicide. She is most recognized for her semi-biographical novel titled The Bell Jar. She was writing poems, novel, and through her entire life, she was writing journals. Despite her short life, she managed to become one of the most relevant poets of her time. Sylvia Plath poetry is tough. She filled her poems with depressing thoughts. Her style is descirbed as confessional poetry, which assumes
Living in a Bell Jar: The Confinement of the Female Voice in Plath’s “The Bell Jar” written by Ashley Kress tells of the reflection of gender roles in The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. Kress talks about how feminist criticism talks about how it challenges the patriarchy in culture and literature. She talks about how The Bell Jar was a window to for Plath to show women that they can break away from the 1950’s type patriarchy just like Esther Greenwood. Two of Kress’ main topics is that how The Bell Jar