The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath tells the story of Esther, a young girl who performs well at school, aspires to be a writer and has landed a stint working for a magazine in New York. During this time she starts to suffer mental health problems and has suicidal tendencies. She attempts suicide on a few occasions and is consequently admitted to an asylum where she receives EST (Electric shock therapy), first unsuccessfully and then apparently with more success. The book ends with Esther being interviewed by doctors as to her suitability to leave the asylum, but the reader never finds out the outcome of this interview.

I found this book rather flat, almost boring. The character of Esther does not have sufficient depth to be interesting or aspiring and the reader is left feeling rather indifferent towards her. I think the book would have benefited from a more substantial second character that Esther could have interacted with in order that the reader could understand her more. To me, the book seemed to be skimming the surface of a year in the life of Esther and although it was dealing with her inner thoughts and feelings I still feel that she lacked depth of character.

One interesting point of the book is the image of the bell jar and the description of mental illness as something no-one can see, but is nevertheless suffocating and all-consuming is very enlightening. I think if Plath had tried to express these feelings, and the frustration these feelings must cause, the book would have been more rewarding. Final thought; If Esther had got onto the writing course would the course of events been the same?

where feelings of unreality took hold of her. And yet I found her time in the asylum/bell jar more fascinating than her time in New York when her illness had started to manifest itself. I found a lot of the New York part of the book boring. It only really picked up for me after the Marco incident and when she returned to her mother's. I really wanted her to leave home - I could almost feel the suffocating effects of the bell jar myself. I felt relief when the book ended, or, rather when the bell jar started to lift. The bell jar symbol is very clever and evocative. I also liked the fig tree symbol. I can relate to deciding which career path to choose. Like Esther, at that age I often couldn't make up my mind what to study at degree level as I loved too many subjects to be committed to one. They were all arts related too and not the realistic career choices that provide a secure income. I envy people who know which career path to take. I know lots of arts graduates who took unfulfilling office jobs to pay the bills. Like Esther I refuse to get married and I've often found being a full-time mum boring. I can imagine it was very difficult to admit that in 1950s America. At least in today's society, I can almost get away with saying that! Anyway, I digress!

I also liked the image of the fig tree, I found choosing a career very difficult and have only just qualified as a teacher (i am 2 and i'm still not 100% sure that it is what i want to do, but like Esther I knew if I didn't choose something soon i would waste my time and my options would start to dwindle. However, these days a career isn't forever I can see myself re-training at say 40 or 45 if i'm not happy teaching. I also liked the image of the bell jar, as i already mentioned. I think Plath could have furthered these images and used them more in the book to give a richer novel.

i did relate to Esther a bit, because when she is on the magazine she has everything going for her, yet she feels empty. Sometimes even though everything is going right, and people looking at your life would think it is great there is still a sense that something is missing. This can make you feel really guilty and ungrateful as you can always imagine someone worse off than you - yet these feelings exist. I think it is just nature's way of making us want to strive forward and not rest on our laurels. So it was nice to see these thoughts portrayed through Esther.

I think Plath is talented and I enjoy her poetry, however I get the sense that in The Bell Jar she lacked the confidence to truly utilise her talent. I also find her work quite self-orientated which can become a bit tedious after a while (ouch!).

I started this not knowing much about Sylvia Plath apart from her relationship with Ted Hughes and that she committed suicide in the 60s. I probably expected The Bell Jar to be much darker but would admit to being pleasantly surprised - gave it 4 out of 5.

As an account of an individual's descent into depression and mental illness, it's perhaps a lot more subtle than our modern "confessional" tales. This could stem from the novel being written in the first person, a narrator whose increasingly depressive state is the cause of introspection and paranoia. We get very little insight into the other characters and this can be frustrating but it's symptomatic of Esther's own self-absorption and inability to form relationships. I didn't find her a likeable character but I don't think we're meant to.

I thought it was beautifully written and you have to deliberately slow down your reading in the more lyrical, poetic parts . I loved the image of the fig tree representing the vast number of career paths open to her, yet she felt frozen, unable to choose. I can empahtize with that! The stifling image of the bell jar and also her suicide attempt when she was holed up in the basement all added to the feeling of suffocation throughout the novel.

Esther seems very confused about sexuality - one minute decrying Buddy for having slept with the waitress and the next, being in total awe of the "sophisticated" Doreen who seems to enjoy sexual freedom. She sees the world divided into those who are virgins and those who are not - reflecting the oppressiveness of the 50s perhaps. Sex also seems to be inextricably linked with violence - Doreen and Lenny's rather rough foreplay and the woman hater Marco and the encounter with Irwin was not exactly pleasurable.

Perhaps this is a forerunner of the "confessional" novel as I've since discovered it parallels events in Plath's own life - it was originally written under a pseudonym as Plath was anxioust that it wouldn't be viewed as serious literature. Like Esther, she seemed to fear failure and constantly worried about people's expectations of her.

As a stand-alone work of fiction, I can understand how some readers would come away from the Bell Jar feeling dissatified but I'm glad I was given the opportunity to read it and would view it as an introduction to Plath and would be interested in reading some of her poetry. Since the novel ends on a hopeful note, I wonder what later events caused her to commit suicide. Perhaps she felt she never really fitted in.

I thought Esther's mother was an interesting character, particularly as we get to know her only through Esther's eyes. Reading between the lines I can imagine that Mrs Greenwood was worried sick about her daughter and did care for her. I can understand that perhaps she doesn't understand Esther or try to (maybe because the accepted norm for young women in middle class 1950s America was to get a secretarial type job and/or become a submissive wife and mother?). She doesn't seem to attempt to ask Esther what makes her happy and what career she really wants to pursue. It's as if she doesn't take her degree seriously, as if it's a phase her daughter will grow out of. Also when Esther is ill, her mother doesn't really believe her. There's a fantastic quote to illustrate this, and I can only imagine that her mother's comment made Esther feel even more suffocated and unsupported:

Quote:

"I'm through with that Doctor Gordon," I said, after we had left Dodo and her black wagon behind the pines. "You can call him up and tell him I'm not coming next week." My mother smiled. "I knew my baby wasn't like that." I looked at her. "Like what?" "Like those awful people. Those awful dead people at that hospital. " She paused. "I knew you'd decide to be all right again."

How awful is that? I can understand Mrs Greenwood's denial of her daughter's illness because she loves her daughter (what parent would want their child to suffer depression?) and also because she doesn't understand the nature of the illness. I can just see her nagging Esther to sort herself out. I bet Esther felt undermined and condescended to. Like she's a child who needs to be shown a lesson in order to pull herself together. As if Esther is playing at being depressed like a spoilt child. I felt sorry for Esther here. And when she received the first shock treatment that made her wonder "what terrible thing it was I had done", well that sentence tugged at my heartstrings.

When Mrs Greenwood is at the hospital wringing her hands, I wonder if she is worried about her daughter's health but also concerned about how it will look to others.

the part after Esther had sex with Irwin and then was bleeding profusely afterwards - What was wrong with her? - The Doctor says " It's one in a million it happens to like this" I don't have a clue what he is talking about - can anyone help?

You're right Saucy, it wasn't explained in the novel at all. I think she haemorrhaged which must be a rare occurance. I think it's been mentioned already on here, but a lot of Esther's experiences in the novel (not just in relation to sex) are pretty violent &/or negative - Lenny & Doreen's mock-aggressive foreplay; the food poisoning incident; haemorraghing after losing her virginity; Jay-Cee's critical comments; Buddy's insensitive comments (idiot - I'm glad she ditched him!! ); the date with Marco (even more of an idiot - I'm glad she lamped him! ); her relationship with her mother etc. etc. Of course these all lead to Esther's breakdown and suicide attempts. And that's not to mention which career path to take. I've been there myself - wondering which college/uni course to take cos I wanted to do them all. I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up!