The Bell Jar Review essays

The Bell Jar Review essays The bell jar is a considerably powerful novel. It is a poignant account of an American girls beak down and treatment during the late fifties in America. The Bell Jar constantly displays Sylvia Plaths tremendous magic with words. The book takes the reader on a journey from the heights of urban glamour to the terror of feeling imprisoned within one's own mind. Interlaced through out the book are Plaths real life experiences and feelings. We are shown a mirror between fact and fiction. In this loosely autobiographical novel, Plath's protagonist, Esther Greenwood, sinks into a profound depression during the summer after her third year of college. Esther spends the month of June interning at a ladies' fashion magazine in Manhattan, but despite her initial expectations, is uninterested in the work and increasingly unsure of her own prospects in life. Esther begins her spiraling deterioration into an utterly depressing state of mind. She is confused, fed up and depressed about life itself. Esther grows increasingly dissatisfied with the way society works and she no longer seems herself fitting in anywhere. She has a dream which sums up her predicament in the book, and this predicament is something that young people today unfortunately can relate to well. Esther imagines herself in a fig tree: all around her, she sees figs that represent the various things she could do with her life, such as become a writer, or an editor, or marry Buddy, and so on. She is paralysed by choice, and as she tries to decide, the figs wither and rot and fall from the tree. This is the beginning of her breakdown. Esther cannot keep the airless bell jar of depression and despair from descending over her. Suddenly, Esther finds herself in a nightmare. Unable to sleep write or concentrate; she can see no point in life. Taken to a psychiatrist, Dr. Gordon, who performs terrifying electroshock therapy on her, I thought my bones would bre...