The Bell Jar

How much control do we have over our own sanity? A daunting question indeed, with a possibly more intimidating answer. Sylvia Plath’s controversial semi-autobiography The Bell Jar grapples with this dark theme, reflecting young adult life in the 1960’s through the acute and dismal perspective of Esther Greenwood; acting like a colorblind lens as she paints mental illness in an unfamiliar light. “I felt myself melting into the shadows like the negative of a person I’d never seen before in my life.” (Plath 10) Esther Greenwood chillingly translates heart-sinking feelings into eloquently depressive thoughts as if clarifying these mental warning signs will halt her descent down an unrelenting rapid, into an unstoppable waterfall of madness. 19 year old Esther, sheltered by her diligent work ethic, brilliance, and undeniable talent is shocked beyond belief by her first real life experience which happens to be in New York. It brings about realizations and exposes her isolation coupled with deep mental turmoil that progresses with each interpersonal discovery. With a passion for poetry and writing, Esther emerges from an unidentifiable town in Massachusetts with a standout scholarship, capitalizing on her previously unaffirmed talent. She goes to work as a guest editor for a New York magazine with 11 other girls her age, leaving the rest of the world envious and in the dust, though she describes her personal experience with frequent notes of silenced anguish and melancholy. She cannot yet comprehend that these feelings build up from extreme isolation, stemming from a mental illness, continuously manifesting. With the help of a rejection letter from a writing class in Boston, her stay with her mother over summer turns into numerous suicide attempts, altering her path to success as her peripheral vision on life is limited to the cell walls surrounding her in a psych ward. Her road to a grasp on sanity is challengingly dull and the bell jar that represents madness suffocates what's left of her viability, but she became well enough to be released before her winter semester of college. A restless and troubled mind largely bolstered her limited perspective on life, so Esther’s ability to comprehend her declination into severe mental turmoil became increasingly compromised. Almost at the cost of her life, Esther Greenwood, with professional help, breaks the mental wall that poisons her quality of life and had prevented her from being able to recognize her own deadly struggle, resulting in her return to society with a fragile grasp on her own sanity and a fearful awareness of the bell jar looming over her head; with a mind of its own, ready to enclose her again.

At first Esther only realizes her differences from other people her age, and takes note of her persistent gloominess when her peers are living what seems to be their best life. Esther is able to understand her prior position in Massachusetts, school came easy to her and she worked hard but only hard enough, which proved to be more than enough, when she won the internship opportunity in New York with 11 other 19 year old girls. While she is here she makes an important realization, the beginning of many to follow: “I was supposed to be having the time of my life. I was supposed to be the envy of thousands of other college girls just like me all over America…” (Plath 3). In hopes of redefining herself, or at the very least changing up her typical experiences, Esther is disappointed when both New York and the girls around her begin to frustrate her. She feels disconnected when she can’t help but socially withdraw during a brunch or while out shopping. Her new life here is assailed by a quiet depression, intruding upon life changing relationships and experiences, but she doesn’t have the energy to respond to this so she continues to isolate and detach from the group. Furthermore, Esther learns about sexual purity, impurity, and where she falls on society's judgemental scale regarding the two levels. Her new friend Doreen and her boyfriend Lenny hang out at Lenny’s apartment and Esther thinks “There is something demoralizing about watching two people get more and more crazy about each other, especially when you are the only extra person in the room.” (Plath 7) Esther feels not only innocently uncomfortable here but when she leaves the apartment and walks back to the hotel, she takes a bath and feels as though the scalding water and thick steam is purifying her mental state, sweeping out the memory of Doreen and Lenny growing physically intimate. She is questioning her role that society gives her when it comes to sexual freedom which is a consistent and recurring feeling Esther experiences, maybe to make up for lack of exposure before her trip which detrimentally aids in her uniqueness. So as Esther feels excluded on many levels she begins to withdraw herself, engaging in isolation when she discovers her own disgust with activities, both sexual and fun, she was supposed to not only be comfortable with, but enjoy. She looks for a coping mechanism, a way to understand her feelings and make something of them.

Esther then begins to connect with the feeling that feeling like an alien or outsider, was a never ending feeling, following her diligently like a library book fine. Her month in New York is coming to a close and on the last day she is asked to participate in a photoshoot, and she loses control of her tear ducts when asked what she wanted to be, they streamed down her face uncontrollably and when she looked in the mirror, the splotchy black marks of mascara on her face made her feel “...limp and betrayed, like the skin shed by a terrible animal. It was a relief to be free of the animal, but it seemed to have saken my spirit with it.” (Plath 83) To follow the loss of the reins over her own thoughts, her control over her own body begins to falter as well. She struggles with the loss of a clear and articulate career in life, and this acts as a last straw, last experience, that broadcasts her withering mental health, though, again, she cannot accurately see it or ask for help. When she moves back home she attempts suicide numerous times, ultimately with a jar of sleeping pills, which causes her struggling body to be awoken in a hospital where she then recives electroconvulsive therapy and a psychiatrists treatment in a better and more secluded institution. Here she graduates and is allowed to leave after a final interview. Her thoroughly distraught mother instructs her to move past and forget about all of her past troubles, like a bad dream, but knowing that mental illness will encompass her whole life she responds “To the person in the bell jar, blank and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is the bad dream.” (Plath 142) Esther fears the judgement that will follow her return to college and the looming feeling of uncertainty, grips her with fear. She feels as though she is being reborn while stepping into the room where the interview will be held, to analyze her mental state and progress once again. She emerges with the mental barrier removed, like the satisfying removal of a drain plug, and she comprehends all her footsteps taken towards where she is now. She feels that all she is in control of, is her ability to live again with whatever viability she has at each phase in her life.

The Bell Jar is a descriptive portrayal of a loss of control and the loosening grip on sanity that comes with it. Esther’s story highlights her tumultuous thoughts at her lowest points which effectively aids in the descriptive path that Sylvia Plath designed for the book. The audience shouldn’t shy away from the dark themes and even the relatability factors, strewn about the chapter. Feeling like how Esther describes can be a sign to seek help before severe damage is done, but even if that happens, Esther proves that even though her fragility prevails (and remains a prominent characteristic even after her grip on sanity strengthens) there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. For some, there comes a point in time where so much pain is inflicted upon them, life is filled with hardship and it feels like a relentless wave crashing over and over, and control over sanity becomes limited or even diminished, and it is important to seek help well before this phase. Life is unpredictable and having access to resources designed to improve quality of life once this is impaired, is crucial to everyone. The lifejacket that saved Esther after her descent down the waterfall was intensive therapy, but we can seek more accessible help and work to become in-tune with mental warning signs that foreshadow a larger issue. The only novel written by poet Sylvia Plath created a fundamentally important book for many reasons; the symbolism and inconspicuous message of “don't be like Esther” has been heard by many around the world, and posthumously earned Plath a Pulitzer prize. I wonder if she would have regretted living to accept it.