The Bell Jar, originally published in 1963 under a pseudonym, is Sylvia Plath’s only published novel. Plath disperses confusion when writing her neurotic protagonist, Esther Greenwood, with eloquence. By avoiding the melodramatic and romanticising voice of many tragedies Sylvia Plath composes a down-to-earth story, with relatability to the main character not only for herself, but for generations of readers to come. The Bell Jar is quintessential of how transparency is the richest foundation of all literary works.
Esther Greenwood, a promising journalist, poet, author, writer, mother, lover or transcriber among millions of other women finds herself in New York torn by having to let down all but one option, experiencing drabness of life. The protagonist's stingy boyfriend, Buddy Willard, who prior to the relationship had intercourse with other women, annihilated the picture Greenwood had of him but also her perception of friendship, love and men. Esther traverses in a negative spiral embraced by the miasma trapped inside of her personal bell jar; she cannot sleep, she cannot read, she cannot write. She decides to commit suicide. After a couple attempts, some research and practice, Greenwood steals 50 of her perscribed sleeping pills from her mother’s cabinet only to wake in the hospital. Following is a series of events at a sanatorium, where after many challenges she decides to give life a second chance.
Roman á clef is a French expression for the genre of the novel, meaning a novel with a key. It refers to a novel based on real-life events coated with an element of fiction, the key being the relationship between the two different worlds that come together in one literary work. Plath displays the authenticity of her main character by sharing casual thoughts about her surroundings, which to begin with might seem futile but as the plot develops gives the reader an understanding for Esther Greenwood as a person and her actions and ultimately how her persona along her experiences lead her down the path of anxiety, depression and attempted suicide. Peculiar sections such as ‘I counted the letters. There were exactly a hundred of them. I thought this must be important. Why should there be a hundred letters?’ where Esther Greenwood is attempting to find meaning or a secret message in a series of randomly ordered letters in her alphabet soup not only serves as an example of Greenwood’s search for direction, but hands meticulous and curious readers the key to the author’s reality and train of thought.
In the later part of the book, themes of mental illness and its consequences, self-harm and suicide attempts, is stripped off of its romanticisation. Esther Greenwood struggles with attacking her skin with a blade as she deems it innocent, and later on struggles with finding a suitable place to hang her noose. By introducing the inner resistance and practical issues Plath lifts the veil of heavily romanticisised mental illnesses. Plath has written a diaphanous story, enabling the reader to have a view of reality, of Sylvia Plath’s reality, through the fictitious characters in a novel format. The Bell Jar most likely had other reasons for publication; nonetheless, today, it is a furtive piece of work revealing the ugly truths of anxiety and depression.
In the novel, Esther Greenwood is torn between different career paths. All of her dreams and possibilities are hanging from the tree, turning heavier the longer she hesitates, and unless she makes an instant decision all of the fruits will rot. This is a universal experience that not only young adults battle with, but numerous of adults already in the working field. The pressure of having to be something—to have an identity and be fully committed to one interest and excel is an underlying desire many people obtain. There is, furthermore, a contradicting universal desire ‘to be everything.’ However, as Esther in the closing scene rids her destructive counterpart, and accepts a path of healing, her priorities seem to have wandered away from her career, to prioritise recovery — an attempt at a final literally declaration of hope by Sylvia Plath.
Although Plath’s life ended in tragedy she has left a legacy for readers to admire. Where the relatability of the world as a protagonist and the loneliness the mind periodically imposes on the individual by trapping them in a bell jar is both personal and authentic. To write verily welcomes and accepts the reader as they are, without imposing otherworldly ideals. Sylvia Plath’s work of art, The Bell Jar, is to be admired and learned from by the literary interested for generations to come.
by Iris DP22