SparkNotes: The Bell Jar: Context The Bell Jar Table of Contents Plot Overview The Bell Jar is an autobiographical novel that conforms closely to the events of the author’s life. Sylvia Plath was born to Otto and Aurelia Plath in 1932 and spent her early childhood in the seaport town of Winthrop, Massachusetts. Otto Plath died when Plath was eight years old, and she moved with her mother, younger brother, and maternal grandparents to Wellesley, an inland suburb of Boston. Plath excelled in school and developed a strong interest in writing and drawing. In 1950, she won a scholarship to attend Smith College, where she majored in English. The Bell Jar recounts, in slightly fictionalized form, the events of the summer and autumn after Plath’s junior year. Like Esther, the protagonist of The Bell Jar, Plath was invited to serve as guest editor for a woman’s magazine in New York. After returning to Wellesley for the remainder of the summer, she had a nervous breakdown and attempted suicide. Plath went on to complete a highly successful college career.

She won the prestigious Fulbright scholarship to study at Cambridge University in England, where she met the English poet Ted Hughes. They married in 1956, and after a brief stint in the United States, where Plath taught at Smith, they moved back to England in 1959. Plath gave birth to her first child, Freda, the following year. The same year, she published The Colossus, her first volume of poetry. Her second child, Nicholas, was born in 1962. Hughes and Plath separated shortly afterward; her instability and his affair with another woman had placed great strain on their marriage. Plath and her children moved to a flat in London, where she continued to write poetry. The poems she wrote at this time were later published in a collection titled Ariel (1965). In February 1963, she gassed herself in her kitchen, ending her life at the age of thirty-one. Plath most likely wrote a first draft of The Bell Jar in the late 1950s. In 1961 she received a fellowship that allowed her to complete the novel.

The Bell Jar was published in London in January 1963 under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. Plath chose to publish the work under a pseudonym in order to protect the people she portrayed in the novel, and because she was uncertain of the novel’s literary merit. The novel appeared posthumously in England under her own name in 1966, and in America, over the objections of her mother, in 1971. The Bell Jar has received moderate critical acclaim, and has long been valued not only as a glimpse into the psyche of a major poet, but as a witty and harrowing American coming-of-age story. Plath is primarily known not as a novelist, but as an outstanding poet. Ariel cemented her reputation as a great artist. Her other volumes of poetry, published posthumously, include Crossing the Water (1971), Winter Trees (1971), and The Collected Poems (1981), which won the Pulitzer Prize. Sylvia Plath’s literary persona has always provoked extreme reactions. Onlookers tend to mythologize Plath either as a feminist martyr or a tragic heroine.

The feminist martyr version of her life holds that Plath was driven over the edge by her misogynist husband, and sacrificed on the altar of pre-feminist, repressive 1950s America. The tragic heroine version of her life casts Plath as a talented but doomed young woman, unable to deal with the pressures of society because of her debilitating mental illness. Although neither myth presents a wholly accurate picture, truth exists in both. The Bell Jar does not label its protagonist’s life as either martyred or heroic. Plath does not attribute Esther’s instability to men, society, or Esther herself, although she does criticize all three. Rather, she blames mental illness, which she characterizes as a mysterious and horrific disease. More Help Sylvia Plath (Author of The Bell Jar) Poetry , Biographies & Memoirs , Literature & Fiction Influences edit data Sylvia Plath was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. Known primarily for her poetry, Plath also wrote a semi-autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. The book's protagonist, Esther Greenwood, is a bright, ambitious student at Smith College who begins to experience a mental breakdown while interning for a fashion magazine in New York.

The plot parallels Plath's experience interning at Mademoiselle magazine and subsequent mental breakdown and suicide attempt. Along with Anne Sexton , Plath is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry initiated by Robert Lowell and W.D. Snodgrass . Despite her remarkable artistic, academic, and social success at Smith, Plath suffered from severe depre Sylvia Plath was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. Known primarily for her poetry, Plath also wrote a semi-autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. The book's protagonist, Esther Greenwood, is a bright, ambitious student at Smith College who begins to experience a mental breakdown while interning for a fashion magazine in New York. The plot parallels Plath's experience interning at Mademoiselle magazine and subsequent mental breakdown and suicide attempt. Along with Anne Sexton , Plath is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry initiated by Robert Lowell and W.D. Snodgrass . Despite her remarkable artistic, academic, and social success at Smith, Plath suffered from severe depression and underwent a period of psychiatric hospitalization.

She graduated from Smith with highest honours in 1955 and went on to Newnham College, Cambridge, in England, on a Fulbright fellowship. Here she met and married the English poet Ted Hughes in 1956. For the following two years she was an instructor in English at Smith College. In 1960, shortly after Plath and Hughes returned to England from America, her first collection of poems appeared as The Colossus. She also gave birth to a daughter, Frieda Rebecca . Hughes’ and Plath’s son, Nicholas Farrar, was born in 1962. Plath took her own life on the morning of February 11, 1963. Leaving out bread and milk, she completely sealed the rooms between herself and her sleeping children with "wet towels and cloths." Plath then placed her head in the oven while the gas was turned on.

Sylvia Plath 'didn't want her mother to know she wrote The Bell Jar' | Books | The Guardian Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath 'didn't want her mother to know she wrote The Bell Jar' Writer's friend Elizabeth Sigmund says she would never have let novel be published under her own name while mother was alive Sylvia Plath with her parents, Aurelia and Otto. Photograph: Mortimer Rare Book Room, Smith College Close This article is 4 years old Sylvia Plath would never have wanted her semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar published under her name while her mother, Aurelia Plath, was still alive, one of the writer's friends has said. Elizabeth Sigmund, one of Plath's closest confidants, also accused the writer's former husband, Ted Hughes , and his sister, Olwyn Hughes, of deliberately missing the dedication to her from the first edition which was published under Plath's own name, in 1966, "because they didn't want anyone who knew Sylvia to have any contact with the press".

When The Bell Jar was first published in January 1963, it appeared under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas, because, according to Sigmund, the author did not want to upset Aurelia or other people who feature in the book. Aurelia died in 1994. That first edition contained the dedication "For Elizabeth and David" – referring to Elizabeth Sigmund and her husband, David, the science fiction writer. When the novel was republished under Plath's own name, three years after her suicide, the dedication was not included. Sigmund said she wrote to the Times Literary Supplement when she realised that her name was missing, expressing her distress. She then received an apology from Charles Moneith, the chairman of Faber and Faber, who said they hadn't noticed there was a dedication. This, suggests Sigmund, was unlikely. "I don't believe they didn't notice it, because it was in an unusual place. It was directly opposite chapter one.

You couldn't miss it." Faber and Faber told the Guardian that it had nothing in its archive "which would support the view that Faber had any knowledge that Plath allegedly did not want the novel to be published under her own name in the event of her death. There's also nothing that would suggest that Elizabeth Sigmund was deliberately left off the dedication for our original hardback edition of the novel." But Sigmund has now been able to produce further correspondence. After she wrote to the TLS, she received a letter from Olwyn Hughes, whom Ted Hughes had appointed as Plath's executor and literary agent following her death, which states that "Faber were probably trying to save paper." When Sigmund wrote back to Monteith to ask him about this, he wrote: "That seems to me to be completely meaningless." He added: "I certainly never heard that Sylvia had expressed a wish that The Bell Jar should never be published under her own name. When we published it posthumously under Sylvia's real name, we did so with the express consent of Ted and Olwyn Hughes." Sigmund said in an interview with the Guardian: "There are two sides to this, of course.

Because it was a brilliant book, one is glad that it was credited to her. But also you have to regard her wishes. If she said she didn't want to hurt people's feelings, by having it published under her own name … I certainly think that Ted and Olwyn should have mentioned that. And then Faber would have had to make up their minds. But for Monteith to say that he'd certainly never heard that – it just seems that they were keeping it from Faber." Carl Rollyson, the author of a new Plath biography, American Isis: The Life And Art of Sylvia Plath, supports the view that Plath would not have wanted the book published in her mother's lifetime. He said: "I think Sylvia certainly was very sensitive to all that." He said there was "no love lost" between Plath and Olwyn Hughes, a view also held by Sigmund, who claims that "Olwyn hated her". Olwyn Hughes admitted she thought Plath was "a monster". Yet she also expressed sympathy for the author. "She was a very agonised lady. She had to battle to live every day – as you might think from The Bell Jar.

When I read it after she died, I just wept." On the matter of using Plath's own name on the book, she denied this was controversial. "What people want after they're dead. That just goes." She said that by the time the book was first published under Plath's name, "everybody really seemed to know it was by her. Her friends all knew. There seemed no point in not publishing under her own name. Nobody was going to be able to keep the secret about who wrote the book for decades." Olwyn condemned Sigmund as "a rich inventor", contending that the missing dedication was simply "a Faber error. "She [Sigmund] thought that was a terrible plot of Ted's. I don't know what that was about. It was just Faber left it off. These things happen in publishing." The Bell Jar was published less than a month before Sylvia Plath killed herself on 11 February 1963.

To mark the 50th anniversary of her death, writers and poets reflect on what her work means to them Published: 8 Feb 2013 Sylvia Plath travelled to New York City in June 1953 full of anticipation about a guest editorship at Mademoiselle magazine. She was to return home a changed person, as this extract from Andrew Wilson's biography reveals Published: 2 Feb 2013 Rachel Pickering reflects on her brooding West Riding valley and how its two great poets might have fared in the town of today Published: 31 Jan 2013 Sylvia Plath - Poet | Academy of American Poets Academy of American Poets The Academy of American Poets is the largest membership-based nonprofit organization fostering an appreciation for contemporary poetry and supporting American poets. For over three generations, the Academy has connected millions of people to great poetry through programs such as National Poetry Month, the largest literary celebration in the world; Poets.org, the Academy’s popular website; American Poets, a biannual literary journal; and an annual series of poetry readings and special events. Since its founding, the Academy has awarded more money to poets than any other organization.

browse poems & poets 1932-1963 , Boston , MA , United States Related Schools & Movements: read poems by this poet Sylvia Plath was born on October 27, 1932, in Boston, Massachusetts. Her mother, Aurelia Schober, was a master’s student at Boston University when she met Plath’s father, Otto Plath, who was her professor. They were married in January of 1932. Otto taught both German and biology, with a focus on apiology, the study of bees. In 1940, when Plath was eight years old, her father died as a result of complications from diabetes. He had been a strict father, and both his authoritarian attitudes and his death drastically defined her relationships and her poems—most notably in her elegaic and infamous poem " Daddy. " Even in her youth, Plath was ambitiously driven to succeed. She kept a journal from the age of eleven and published her poems in regional magazines and newspapers. Her first national publication was in the Christian Science Monitor in 1950, just after graduating from high school. In 1950, Plath matriculated at Smith College.

She was an exceptional student, and despite a deep depression she went through in 1953 and a subsequent suicide attempt, she managed to graduate summa cum laude in 1955. After graduation, Plath moved to Cambridge, England, on a Fulbright Scholarship. In early 1956, she attended a party and met the English poet Ted Hughes . Shortly thereafter, Plath and Hughes were married, on June 16, 1956. Plath returned to Massachusetts in 1957 and began studying with Robert Lowell . Her first collection of poems, Colossus, was published in 1960 in England, and two years later in the United States. She returned to England, where she gave birth to her children Frieda and Nicholas, in 1960 and 1962, respectively. In 1962, Ted Hughes left Plath for Assia Gutmann Wevill. That winter, in a deep depression, Plath wrote most of the poems that would comprise her most famous book, Ariel . In 1963, Plath published a semi-autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas.

Then, on February 11, 1963, during one of the worst English winters on record, Plath wrote a note to her downstairs neighbor instructing him to call the doctor, then she committed suicide using her gas oven. Plath’s poetry is often associated with the Confessional movement, and compared to the work of poets such as Lowell and fellow student Anne Sexton . Often, her work is singled out for the intense coupling of its violent or disturbed imagery and its playful use of alliteration and rhyme. Although only Colossus was published while she was alive, Plath was a prolific poet, and in addition to Ariel, Hughes published three other volumes of her work posthumously, including The Collected Poems, which was the recipient of the 1982 Pulitzer Prize. She was the first poet to posthumously win a Pulitzer Prize.

Selected Bibliography SparkNotes: The Bell Jar: Key Facts The Bell Jar full title · The Bell Jar author · Sylvia Plath genre · Coming-of-age novel; autobiographical fiction language · English time and place written · First draft as early as 1957, Cambridge, England; completed in 1962, Devon, England date of first publication · January 1963, under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas publisher · William Heinemann Limited (1963); Faber and Faber (first edition under Plath’s name, 1966); Harper and Row (first American edition, 1971) narrator · Esther Greenwood point of view · First person tone · Matter-of-fact; cynical; terse; detached; girlish tense · Past setting (time) · June 1953–January 1954 setting (place) · New York City; the Boston suburbs; hospitals in and around Boston protagonist · Esther Greenwood major conflict · Esther struggles against her oppressive environment and encroaching madness. rising action · Esther spends a month as a guest editor in New York. When she returns home, she finds herself unable to read, write, or sleep.

She receives her first shock treatment, and contemplates methods of suicide. climax · Esther almost succeeds in killing herself. falling action · Esther recovers in a city hospital and then in a private mental hospital, where she finds a psychiatrist whom she can trust. After losing her virginity, she prepares to leave the hospital. themes · Growth through pain and rebirth; the emptiness of conventional expectations; the restricted role of women in 1950s America; the perils of psychiatric medicine motifs · News and fashion media; mirrors; blood symbols · The bell jar; the fig tree; headlines; the beating heart foreshadowing · Esther’s semi-suicidal plunge down the ski slopes foreshadows her later, more systematic suicide attempts.

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ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Analyzing Sylvia Plathï¿½s The Bell Jar through a Feminist Lens Sylvia Plathï¿½s autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, is about an intellectual young womanï¿½s role in the society of the 1950s.

The novel describes the oppressive and patriarchal society in which the main character lives. The work of literature exposes the main character, Esther Greenwoodï¿½s ambition to be a career woman in a field dominated by men, the obstacles she faces, and the mental breakdown that occurs as a result. Feminism is the belief that women should be considered equal in all aspects of life. The feminist lens is modeled with the correlation between literary texts, and the roles of women in society. In this paper, logical methods are applied to demonstrate, explain, and dispute the oppression of women. Through the feminist lens, The Bell Jarï¿½s main themes of lack of control, dehumanization based on gender, and stereotypes of women are demonstrated, explained, and disputed. Sylvia Plath was born in Boston Massachusetts on October 27, 1932. She was born to Biology and German Professor, Otto Plath, and Aurelia Schober, who majored in English and later worked as a typist to support her family. Otto was a writer for most of Sylviaï¿½s young life, and published a book on bumblebees before he died in 1940.

Her fatherï¿½s writing may have influenced Sylvia as she went on to receive prizes and scholarships for her literary work. Sylvia Plath was enormously committed to academics, specifically writing. She was given a scholarship to the prestigious womenï¿½s college, Smith College, where she pursued literature and focused on her writing. Sylvia Plathï¿½s desire to make writing her profession was not rational considering the society in which she lived (Barnard 16-17). As Plath lived from 1932 through 1963, her options were limited on the basis of her gender. During the era in which Plath lived, society had constructed roles that were ï¿½socially acceptableï¿½ for women and men. Societyï¿½s set roles included a dominant working man and an inferior wife and mother. Sylvia Plath did not accept societyï¿½s constructed roles. While in college, Plath wrote numerous poems and other literary pieces. Although Plath was very gifted, she submitted many articles to be published with little success.

Her "failure" to be recognized as an author led Plath to feel worthless, frustrated and angry at herself and at society (Telgen 23). Based on this, Sylvia Plath once wrote a letter to a friend in which she wrote, "For the few little outward successes I may seem to have, there are acres of misgivings and self doubts" (Telgen 23).ï¿½ Sylvia was frustrated with the choice she would have to make which was either to follow her desire of becoming a "free-spirited poet", or falling into the wife/mother role society was imposing on her (Telgen 23). Sylvia Plath also became frustrated by her mother. Plathï¿½s mother was an inspiration to Sylvia because she was behind her during her youth taking on the role of typist and agent for her. Her mother encouraged Sylvia to write just as she had done with her husband, but this caused Plath to feel anxious. Anxiety was added because Sylvia felt as though she had to succeed, not for herself, but for her mother. "After 20 years we should start bringing in big dividends of joy for her" (Barnard 17).

Sylviaï¿½s frustration led her to strive for perfection each time she wrote, and anything less was not acceptable (Barnard 17). As she put all of her free time into creating literature, she became frustrated even more when her peers did not understand why she was writing, or what it meant to her. Very few people could comprehend Plathï¿½s desire to write as she was a woman of the 1950s and writing was not realistic or logical. All of these frustrations were mounting. Conditions improved after college. However, frustration did not disappear completely. In 1956 Sylvia Plath met and married British poet Ted Hughes. The couple did a lot of traveling and writing together when they were first wed, but that didnï¿½t last very long. Sylvia was forced to put her dream of writing aside when she obtained employment doing secretarial work to support her husband while he worked on his writing. She put her own life on hold to sit back and watch as her husbandï¿½s work was published (Barnard 20). The Hughesï¿½ resided in England, far away from Plathï¿½s family, and her home in Massachusetts.

As her family life progressed with the birth of children, Sylvia Plath had less time to focus on her dreams and became increasingly frustrated and unoriginal. "Her duties as mother, wife, and secretary left her little time to write, and the submissive conjugal role which she accepted contributed to a growing feeling of personal unfulfillment" (Barnard 21). Plath fell into the socially constructed role of a "typical" woman, which was what she believed she had to do as a wife and mother. Plath didnï¿½t dislike looking after her family; in fact she quite enjoyed being married and guiding her children. Plath began to resent all she had done when news of Ted Hughesï¿½ infidelity became known. That news caused Sylvia to feel as though all of her dedication to the family was for naught, and that she put her desires on hold went unappreciated. She felt as though she was a victim, thus causing her to feel disillusioned by herself, and generally unhappy. Those feelings increased after a separation from her husband later in life.

Sylvia Plath published The Bell Jar in 1963, and later that year frustrations grew too much to bear and she ended her life on February 11, 1963. Sylvia Plath and the main character in The Bell Jar, Esther Greenwood, shared many commonalties. Esther Greenwood was a contentious and gifted writer, and attended a prestigious womenï¿½s college on a scholarship. Esther won a prize to work in New York City on a magazine staff. The once poor, young woman dined in high-class restaurants, met renowned people, and resided in elegant facilities. She was, however, not content with all of her "opportunities". Her dejected feelings came from the lack of control she felt she had as a woman. Esther felt she would never actually be able to have choices in life because of societyï¿½s pre-constructed "housewife" role (Telgen 23). "A girl lives in some out-of-the-way town for nineteen years. So poor she canï¿½t afford a magazine, and then she gets a scholarship to college and wins a prize here and a prize there and ends up steering New York like her own private car.

Only I wasnï¿½t steering anything, not even myself" (Plath 2). The fact that Esther felt she couldnï¿½t follow her dream of writing depressed her, and eventually led to her destruction. Esther acknowledged the ï¿½double bindï¿½ that the oppressive society enforced on women. Opportunities for women who wanted to pursue a career and live their own lives were made ï¿½availableï¿½. Although those opportunities were present, womenï¿½s identities were solely defined by their relationships with men (Bonds 9). That exemplified the idea that women of the 1950s could not have careers other than secretarial work. Society imposed beliefs that other than having work as a secretary, women could do nothing except wait to be married and become a mother. "And they were all going to posh secretarial school like Katy Gibbs, where they had to wear hats and stockings and gloves to class, or they had just graduated from places like Katy Gibbs and were secretaries to executives and simply hanging around in New York waiting to get married to some career man or other" (Plath 3). Women could not be executives; they could only work for men who were executives.

Marriage, secretarial work, and housewifery did not interest Esther. She wanted to be a writer, and that was what she went to school to grow to be. While attending college, Esther met many women who influenced her life in some way. Esther looked up to many women who eventually let her down and were full of rejections and separations. All of the women Esther met symbolized an aspect of some stereotype of womanhood.ï¿½ They dramatically impacted Estherï¿½s life. Although Esther ultimately rejected the stereotypes the women represented, they were all responsible for shaping Estherï¿½s life, making her the person she was. However, once the women fully gave in to the negative socially constructed role of womanhood, Esther became depressed and her mental breakdown began (Bonds 5). Esther admired Doreen, another young woman also working on the magazine staff. Doreen was a "wise-cracking" woman who rejected the "cookie cutter" image that most young women held. Doreen also befriended Esther asking her to go out with her. Esther looked up to Doreen for those reasons.

Esther felt let down by Doreen after noticing Doreenï¿½s dependency on men. Once Doreen let a man disrespect her, Esther lost all respect for her. "I made a decision about Doreen that night. I decided I would watch her and listen to what she said, but deep down I would have nothing at all to do with her" (Plath 19). The women in Estherï¿½s life were not the only ones who let her down. This is exemplified through Buddy Willard, who was Estherï¿½s love interest. Esther thought the world of Buddy until she realized he was absorbed in his own beliefs and desires.ï¿½ After she had been dating Buddy for a short time, women looked at Esther in a different, more accepting way because she was in a relationship with a man. Hence, only the man she was with defined her. At one point, Buddy developed tuberculosis (TB) and was placed in a medical facility away from Esther. That move was a relief for Esther, as she did not desire a relationship with Buddy, for the reason that she believed he was hypocritical.

After he was set in the facility, Esther channeled all her energy into her passion, writing. When she stayed in her room reading or writing on a Saturday night, it was accepted because peers felt that she was "working through a broken heart." It was believed that Esther was substituting her studying for romance, thus suggesting that love and work could not exist together in a womanï¿½s life (Telgen 35). "I simply told everyone that Buddy had TB and we were practically engaged, and when I stayed in to study on Saturday nights they were extremely kind to me because they thought I was so brave, working the way I did just to hide a broken heart" (Plath 59). After Buddy was in the hospital, Esther went on to meet a number of men who let her down in one way or another. One man she met symbolized the worst kind of disrespect a woman could face. Esther was introduced to Marco who was described as a "woman hater." While Esther was out with Marco he called her degrading and dehumanizing names such as "slut." Perhaps the most horrible act that occurred was the attempt to rape Esther that Marco made.

Marco represented the patriarchal society in which Esther lived as a whole, forcing his ideas on Esther and degrading and objectifying her by thinking of her as his personal object or possession. "Marco set his teeth to the strap at my shoulder and tore my sheath to the waist. I saw the glimmer of bare skin, like a pale veil separating two bloody-minded adversaries. Slut! The words hissed by my ear" (Plath 89). Esther fought back and pushed Marco off her, punching him and injuring him. That act was symbolic because when Esther rejected him she was also rejecting society's roles and beliefs. Esther asserted her voice rather than having it diminished. That was one instance in which Esther took a stand against men and society in general. Another example of Esther standing up for herself was brought on by a conversation between Esther and Buddy. Buddy Willard asked Esther to marry him, and she explained her "unconventional" beliefs to him. Esther wouldnï¿½t choose marriage over her dreams of a writing career (Luis 14).

An article printed in "Housekeeping Monthly," on May 13, 1955 described typical duties of a "good housekeeper." Those chores included having dinner prepared, being "more interesting for him," and "remembering that his topics of conversation are more important than yours." Esther knew what marriage would denote, "It would mean getting up at seven and cooking him eggs and bacon and toast and coffee and dawdling about in my nightgown and curlers after heï¿½d left for work to wash up dirty plates and make the bed, and then when he came home after a lively, fascinating day heï¿½d expect a big dinner, and Iï¿½d spend the evening washing up even more dirty plates till I fell into bed, utterly exhausted. This seemed a dreary and wasted life for a girl with fifteen years of straight Aï¿½sï¿½" (Plath 68). Esther discussed her confusion about the choices she would be forced to make if they were to wed, and she assertively told him that she couldnï¿½t, and more importantly wouldnï¿½t choose. Buddy called her "neurotic" (Luis 14).

"Neurotic, ha! I let out a scornful laugh. If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at once and the same time, then Iï¿½m neurotic as hell. Iï¿½ll be flying back and forth between one mutually exclusive thing and another for the rest of my days" (Plath 76). Although Esther stood up for herself and her beliefs in those instances, the feelings of alienation by society caused her to later feel self-alienation further leading to Estherï¿½s mental breakdown and suicide attempts (Bonds 1). Throughout the novel it was clear that Esther was not mentally well, however it was inferred that societyï¿½s repressions for females contributed to her collapse (Telgen 30). The suicidal undertones throughout many parts of the novel revealed Estherï¿½s mental instability. "The thought that I might kill myself formed in my mind coolly as a tree or a flower" (Plath 79). After Estherï¿½s mental breakdown she went on to try to commit suicide numerous times. Esther tried to commit suicide at least three times before receiving proper help. First, Esther tried to take her life by drowning herself.

She believed that if she swam an extraordinary distance in the ocean, that she would not have enough energy to swim back to shore, drowning herself. That attempt failed. Esther also tried to commit suicide by hanging herself, which again did not work. After Estherï¿½s continual discussions about suicide and depression, and after suicide attempts, she was introduced to psychiatrist, Dr. Gordon. Esther hated Doctor Gordon, and resented him the minute she walked into his office. She hated him because she believed he was perfect with photos set up in his office of his wife and children on his desk. Esther thought, "How could this Doctor help me anyway, with a beautiful wife and beautiful children and a beautiful dog haloing him like the angels on a Christmas card?" (Plath 106). Doctor Gordon also spoke to Esther as though nothing in her life was really wrong, only she thought something was wrong. He was so condescending and arrogant in speaking to her that it was no wonder Esther loathed the Doctor. Esther disliked the Doctor even more when he suggested using the crude procedure of Electro Shock therapy to "cure" her depression (Telgen 33).

Esther described her feelings on electrocution when she stated, "The idea of being electrocuted makes me sick, and thatï¿½s all there was to read about in the papersï¿½I thought it must be the worst thing in the world" (Plath 1). Esther attempted suicide one final time by swallowing fifty sleeping pills, before being checked into the mental institution that helped cure her. While in the hospital, she met a friendly woman Doctor named Dr. Nolan, who inspired her, as she was a woman, holding the position of "Doctor." Dr. Nolan and Esther bonded and Esther was able to discuss problems of the past. After treatments, Esther was apparently cured, as she was able to leave the hospital at the end of the novel. Based on the obstacles that Esther Greenwood and Sylvia Plath had to overcome, The Bell Jar can be analyzed through the Feminist lens. Feminist criticism has to do with the way that assumptions based on gender are controlled in literary writings. Feminist criticism desires to either show how literary works uphold or challenge patriarchy (Moon 1). The title of the novel unequivocally represents the feminist undertones of the autobiography.

In many stories, female characters are reduced to mere obstacles or prizes the male "hero" must achieve or encounter. "Women are brought down to the status of objects, while men are characters who are actually important "(Moon 2). The title, The Bell Jar, suggests that like a scientific object, women in the 1950s were looked at through ï¿½a bell jarï¿½, or under a glass. Women were viewed as objects that belonged to ï¿½theirï¿½ men and the culture. This role that women were placed in was negative and dehumanizing (Sjlie 4). Furthermore, the title can also serve as the symbol of womenï¿½s roles in the 1950s. The word "Bell" written as ï¿½Belleï¿½ describes a woman in American culture who was pleased to be a desired object of her husbandï¿½s. A woman of the 1950s, as the "Belle" was supposed to be content in the "housewife" role that was socially constructed and imposed (Sjlie 4).

The language and organization of a novel can reproduce gender inequalities by marginalizing women and femininity in general (Moon 1). Both Esther and Sylvia had to overcome culturally and socially constructed views of what were fundamentally "female traits" (Literary Theories 4). Esther and Sylvia had a passion for writing and a desire to make it a career, which was not "rational", based on societyï¿½s constructed roles. Society viewed having a career, as opposed to a family as being "un-feminine." Sylvia Plath urged women of the era to reject societyï¿½s constructed roles, and to become more independent. That is the reason she wrote the novel, The Bell Jar. Plath wanted to make it abundantly clear that if society continued to control womenï¿½s lives with the set structure of patriarchy, many would eventually go insane from repressing their dreams and desires. Sylvia Plath integrated her own personal values, and her own personal life accounts into the autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar. Her viewpoint was clearly depicted within the literary work through the feminist lens that tackled aspects of inequality, dehumanization based on gender, and stereotypes of women in the 1950s.

Sylvia Plath committed suicide less than two years before the start of the women's movement. Perhaps she would have wanted to live and be a part of the movement had she not taken her life in 1963. Although she was not alive for the movement, her novel and her work was, and The Bell Jar was an important novel for women of the era. Sylvia Plath gave in to a patriarchal society and forfeited her life as a result.

Copyright: Kristen Dï¿½Elia 2003 Used by permission How Sylvia Plath Wrote "The Bell Jar" | Co.Create | creativity + culture + commerce How Sylvia Plath Wrote "The Bell Jar" Chevrolet And Lego Celebrated "The Lego Batman Movie" With A Life-Sized Lego Batmobile A Reboot Worth Making: How Netflix’s “A Series Of Unfortunate Events” Gets It Right Why The ATX TV Festival Founders Launched A "Call Your Representatives" Initiative This Newly Surfaced 1950s TV Show Eerily Predicted Trump, And So Did These 5 Others Jessica Grose 05.22.13 8:00 AM This year marks the 50th anniversary of poet Sylvia Plath’s classic novel The Bell Jar. If you missed reading it as an angsty teen, the bildungsroman lightly fictionalizes Plath’s summer as a guest editor at the women’s magazine Mademoiselle in 1953, after which she had a nervous breakdown and attempted suicide.

There have been several biographies of Plath—the 50th anniversary of her death from sticking her head in an oven is also this year—but Elizabeth Winder’s new book, Pain, Parties, Work: Sylvia Plath in New York, Summer 1953, is the first to focus completely on that heady first breakdown period in Plath’s life. Though she was only 30 when she died, Plath left a very large body of work: two award-winning books of poetry (The Colossus and Ariel,) The Bell Jar, reams of journal entries, and many other poems, stories, and half-finished novels. Because of those meticulously kept journals and the many letters she wrote to her mother and others, we have a very good idea of how Plath worked. According to Diane Middlebrook, who wrote the Plath biography Her Husband,, about Plath’s relationship with the British poet Ted Hughes, Sylvia had a lot of physical energy, which she channeled into intellectual productivity. "All in all, Plath was a decidedly unrelaxing person to be around," Middlebrook says.

Plath battled the depression that would ultimately fell her throughout her entire working life, but she still managed to be highly productive, even during the period when she was a single mother of two young children after separating from Hughes. Work was so important to her sense of self that Plath’s suicide attempt during that summer of ’53 was in part because her depression rendered her unable to write. Despite Plath’s tragic end, both Winder’s new biography and the primary sources Plath left behind give good lessons—not just for fellow writers, but for anyone who wants to accomplish creative pursuits while trying to juggle an otherwise full schedule. The journal of a writer is often more like the barre of the ballerina: She works out in front of a mirror, watching an ideal version of herself attempting difficult moves, trying to get them right. Rough Drafts are Important. As noted, Plath was a dedicated journal keeper. Even when she had a hangover or was exhausted, she’d write entries. She never wrote poems in the journal; she used it to sketch out ideas from daily life.

"The journal of a writer is often more like the barre of the ballerina: she works out in front of a mirror, watching an ideal version of herself attempting difficult moves, trying to get them right," Middlebrook wrote of Plath’s journal keeping. She used these notes for The Bell Jar, but also for an unpublished novel about her relationship with Ted Hughes and her years in London. Without such a consistent dedication to keeping track of these stray thoughts, Plath would not have been able to create so many completed short stories and longer narratives. Setting Yourself a Very Specific Schedule. Plath was a highly organized person, and both she and husband Hughes wrote in a regimented fashion. Here’s Middlebrook again: "Daily routines were the kind of thing Plath liked to describe in letters to her mother, so we know that [she and Hughes] planned to write for four to six hours a day, 8:30-12:00 in the morning, 4:00-6:00 in the afternoon.

In later years, after they had children, they split the day into two parts: Plath took the hours after breakfast, and she aimed to be at work by 9:00; Hughes had the hours between lunch and tea. Despite the evident differences in their dispositions, routines suited both of them, and what they considered good work flowed from Hughes’s pen and Plath’s keyboard for the whole of their first two months of married life." Even in the frenzied final months of Plath’s life, during which she was plagued by anxiety, depression, and insomnia, she would write from 4 a.m., when her sleeping pills wore off, until 8 a.m., when her son and daughter woke up and needed her. She wrote much of the heralded poetry collection Ariel in this fashion. Delegating Duties It’s also worth noting that despite all of Ted Hughes’ faults as a husband (he cheated on Plath, and some believe the breakdown of her marriage was what led to her suicide), the pair had a very modern child rearing and domestic arrangement. Both of them cooked and took care of the children, and they alternated writing time.

Plath took a page from Sheryl Sandberg’s playbook for ambitious working women—about making " your partner a real partner "—before Sandberg was even a glint in her mother’s eye. Don’t Overlook The Value Of Your Pastimes. Among Plath’s many interests was a real love of fashion. During her junior year at Smith, she reported on college trends for Mademoiselle, took a full course load, kept a social life, and continued to write poetry and stories. According to Winder’s Pain, Parties, Work, Plath blew off steam by shopping. "French pumps, red cashmere sweaters, white skirts, and tight black pullovers—-clothes more suited to voguish amusements than studying." These shopping trips were a great joy to Plath, and she was very meticulous about the way she dressed. It made her feel confident and glamorous, which helped her focus on the work we’re still reading today. [Images: Flickr users Gfpeck , and Lukasz Dunikowski ] Never miss a story.

‘Bell Jar’ Author Sylvia Plath Didn’t Want Her Mother to Know She Wrote it | LitReactor ‘Bell Jar’ Author Sylvia Plath Didn’t Want Her Mother to Know She Wrote it News by Dean Fetzer January 21, 2013 2 comments In: The Bell Jar Elizabeth Sigmund, a close friend of Sylvia Plath, has accused the writer’s former husband, Ted Hughes, of ignoring Plath’s wishes that The Bell Jar should never be published under her own name , particularly while her mother Aurelia Plath was still alive. Sigmund also alleges Hughes and his sister, Olwyn Hughes, deliberately left out the dedication to her and her husband David from the first edition printed with Plath’s name on it in 1966. The Bell Jar was originally published in 1963 under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas “because, according to Sigmund, the author did not want to upset Aurelia or other people who feature in the book. Aurelia died in 1994.” Faber and Faber told the Guardian that it had nothing in its archive...

...which would support the view that Faber had any knowledge that Plath allegedly did not want the novel to be published under her own name in the event of her death. There's also nothing that would suggest that Elizabeth Sigmund was deliberately left off the dedication for our original hardback edition of the novel. Sigmund did get an apology out of Faber (after writing to the Times Literary Supplement ). She has also produced additional correspondence, but Olwyn Hughes claimed the dedication was a mistake — “Faber were probably trying to save paper.” Sorry? There does seem to have been some odd occurrences with the novel after Plath’s death, probably on the side of Ted and Olwyn (who apparently hated Plath), and why Hughes would appoint someone who had little sympathy with his dead wife as Plath’s executor and literary agent is beyond me. I think Olwyn’s comment on the issue sums up her attitude: “What people want after they're dead. That just goes.” Families, eh?

Question: Who wrote the 1963 novel ‘The Bell Jar’?
Answer: Sylvia Plath