The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

The Bell Jar is the only novel written by the American writer Sylvia Plath. It is a semi-autobiographical novel where Plath tells about her mental illness. The novel was published under pseudonym Victoria Lucas in 1963. It is sad that Plath died by suicide a month after its publication. The novel was published under her real name for the first time in 1967 in UK and was not published in the US until 1971, in accordance with the wishes of both her husband, Ted Hughes and her mother.
Her other important creation was Ariel.

 

 



Esther Greenwood, the protagonist of the novel is narrating her story. She is nineteen and from Boston. She is at New York having won a fashion magazine contest. She is offered a job as an apprentice to Joyce, the editor of a prominent women's magazine at New York. Apart from this, she is also offered passes to fashion shows, free ballet tickets etc. for winning the contest. There were eleven other girls along with her having won some contest and they are put up at Amazon hotel. In others view, she is one of the luckiest girl. She was supposed to be having the time of her life.

"Look what can happen in this country, they'd say. A girl lives in some out of the way town for nineteen years, so poor she can't afford a magazine, and then she gets a scholarship to college & wins a prize here and a prize there and ends up steering New York like her own private car.

Only I wasn't steering anything. Not even myself. I just bumped from my hotel to work and to parties and from parties to my hotel and back to work like a numb trolley-bus. I guess I should have been excited the way most of the other girls were, but I couldn't get myself to react."

 

Esther shows us outright that she is not normal. The narration is beautiful and Esther draws us into her world and tells us how she slowly spiraled into major depression. Unable to bear the painful shock therapy (Electroconvulsive therapy) from her psychiatrist, she attempts suicide. She was revived and thanks to her benefactress, gets treatment at a private hospital under Dr. Nolan. Dr. Nolan also give her ECT after a brief period of time. This time ECT gives her relief. She says,

"All the heat and fear had purged itself. I felt surprisingly at peace. The bell jar hung suspended a few feet above my head. I was open to the circulating air."

The novel ends when she enters a room of doctors, who are to decide whether she is fit to be discharged.

The Bell Jar is a very engaging novel. The writing is elegant and poetic. I love this title, so very appropriate. I look forward to read Ariel, Plath's other major work.

I count this book for Women's classic literature event.