Analysis Of The Bell Jar By Sylvia Plath

Throughout history, society's standards have changed in accordance with the time period. Society, more often than, not puts an emphasis on women and how they should look and behave. As time passes by, there has been a shift in societal pressure. Due to the efforts of feminist groups, the expectations of women have changed. During the 1950s, women had an extreme amount of pressure from society to be the "perfect" woman. In her novel, The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath’s character Esther Greenwood is sent to a mental institution and later tries to commit suicide as a result of the societal pressures inflicted upon her.
The Bell Jar was set in the northeastern United States during the 1950s. During this time period there was an expectation that women
The people around her start to realize that signs of depression are present and she receives the recommendation to go see a therapist by the name of Doctor Gordon. Esther feels disconnected from Doctor Gordon and starts to hate him. Her animosity towards him starts to increase after he schedules her for electroshock therapy. Esther describes her therapy as “something [that] bent down and took hold of [her] and shook [her] like the end of the world” (Plath 117). She then continues by stating “with each flash a great jolt drubbed me till I thought my bones would break and the sap fly out of me like a split plant” (Plath 117-118). The descriptive imagery that she uses conveys her resentment towards the treatment. Esther then wonders “what terrible thing it was that [she] had done” (Plath 118). Esther loathed Dr. Gordon because of the pain that he put her through. This electroshock therapy eventually causes Esther’s condition to worsen; the exact opposite of the original intentions of the treatment. Between the indifferent Dr. Gordon, her nagging mother, and the pressure of society the constant thoughts of suicide start to plague Esther’s
She contemplates suicide by cutting her veins in a bath but does not follow through with this. Esther also considers hanging herself from the ceiling in her mother’s house but “[the] house had the wrong kind of ceilings” (Plath 121). This clearly proves that Esther was not a right state of mind because her only reasoning with not following through was that the ceilings were not adequate enough. As her thoughts of suicide continue, Esther begins to have internal conflict because of her religious background. Esther “knew [that] Catholics thought killing yourself was an awful sin” (Plath 134). This is a representation of the expectations that came not only from society but from the Catholic community. Esther used this expectation to try to convince herself not to do it because “they might have a good reason to persuade [her] out of it” (134). Although, Esther does not believe in many of the teaching of the Catholic Church her use of the fact that suicide is a sin can be describe as her last strand of hope. She eventually decides that she will follow through with her plan to kill herself despite what society and religion says about the matter. Esther attempted to commit suicide by “[unlocking] the strongbox and [taking] out the new bottle of pills” (Plath 137). When Esther takes out the pills from the box her intentions are made clear. She has made up her mind and will follow through with