The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath is best known for her poetry, and The Bell Jar is her one and only novel. In it Esther Greenwood, the college age narrator, describes her summer in New York on a writing internship, followed by her return home where she grows depressed and suicidal, and finally to her time bouncing between several mental institutions. I’m not exactly sure why I purchased this book, something that occurred several years ago on a book shopping spree to pick up “classics” from a top 100 book list I was working my way through. Like many books I own it has sat on the bookshelf for years until I finally decided to give it a try last month.

Overall I give the The Bell Jar a positive review and would recommend it. The first half of the book was actually pretty amusing and I found myself enjoying the way Plath described the world through Esther’s eyes. I could relate to many of the questions that Esther ponders about the world around her. I expected the book to be depressing seeing as it was about the main character’s gradual breakdown, so I was surprised by the humor. However the book does take a turn as Esther descends into depression and makes several suicide attempts. It was frustrating to see Esther as a patient in the asylums and wonder what was going on in her head. The plot of the novel is obviously influenced by Plath’s own life and while the novel ends (perhaps I should write "Spoiler Alert!") with Esther preparing to leave the asylum, it’s hard not to hope that thinks turn out differently for her than for Sylvia, who committed suicide at the age of 30.

It was also interesting to read the novel in terms of the period it was written. As a fan of Mad Men I’ve seen one representation of the early 60’s and the roles that women were expected to fill and the struggle to break out of that stereotype. Esther herself is struggling with what is expected of her and trying to determine what she wants for herself. She says several times that she doesn’t want to get married and live the traditional life and it's interesting to ponder how much that influences her behavior and wonder if things would be different for her if she had been born 20 years later.

Next up: Dracula by Bram Stoker