Analysis Of Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath’s semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar, demonstrates the startling effects of an oppressive patriarchal society on a bright and accomplished woman. Esther’s descent into madness can be attributed towards 1950’s America’s absurd expectations of women, the pressure women place on each other and the patronising attitude of the medical world.

All throughout the novel, characters such as Esther’s own mother, Buddy Willard and Mrs. Willard all exist as manifestations of the suffocating environment that characterised mid 20th century America. Ideologies such as “a girl shouldn't sleep with anybody but her husband and then only after they were married” reveals the double standards to which marriage and sexuality was held to. Esther
During Esther’s college life, the seniors at her school would ridicule her and her commitment to her studies by leaving “nasty loud remarks outside my door about people wasting their golden college days with their noses stuck in a book”. It was only when they found out a boy had asked Esther out to the Yale Junior Prom that they started to treat her with “amazement and respect”. By doing that, Plath implies that a woman’s self worth and importance is judged on her success with associating with the opposite sex, not on one’s own academic merit. It also shows that females exist to service the male and those who chose otherwise are shunned and looked on as an outcast. This judgement of women from women also continues into Esther’s brief stint at Ladies Day. Doreen describes their boss and magazine editor as being as “ugly as sin", then goes on to remark "I bet that old husband of hers turns out all the lights before he gets near her or he'd puke otherwise", completely disregarding her talent and success. Instead, Doreen boils her entire life into her external appearance and sexual appeal. The poisonous environment where even your own kind is an enemy is one Esther chokes silently in for many years, alienating her even further from her peers, accelerating her faster into
When Buddy and her observe Mrs. Tomolillo give birth, the head doctor infantilizes the married woman, dropping condescending comments such as “that's a good girl”, implying women are small and unimportant, unable to care for themselves, just like a child. A medical student also remarks to Esther that “They oughtn't to let women watch [childbirth]” despite women being the childbearers and having the right to know and understand exactly what occurs when nine months of their labour is heralded into the world. The student’s comment also infers that women are weaker and need to be shielded from nature’s natural way, since they are lesser and unable to handle situations like men can. Esther’s encounter with Doctor Gordon does nothing to improve her rapidly dwindling sanity, and in fact, hastens it. From the get go, he dismisses her and her opinions, not taking them seriously. "Suppose you try and tell me what you think is wrong" shows us he does not take Esther’s concerns to heart, believing there is no problem of concern and it is only in her imagination that something is not quite right despite the fact she had not slept for seven nights, not eaten and had not washed herself or her clothes since she returned from New York. The haughty and flippant attitude the male medical profession displays and the way they dismiss the validity of women’s concerns only further