Symbolism In The Bell Jar
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath is an unsettling novel written about a young university student, Esther Greenwood, as she struggles through her journey into adulthood. Throughout the book, Plath uses opinionated tone, heavy symbolism and unique plot to force the reader to imagine themselves in Esther’s shoes as a young adult faced with the reality of life and mental illness. Fundamentally, the novel shows that Esther cannot or will not conform with is expected of her, but does not have a clear image of what she would like to be. In the very first sentence, she declares that she “didn’t know what [she] was doing in New York. The beginning of the novel sets the tone for the remainder of it; although Esther is presented multitudinous opportunities
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Towards the beginning, there is not much symbolism, but one starts to see small symbols placed in chapters as Esther leaves New York; when Esther lets her clothes drift out of the window, it symbolizes her busy, occupied life drifting out of her hands, and succumbing to a lesser state of mental health. Even in the beginning of the novel, Esther is mentally ill, but her illness intensifies as the novel progresses because during the summer, Esther is no longer required to do anything- she is not in New York, she does not have a job, and she is not accepted into the writing class that she intended to go to, so she could no longer defer her thoughts. A more notable use of symbolism in The Bell Jar happens to be the name of the novel. Esther sees herself in a “bell jar”, an enclosed jar blocking off her surroundings; she cannot reach the rest of the outside world, and is trapped in a tight space of her own depression. A final use of symbolism, perhaps the most powerful, is the character Joan Gilling. Joan is, symbolically, Esther’s mental illness. As Esther prepares to check out of her residential mental hospital, Joan hangs herself in the woods, symbolizing the death of Esther’s mental illness, and her recovery; “the bell jar would never descend on [her]
Towards the beginning, there is not much symbolism, but one starts to see small symbols placed in chapters as Esther leaves New York; when Esther lets her clothes drift out of the window, it symbolizes her busy, occupied life drifting out of her hands, and succumbing to a lesser state of mental health. Even in the beginning of the novel, Esther is mentally ill, but her illness intensifies as the novel progresses because during the summer, Esther is no longer required to do anything- she is not in New York, she does not have a job, and she is not accepted into the writing class that she intended to go to, so she could no longer defer her thoughts. A more notable use of symbolism in The Bell Jar happens to be the name of the novel. Esther sees herself in a “bell jar”, an enclosed jar blocking off her surroundings; she cannot reach the rest of the outside world, and is trapped in a tight space of her own depression. A final use of symbolism, perhaps the most powerful, is the character Joan Gilling. Joan is, symbolically, Esther’s mental illness. As Esther prepares to check out of her residential mental hospital, Joan hangs herself in the woods, symbolizing the death of Esther’s mental illness, and her recovery; “the bell jar would never descend on [her]