Virginity In The Bell Jar

Usually, the word family connotes positive associations: comfort, safety, unconditional love, unwavering support, unshakeable stability—the list goes on. The people a family consists of are each other’s emotional bedrock, and interdependence comes naturally. As such, many cultures and societies maintain that family relationships are ideally the most influential and meaningful relationships a person can have. However, this is not an ideal world; this is not the case for all people. Certainly, this is not the case for Esther Greenwood. Though a variety of factors cause Esther’s depression and suicidal spiral, one primary and deeply affective determinant is her familial relationships—and lack thereof. In Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, Esther Greenwood’s inadequate, negative familial relationships cause the emotional underdevelopment that engenders her depreciating mental health; Esther’s emotional maturity, mental health, and personal growth improve only through
Throughout The Bell Jar, the concept of virginity—her virginity—cripples Esther: while Esther wants to have sex because she believe losing her virginity will be a transformative, liberating experience, she is afraid of getting pregnant. Esther is caught between being able to act freely and being rightfully afraid of the consequences of these free actions. In this way, Doctor Nolan is Esther’s vehicle of empowerment. By directing Esther to the doctor who provides her with contraception, Nolan unshackles Esther from her preoccupation with her virginity and gives her sexual—and ultimately emotional and mental—agency. Without Nolan, Esther would most likely still be lost in the maze of her own depression and her own underdevelopment, as Nolan fulfilled so many components essential for Esther’s personal growth and mental and emotional