Depression In The Bell Jar

Depression is like being stuck in the middle of an ocean, where the chances of survival seem minimal yet possible with a little flick of hope. The fear of drowning in the depths of the ocean constraint one from relinquishing the support of a life preserver. Similarly, the main character; Esther Greenwood, in the novel; The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath, experiences several external and internal conflicts throughout the novel in the hope of discovering her true identity, the role she wants to play as a women in the 1950’s and the societal ‘Bell Jar’ that she’s expected to conform about. The following conflicts Esther Greenwood experiences within the novel are both internal (Person vs self), and external with other characters in the novel (person
The societal ‘Bell Jar’ in this case, represents the expectations the characters in the novel have for Esther as a growing women in the 1950’s. In other terms, Esther was always told my other characters in the novel, like her mother and Mrs. Willard to follow the ideal role of a women and not to go against it, as it may result in losing respect for herself in society as a female. Speaking about this, Mrs. Willard always said “What a man wants is a mate and what a women wants is infinite security,” and, “what a man is is an arrow into the future and what a women is is the place the arrow shoots off from,”( 75). What Mrs. Willard was trying to explain to Esther was that, men and women both have different ideals and desires in life. Men only want a mate, someone to spend life with easily. The use of the term ‘mate’ in this quotation illustrates how men only look for a typical, robotic figure as their wife, not defining them as their ‘other half’ or an ‘ideal partner’, just a mate, someone lifeless, and controllable. Whereas, a women wants or should want in Esther’s case is a man that will give her infinite security. In other words, someone that would protect her from any kind of harm or danger and love her to the fullest. However, that wasn’t exactly what Esther desired in life or wanted to conform to as a female. In addition, as Mrs. Willard continues to say “What a man is is an arrow into the future and what a women is is the place the arrow shoots from”. Mrs. Willard was really trying to impose her expectations or what she thought were the societal expectations on Esther, trying to explain to her that the male figure was always dominant compared to the female figure in society during the 1950’s. This was because males usually played a governing or leading role in society after