Preview

Depression In The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
974 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Depression In The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath
The Bell Jar: Character Analysis
Many people suffer from depression, but do we do something about it? Many don’t know when someone is suffering from depression, and if they do, they don’t pay much attention or just ignore it and don’t know what to do to help the person. What happens when a person does not get any help? Sadly, many attempts to commit suicide and they succeed. But what makes a person take away their life? Sylvia Plath's “The Bell Jar” is an interesting classic story told in the 1950s whose story ends with a mystery that is never resolved. In the novel, Esther, the main character, is suffering from depression and attempts to kill herself multiple times. Bullying is usually a significant factor in causing depression but, for Esther, this was not the case. Various reasons caused her depression, especially the death of her father, her unfortunate experience in college, and the fact that she did not have support from her mother or any other person.
This piece of literature was written by Sylvia Plath who suffered through a severe depression that brought her to the end of her life. The character analyzed in this research paper is …show more content…
It was like she was trapped in a bell jar, Esther mentions this in the book. She was stuck, and she couldn't find a way out to her wished dream for happiness. Her dark emotions took complete control of her, and there was no light to save her from her dark self. When released from the mental hospital, she had light in her, but as time passed by, she went back to her dark side and attempted to kill herself one more time and survived. She went back to being depressed and had no hope, no sign of light once again. This recurring depression is where her mother came in and started to support her daughter in the best way she could, but it was still not the complete support Esther needed to get better
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Essay On The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath
    • 733 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Essay On The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath

    So Plath being the writer of this book The Bell Jar, along with many other book must have had some kind of meaning in that she is saying. you would have to assume Sylvia could be just writing…

    • 733 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Symbolism In The Bell Jar
    • 713 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Symbolism In The Bell Jar

    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]…

    • 713 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Comparison Of Sylvia Plath: The Wound And The Cure Of Words
    • 769 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Comparison Of Sylvia Plath: The Wound And The Cure Of Words

    Steven Gould Axelrod is an expert in nineteenth and twentieth-century American poetry, and his book “Sylvia Plath: The Wound and the Cure of Words” was published in 1990. Sylvia Plath was an American poet, born in 1932, and died in 1963 when she committed suicide. I totally agreed with Steven Gould Axelrod’s idea in this book, especially when he said that the poem “Daddy,” Sylvia’s most famous poem – is dramatic and allegorical. At the beginning of the book, Axelrod mostly focused on Sylvia’s life and how “Daddy” was brought into the world, then in the middle of the book, he compared how Sylvia described her father in her two poets, “Daddy” and “The Colossus,” and at the end, he continued to compare the figure “I” in “Daddy” and “The Colossus,” Sylvia herself identity.…

    • 769 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Bell Jar Analysis
    • 967 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Bell Jar Analysis

    The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath is a novel that was published in 1963 that chronicles the story of Esther Greenwood. Esther is a young woman who just finished her junior year of college, and like most young adults her age, she is plagued with an overwhelming sense of uncertainty about what lies in store for her in the future. Esther is extremely conflicted between the various paths she could choose to follow, which leads her into a state of depression that ultimately sends her to an asylum. There, she undergoes electroshock therapy, which does not alleviate her depression in the slightest. Esther only ever starts to feel emotions apart from her depression when her friend, Joan, whom she met in the asylum, surprisingly commits suicide. Esther continues…

    • 967 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Sylvia Plath Biography Essay
    • 827 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Sylvia Plath Biography Essay

    When speaking about Sylvia Plath a word too often use is Tragedy, the tragedy that was her life and the pain that ended it. Plath is known for her cynical twisted writing, but never too far from the truthful pain no one dared to speak about. Plath was far more than just a sad woman who made it an art form. Plath was more than other women on the Ted Hughes list of accomplishments, she was a literary genius and was a face of a movement that 50 years later is still worthy of praise. Sylvia Plath should be known for not only her literary accomplishments but the voice she created for women too not only speak about the unspeakable but to be open about the serious nature of mental illness. Sylvia Plath’s suicide is said to have overshadowed…

    • 827 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Sylvia Plath Research Paper
    • 4554 Words
    • 19 Pages

    Sylvia Plath Research Paper

    Plath 's poetry is full of symbols and allusions cryptic to those unfamiliar with her biography, so it is necessary to begin any analysis of her work with a brief account of her life. Sylvia Plath was born on October 27, 1932 near Boston and for much of her childhood lived near the sea, which finds its way into many of her poetic images (Barnard 14). Her father, Otto Emil Plath, was an immigrant from Germany and her mother, Aurelia Schober, a second generation Austrian American (Barnard 13). Allusions to her German heritage and to World War Two era Europe abound in her work.…

    • 4554 Words
    • 19 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Mental Illnesses In Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar
    • 242 Words
    • 1 Page

    Mental Illnesses In Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar

    Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar destroys the social stigma of women with mental illnesses. Plath’s personal story, one that deals with suicide, serves as the meat of the novel; the names of the people are changed. Esther Greenwood, the main character, reflects Plath’s mental illness in an unmistakable way, as she can be identified in theories dealing with suicidal tendencies.…

    • 242 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Mental Illness In The Bell Jar
    • 102 Words
    • 1 Page

    Mental Illness In The Bell Jar

    Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar is a masterpiece written to open the audience's mind. Esther Greenwood, the main character of the story, unfortunately suffers with the mental illness, depression. Some argue that The Bell Jar connects Plath's life to Esther's and each event that happened to Esther happened to Plath. Plath describes how doctors, parents and other people act around Esther while she struggles with this devastating illness. The Bell Jar is a zeitgeist for the 1950’s and explains the techniques and the treatment of people who strive to end the everlasting battle between them, in this case Esther Greenwood, and depression.…

    • 102 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Poetry Analysis Paper
    • 1287 Words
    • 1 Page

    Poetry Analysis Paper

    Love Song,” by Sylvia Plath, she gives you a glimpse of how it is to live with the feeling of…

    • 1287 Words
    • 1 Page
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    LITERARY ANALYSIS- The Bell Jar and Symbolism
    • 1048 Words
    • 3 Pages

    LITERARY ANALYSIS- The Bell Jar and Symbolism

    An idea of individuality is imperative when dealing with the numerous emotional and physical trials in life. The ability to express ourselves plays a key role in understanding and responding to the things that surround people. In “The Bell Jar”, Esther’s mental health problems and staunched individuality are symbolized through the bell jar metaphor.…

    • 1048 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Depression In The Bell Jar
    • 1259 Words
    • 6 Pages

    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…

    • 1259 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath
    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath

    Sylvia had no trouble writing this book due to her experiences with suicidal depression. Sylvia was first diagnosed with depression at the age of 20. This depression set in due to the fact she did not get into a writing class at Harvard and was overworking herself. She then proceeded to cut herself on her thighs in an attempt to commit suicide. She was later referred to a physiatrist and they decided to start her on ETM, electroconvulsive therapy. Although that did not take to her depression. So, Plath set out on a new method, swallowing sleeping pills. Upon doing so she went into a coma for two days and was found under her porch by her family after making noises. These events described were actually in the book due to Plath writing her thoughts into her work. Plath knew depression better than anything and though it was good too write her thoughts out. In doing so it helped her cope with her depression better. Yet Sylvia was also sad as a child because her father was not there and her mixed feelings for her mother. Plath later took one final attempt by putting her head in the oven. She was found dead with her head in the oven and the gas turned…

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Sylvia Plath Research
    • 2581 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Sylvia Plath Research

    Sylvia Plath was born in 1932 during the peak of the great depression when unemployment soared over 20%. Although she was subject to a life filled with hardships and anguish, Sylvia allowed those hardships to shape her as a socially adept young woman. Plath excelled academically, and allowed her writing to be influenced by her rough past. After marrying a fellow poet Ted Hughs and having two children, she published hundreds of works that told of her tragic life and unreasonable thoughts. Soon, poetry wasn’t enough to keep Plath sane after an affair and divorce and she ended her life in 1963 after many failed attempts. Through and through, Sylvia Plath was a very bright, mid-20th century poet who will remain forever famous for her proficient achievements in writing, trying marriage, and history of abuse and suicide.…

    • 2581 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Coming Of Age Literature Analysis
    • 1606 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Coming Of Age Literature Analysis

    Mental health is a concept widely explored throughout canonical literature with the range of texts exploring such issues being remarkably diverse. In contemporary literature, a number of works have incorporated mental illness as a primary theme. Two texts that do so are ‘The Bell Jar’ and ‘Girl, Interrupted’. The former is a semi-autobiographical novel authored by Sylvia Plath and recited from the perspective of the protagonist, Esther Greenwood. 18-year-old Esther battles with depression as she seeks to escape the shackles of societal stigma. The latter is the memoir of depressed and directionless teenager,…

    • 1606 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Sylvia Plath Symbolism
    • 1052 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Sylvia Plath Symbolism

    To begin with, Suicide is high in cause of deaths, primarily in teens ranging from thirteen through nineteen. Teens go through stress, bullying, and heartbreaks various reasons that may cause them to want to take their life. Suicide has not always been a detrimental deed or a sin to God, back in history suicide was considered an honorable way to die (Moss, Joyce, and George Wilson). In The Bell Jar Plath incorporates symbolism, symbolism of waves to express the amount of illness she had(Sylvia Plath, 23). When a vast wave from the ocean or beach comes rolling in everything beneath the blue ocean water comes spitting out and once the wave goes back down everything is left soggy and flimsy. When Plath would hurl she felt limp like items just being washed up…

    • 1052 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics