How Esther’s Womanhood Drives Her to Suicide
A main cause of Esther’s depression is her feeling of being trapped. Even the title of the book alludes to it; She lives under a bell jar, where the rest of the world is monstrously obscured and out of reach, and she’s stuck in her own cloud of emotions. Only after she undergoes therapy with Dr. Nolan does Esther start to feel the bell jar lift and her freedom return to her, yet she still fears the bell jar will trap her again without warning.
I think the concept of the bell jar isn’t just related to depression or mental illness. The isolation she experiences is also a result of her identifying as a woman. Throughout the novel, Esther feels severely discontented with her prospects that pertain to her gender. She is a highly successful student and earns many scholarships, one of which is a New York program that we first meet Esther in. However, in this special scholarship opportunity with other hardworking young women, they are still patronized by the people around them, which is shown through their placement in a women’s-only hotel, and their “photoshoot” where their aspirations in life must be communicated through one simple prop (they’re also expected to smile in this, which Esther is unable to do).
Esther also comes to the realization that no matter how hard she works, there really is only one path before her: to eventually get married and have children. The college degree will only be another bonus her husband can show off. Additionally, her path to marriage and motherhood will still not be under her control, since one of the main things of importance in her romance prospects is her virginity rather than her own personality, and as she witnessed with Buddy Willard, she would be completely dehumanized and drugged during her own child labor. This path does not appeal to Esther at all. However, due to her identity as a woman and the time period she’s living in (as well as her economic status), her options for a “successful life” are extremely limited. So, unlike Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye making plans of running away to escape his mundane, phony life, Esther can only plan to commit suicide to escape hers.
Great Post! I totally agree with you. Part of Esthers struggle also came from her gender. Compared to other women around this time her goal wasn't just to get married and live off her husband, she wanted to create her own career and be able to provide for herself. The society looked down on this a lot and especially when Buddy Willard told her that her opinion about marriage will change eventually, you could see that nobody took her plans serious. I think part of her didn't see any other option than trying to commit suicide.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree. The societal pressure on Esther to become a mother definitely seems to have played a large role in Esther's descent into depression. It's as though nobody treated Esther as Esther, but instead treated her more like an object that was only good for becoming a mother. At the end of the story, she is worried that she may be trapped in the bell jar again. Perhaps it is because she has only found temporary happiness, and society will continue to expect her to give up her dreams and become a mother.
ReplyDeleteThis whole post calls up that one passing remark Esther makes, as she contemplates the other college women in her dorm as themselves being "under bell jars of a sort" too. She isn't saying that they are experiencing incipient clinical depression and schizophrenia, but that (in my reading) even "sane" courses of behavior and expectations for women in this society is madness, that the conventional context of college and achievement Esther had occupied is itself "insane" to a significant extent. This could mean a wide range of things, and I always think of it in terms of Esther gaining critical consciousness through her ordeal--she now sees her peers whom she used to look up to as themselves being "trapped" by their gender roles in a limiting social context. With this idea in mind, we can see the "jar lifting" at the end of the novel as at least in part a resuly of Nolan enabling Esther to explore some unconventional sexual behavior for a young woman in her social class, to experience a degree of freedom from the conventional views that "trap" the other women she goes to college with.
ReplyDeleteI think that Plath's choice in a bell jar as a metaphor is really interestingly accurate. The jar not only traps her and distorts her perception of everyday life through her mental health, but, as you say, it also shows how she is trapped by the societal role that everyone expects and assumes her to fill. All of these come together in a weird cesspool of mental health problems for her, leading to her suicide attempt.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree, Esther definitely does not want to be trapped on the same path she sees the other women around her on, and I think that is also a big part of why she actually notices the metaphorical bell jar over her, as she sees the singular path society expects her to take and wants to break free, be different than everyone else, and live her own life. Good post!
ReplyDeleteI think that this is such an important thing to touch on, especially considering the time that this novel was written and published. Luckily, nowadays women have a bit more of a path towards pursuing work and being someone beyond just a mother, but when this novel is set, women are fully stuck in their gender role. Acknowledging how detrimental this could be to someone's mental health is really important and I think The Bell Jar does a really good job of this.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you! I feel that the bell jar is like a display case, and Esther is trapped inside under the pressure and forced by society to be shown off as a housewife with a successful husband, none of which she wants for herself. It reminds me of trapping an ant in a cup. Like Esther, the ant has no way of escape, unless it is let out or dies, both of which she has considered.
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