Symbolism in The Bell Jar Essay

The title the bell jar can symbolic the emotional states of the character, Esther. The emotional state of Esther can be divided into several states. The first state is about her internship life. In the beginning of the book, when Esther first time went to New York City for her summer internship, she started to feel sick toward her surroundings. As she described, I didnt know what I was doing in New York. I am stupid about execution. The idea of being electrocuted makes me sickbut I couldnt help wondering what it would be likeI thought it must a worst thing in the world (Plath1). There was a gap between what people were expected her life and her own feelings and experience. She owned the things that people dreamed for long time like talent, wealth and luck. Esther should feel happy, enjoy her life, cherish for the things she had and infect by the flourishing atmosphere of New York City. Yet when she was in the hotel with her friends, she didnt feel as it is. There girls looked awfully bored to megirls like that make me feel sick. Im so jealous I cant speak (Plath 4), once again she felt uncomfortable to people around her. Even if her surroundings were full of happiness and noise, she still seemed like living in her own world. Her world was small and full of depression just like a bell jar. As she described, The silence depressed me. I know perfectly well the cars were making a noise, and the people in them and behind the lit windows of the buildings were making a noise but it might just as well not have been there at all, for all the good it did me. (Plath 17). This shows that Esther couldnt suite the reality and couldnt cheer up for everything.

Besides that, Esther found out that her relationship with man was supposed romantic and full of memories. In fact, everything seemed happened in a wrong way. Mrs. Willard and Esthers mother thought that Buddy was an intelligent and handsome man which was suitable for Esther. Yet Esther believed that she couldnt have ambitious and marriage at the same time. When she further knew more about Buddy, she realized that Buddy wasnt understood her at all. He didnt know Esthers passion for writing and he slept with a waitress while he dated with Esther. Esther hated him, felt unhappy and the sense of unreality began to grow. This can be shown in the phrase I simply told everyone that Buddy had TB and we were practically engaged, and when I stayed in to study on Saturday nights they were extremely kind to me because they thought I was so brave, working the way I did just to hide a broken heart (Plath 69). The pressure from Esthers family to marry makes her felt even stress.

In addition, Esther also confused about her career and future. The quote I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldnt make up my mind which of the figs I would chooseas I sat there unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black (Plath 73) show how depressed she was. She decided to write a novel but she found out that she was lack of experience. She also applied for the writing course in college but didnt accept by the college. At this point, her level of depression increased. Her life was dispirited as she stated I hadnt washed my hair for three weeks, either. I hadnt sleep for seven nights (Plath 122). She felt like trapped in bell jar again. She tended to get more sleeping pills from her doctor and she was encouraged to see a psychiatrist. The problem of Esthers mental state became severe. Her mother and doctor persuaded her to forget the past and face the reality with courageous but they failed. The feelings of anxiety, fear, sick, unhappy, depress and the darkness of life experience make her attempt to suicide for several times. Because of fear and other obstacles, she didnt kill herself. She kept thinking the various ways to suicide, for example she stated I thought drowning must be the kindest way to die, and burning the worst (Plath 155). She also tried to hang herself but failed to do so. At last, she took sleeping pills, hide in a cellar and fall asleep. The next morning, she was in the hospital and she was saved. The symbol of bell jar was first mentioned in beginning of the chapter 15. As the author wrote, wherever I sat-on a deck of a ship or at a street cafe in Paris or Bangkok-I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air(Plath 178).This explained that Esther actually lived in her own world. No matter where she was, she still trapped in her bell jar. At the end of the story, the symbolic of bell jar appeared again. The phrase how did I know that someday-at college, in Europe, somewhere, anywhere- the bell jar, with its stifling distortions, wouldnt descend again?(Plath 230) actually demonstrated the idea that even though Esther had recovered from the mental illness, still someday she might have the chance to trap into the bell jar again (Linda W.Wagner 1986). Thus, Sylvia Plath uses the title bell jar to demonstrate the deeper feelings or madness of Esther and how Esther trapped herself into the bell jar.

In addition, the bell jar also serves as a metaphor for the circumstances of American society at that time, especially refers to women and how people trapped themselves in social expectations (shmoop university 2011). Since the novel is written before feminist movement, the story clearly brings out the image of unhappiness and freedom limitations of women at that time (Perring 2004). The life of the main character, Esther actually represented the challenges that women met in the society. As social and surroundings people expected, Esther owned everything that women wished to have, wealth, job, luck and so on. Yet Esthers mother also expected that Esther could marry with Buddy who was an ideal man, just like Mrs. Willards theory What a man is is an arrow into the future and what a woman is is the place the arrow shoots off from. (Plath 67). This established the idea that society tended to view men and women in different way. In addition, the reasons for Esther suicide, though she thought that it was because of the mental illness, but actually there was also external issue that lead her to suicide. Esther didnt meet the qualifications for an ideal woman at that time was one of the reasons. Moreover, not only pressures from the society, but at the same time Esther also gave pressure to herself, that was to success in her career (Plath 1999). Her relationship with Buddy which forced her to choose between marriage and career once again trapped her in the bell jar. Women in 1950s couldnt have both career and marriage and they were eager to seek for freedom just like what Esther had been searching for such a long time I am climbing to freedom, freedom from fear, freedom from marrying the wrong person, like Buddy Willard, just because of sex, freedom from the Florence Crittenden Homes where all the poor girls go who should have been fitted out like me(Plath 213). This shown the desire of Esther to pursued her own life.