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Plath's The Bell Jar (Cliffs Notes)

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I personally find Sylvia Plath's journals her most interesting work, but this comes in at a close second. This book will challenge just about anyone who reads it, whether you're depressed or not. If you've never been depressed in the way Esther is, you're going to ask yourself why she torments herself for no reason and perhaps feel that the storyline is implausible. the deeper you go into the book, the less sympathy you'll feel for her. If you HAVE been as depressed as Esther gets, you'll feel challenged for another reason: the book will reach TOO far into your mind and make TOO deep a connection with you because, well, Sylvia Plath describes depression very well. Her writing tends to make you feel like you and no one else are experiencing what she's going through with her, and it's pretty disturbing. However, it's also a quite rewarding experience. A "bell jar" is just a very apt term for a distorted view of the world that presents everything as seemingly inherently bad. Esther lives under one all the time, and she's not truly aware of it. Eventually her life is turned into a constant waking nightmare because she can't even say what's wrong with her. It's painful to read but it makes for some damn good reading. Reading this book will give you a very graphic idea of what it's like to live under a bell jar and what happens to people who live in permanent ones. You probably won't be the same after you read it.

I read this book immediately following "Girl, Interrupted" by Susanna Kaysen. This was an interesting coincidence because both these novels are (nearly) autobiolgraphical accounts of mental traumas these women suffered in their early 20's. In fact, both women had resided in the same mental hospital during their recuperation. I finished "Girl, Interrupted" a bit confused on how I had ever rationalized spending my time reading such a book in the first place. The author's over-personification of the trite theme of "crazy may be sane" wasn't even accompanied by a plot. Sadly enough, the most interesting part of the novel was the excerpt taken from a psychology textbook describing Kaysen's diagnosis. Then, I picked up "The Bell Jar," not knowing what it was about, and read it. It was everything "Girl, Interrupted" had tried to be and wasn't. The main character's experiences were real and meaningful, and the book itself tried less to shock its readers by trying to include monumental meaning, but instead, simply told its tale in a beautiful and harrowing way that perfectly reverberated the all-too-familiar struggles of a young woman emerging into an unfamiliar world that in its simpleness, conveyed more than even Kaysen could ever fathom being bestowed upon a reader.

I've been trying to broaden my reading range by throwing in a few classics here and there. One I had been interested in for quite some time is The Bell Jar. And with the Sylvia Plath movie coming out soon, I thought reading this book might be a nice complement to that. And what a real pleasure it turned out to be!

The Bell Jar does not read like a classic - "classic" being the term of very old books with very old language - the description I've always had for the classic genre. This book has a very contemporary writing style, and despite it being written in the 1960s, The Bell Jar's topic of mental illness certainly transcends the generations and can be related by many people no matter when they read the book. I absolutely loved it!

The Bell Jar tells the story of a young Esther Greenwood at the beginning of her mental decline. She first recognizes its oncoming during a summer of interning at a magazine company in New York City. Trying to fit in with the other interns, as well as dealing with boys and co-workers prove to be a struggle at times for Esther. And later, when the real depression and suicidal thoughts set in, readers are invited into a dark and scary world, one created realistically and with honesty by Ms. Plath.

This book ranks high on my list of all-time favorites. I'm so glad I read it. From now on, if people want to read a classic (or a darn good book for that matter), I won't hesitate to suggest The Bell Jar. It's fantastic!

The fact that I have read this book at least 50 times probably makes me the most unobjective reviewer possible. Still, having read many other reviews of The Bell Jar, I am struck by the fact that most readers respond mainly to the harrowing portrayal of Esther's descent into madness rather than the wry, biting humor with which Plath describes it. Certainly, as a 19 year old college student myself, reading the novel as an easy way out of an assignment to get to know a modern American poet, I was most taken in by Plath's cynicism. Still, although cynical and satirical, this book approaches greatness because it hacks through the false outer shell of the world and divulges the ugly truth that everything means nothing...or nothing means anything, which is a great tragedy for a young, brilliant woman like Esther who has so much to look forward to. Unfortunately, she discovers that all of her hard work and success aren't going to pay off in any meaningful way. She may walk out of her psychiatrist's office in full control (at the end of the book) but one senses that the lesson she's learned, that something's wrong with everyone, will die hard. The ability to do all this with a sense of humor is amazing, not to mention that her use of simile is, perhaps, the best ever.

Removed, unemotional, disturbing. That's Sylvia Plath's excellent book. Starting with her successes as a young adult, The Bell Jar is a fictionalized autobiography, in which she gives herself a different name. It chronicles her life through her mental breakdown, including electroshock therapy, and her fellow patients. Accuratly discribing the stresses of a girl in the 1950's, including whether to be a good little housewife or to follow her dreams. What should she choose?
The book is easy to read and quick.
This book, written a few years before Plath's suicide, makes subsequent accounts of insane asylums seem inconsequential, dull, and whiney.
You'll never look at mental institution fiction the same again.

Frequently, when I read about The Bell Jar, reviewers caomment on the parallels between Esther, and the author. Then they proceed to describe the book's harrowing descent into madness.

I almost hate to burst the bubble, but after reading the book, I find it to be widely misinterpreted. The book is not about Esther's problems, but the problems of the world about her.

When Plath wrote the book, she did so under a pseudonym. Not only, (as many suggest,) to avoid the ire of her friends, whose loosely drawn chariactures pepper this book, but also because of it's biting censure of her male oriented society. I have NO DOUBT in my mind that when Plath wrote the Bell Jar, she had no intentions of killing herself. I think the work should be viewed in that light, and when one does, it takes on a different, and far more profound meaning. Plath still needed to work in her time, so (In my opinion,) she wrote the Bell Jar to attack the restricted role of a woman in society, and she conveniently provided an out for any harsh critic, namely, that the main character is insane. To read it now, and interpret the main character as an insane, or unreliable narrator does a great disservice to what Plath intended for this work.

Plath, like Esther, was perhaps the smartest woman in America during her time. She won countless scholarships, and like Esther, a guest editing slot at Mademoiselle. Now a woman of her talents would be at Harvard on a full ride, but during her day, Esther, and Plath could only hope to someday become the editor of a glamor mag, forever telling women how to tell if their lover is cheating. Not much of an existance for a bright young woman.

Plath vents this frustration in the Bell Jar. Esther sees men all about her that will always be accepted, that will not be held back if they desire to become something irrational, or take on large career goals.

I'm thinking specifically of the birth sequence in the middle, when Buddy and Esther watch Mrs Tomolino give birth to her child. A fat intern says that women shouldn't be allowed to watch a birth, otherwise there'd never be any children. (I am paraphrasing.) Implying their unfitness to be a doctor, (while his own obvious physical limitations are of course, ignored.) What a ridiculous notion. The men assume that Esther will not be able to stand watching the birth but she does well, noting the use of the drug. When she is told that it doesn't kill the pain, but only makes the woman forget it, Esther thinks that this is a perfect example of a man's drug. One that allows the pain to exist, but shuts it away in a dark tunnel, where someday it will rise to swallow the woman. (Again with the paraphrasing.)

Other signs of this exist throughout the work. In fact, one can go as far as to say that every time her life is on track, or Esther is suceeding, the event is derailed in actuality, or symbolically, by man. (I've checked, and it is so.) The image of a bottled baby arises again and again, and Esther later states that she hates the role of mother, because of the restrictions it implies. To give in to the maternal impulse is to chain yourself to a child, to trap yourself, to become the bottled baby. Esther remarks that it is almost as if nature knew about the restrictive world of men, and it agreed, conspiring against her biologically as well.

I think that perhaps the single most telling line in the book is delivered by Buddy, whom I saw as a representative of men in Esther's life. When Esther, and Buddy's earlier girlfriend both end up committed, Buddy asks if there is something about him that "drives women crazy. "

If you read carefully, you'll note that Esther's doctor refutes the question, and dismisses it as a sort of casual "Of course not." Esther simply pushes some foam from the edge of her cup back into the coffee, and says nothing. Not because she agrees with the doctor... Else she would add her comments, but because he speaks the truth, and she knows affirming this will keep her in the asylum.

There is much much more that the enlightened reader may discover on his or her own, and I recommend that everyone who has read this book in their adolescent fits of suicidal fantasy, should return to the work with an eye towards its social commentary. I think you'll find the work to be stimulating, and still (sadly) relevant today. I only wish that Plath had found the strength to live though her troubles. We would still be reading her book, and revering it as a classic, but uncolored by her own experiences, the book could be freed of our society's focus on Esther's suicide attempt, and more on the conditions that created it, which definitely were NOT in her head.

I heard about The Bell Jar from amazon.com and all the reviews seemed to be fairly well so I went out and bought it. From the very beginning I loved Esther. If you're openminded, you can connect with her on this strange level. Sometimes you want to reach out to her and tell her it will be alright. A woman with everything she has has no reason to be depressed. But that's one of my favorite things about the book. Unlike others she doesn't become depressed over a man or a lost loved one, it's just something that happens to her, and even she can't figure it out.

At the beginning Esther is a brilliant young college student with great determination. However something, and there seems to be no explination for it, causes her to become depressed. Over and over she talks about "being her old self again." She goes through many institutions and a few shock treatments after attempted suicide before the "bell jar" is lifted from her head.

I love the way she describes her thoughts. I love the way she reacts to Buddy Willard and the way she stands up for herself to men unlike alot of women. I love everything about Esther, and I think you will too.

Words cannot describe this book as mine seem far from it. Esther almost seems to come alive in this book.

This is the only novel written by the famous poet Sylvia Plath. It is autobiographical in many aspects and covers her attempted suicide. The critics thought this book wasn't as literary as they had expected and I agree that it was more fun than seriously literary. They predicted the next novel that she was in the process of writing would be better in a literary sense but she never finished it before her suicide. I agree that the book is not of the same literary quality as her poems and that this is worth mentioning in a book review, but it was still great and it is a must read for any Plath fan.

This novel starts with the heroine's coveted internship with a posh fashion magazine in New York City, and then retracts to cover past aspects of her life, such as college and dating. The story then continues to the heroine's descent into madness, including her experiences with phsycologists and asylums and electric shock therapy.

This is one of the best books I have read recently. Parts of it made me laugh out load and other parts made me incredibly sad. The heroine experienced and felt things so deeply, and Plath had a way of making me feel them and experience them along with her. This is a fast-paced and still thought-provoking book that I finished very quickly, and then went back to read some parts again and savor the sweet little details. The Bell Jar deserves to be on everyone's bookshelf, or better yet, bedside table, being read and reread again for the delicious little emotional masterpiece that it is.

Like millions of other young women, I'm sure, I came across "The Bell Jar" in college, and I felt an immediate attachment to the book: it uplifted me, angered me, scared me, and made me feel deeply protective, all at the same time.

"The Bell Jar" tells the story of Esther Greenwood, an intelligent college student, as she slowly feels the "bell jar" of detachment and madness overtake her. As Esther goes from a prestigious internship in New York City to a summer at home with her mother in the Boston suburbs, her attachment to reality becomes more and more tenuous, until thoughts of suicide overtake her.

It is no secret that the story has at least a partial basis in reality, and that Sylvia Plath is writing from her own experience is perhaps what makes Esther so deeply real. I recently wrote a review of "Bridget Jones' Diary," and although "The Bell Jar" is undoubtedly a better book, there is a certain similarity between the protagonists: like Bridget, Esther is a character who is almost universally relatable. It does not matter if the reader is psychologically healthy or not: Esther awakens what she is feeling in all of us. My emotional response to "The Bell Jar" was on par with my emotional response to certain real-life events. I was uplifted to find a shared experience; angered at Esther's responses--and at the fact that they seemed reasonable to me; scared at the uncertainty I felt about myself and my own psychological state by the end of the book; and deeply protective--of Esther, of Sylvia Plath, and of every other reader who shared my experience.

I recognize that specifically speaking of the female experience when reading "The Bell Jar" could be considered rather narrow-minded of me. I certainly believe that this book can resonate with men as well, just as "The Catcher in the Rye" can resonate with women. There is something deeply female in Esther's experience, however, and I cannot put into words the extent of my appreciation that Plath was able to give a true voice to this femaleness, without getting defensive and without getting melodramatic.

My family read this book together so we could discuss it, and after having read it, our feelings were mixed.

Mom found this book utterly boring. She said she could not empathize with the main character, and didn't care what happened to her.

Dad enjoyed the imagery, and said he would like to read some of her poetry. He also enjoyed her observations, which were at times witty and clever. But he felt the book was lacking.

Then there's me. I really enjoyed The Bell Jar, finding it to be a real page-turner, even if not the greatest book I have ever read. After reading the biography in the back of the book, I have to think that Esther Greenwood and Sylvia Plath are one and the same.

One interesting point of The Bell Jar is that it can be interpreted in many ways, but one doesn't have to TRY to interpret it in order to understand and enjoy the story. That is, it can be read on many levels.

The content of this book is at times shocking, so I would steer the very faint of heart and children away. It's a good, easy read, and it paints a picture similar to Girl, Interrupted or One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. If you like a good, psychological study, you might want to read The Bell Jar. I also suggest The Bell Jar to a book discussion group, as there is plenty to talk about as the story moves along.