What did Sylvia Plath mean by The Bell Jar?

Initially celebrated for its dry self-deprecation and ruthless honesty, The Bell Jar is now read as a damning critique of 1950s social politics. Plath made clear connections between Esther’s dawning awareness of the limited female roles available to her and her increasing sense of isolation and paranoia.

What is The Bell Jar a metaphor for?

In The Bell Jar, the main character uses the bell jar as the primary metaphor for feelings of confinement and entrapment. She feels that she’s stuck in her own head, spinning around the same thoughts of self-doubt and dejection, over and over again, with no hope of escape.

What is the main idea of The Bell Jar?

The primary theme of the novel is a feminist one, but it is closely related to the theme of madness and sanity. The Bell Jar focuses on the crazy making society of its protagonist. If a woman is ambitious and talented, she will find no place in the society of the 1950s. The norm is tyrannical.

What does it mean when Esther gets a fitting in The Bell Jar?

The doctor is cheerfully unobtrusive, and as he fits her Esther thinks delightedly that she is gaining freedom from fear and freedom from marrying the wrong person. Her birth control acquired, Esther wants to find the right man with whom to lose her virginity.

What is the plot of the bell jar?

The Bell Jar Summary. The Bell Jar takes place during the early fifties and begins in New York City, during a sultry summer in which the narrator, Esther Greenwood, is an intern at a fashion magazine after winning a scholarship. She soon befriends Doreen, a fellow scholarship winner who is perpetually cynical and bemused.

Why is the bell jar called the bell jar?

In 1963, Sylvia Plath , a famous American writer, published a novel called The Bell Jar. The title referenced the fact that a bell jar essentially traps something to keep it on display. Plath used the jar as a metaphor to talk about the repression of women in American society.

Who is the main character in the bell jar?

Esther Greenwood, the main character in The Bell Jar, describes her life as being suffocated by a bell jar. Analysis of the phrase “bell jar” shows it represents ” Esther ‘s mental suffocation by the unavoidable settling of depression upon her psyche”.

What are some metaphors in the book The bell jar?

One integral metaphor within The Bell Jar is that of the fig tree, which Esther uses to describe her life. She envisions her life as a fig tree spreading out its branches into various futures she could have. One branch symbolizes what society expects of her: to have a husband, children, and a “happy home” (Plath 84).