For the last day of The Bell Jar, we will be taking up the themes of birth, rebirth and death, especially in light of "the baby" that appears on p. 3 only to disappear for the rest of the novel. We will ask about Joan, writing, and, finally, we will consider the question at the center of the novel: Is Esther "crazy"? And what is the eponymous bell jar all about?
Post your discussion questions below.
Post your discussion questions below.
We continuously see that a Bell Jar is related to both life and death. More specifically, we see esther relate a person in a bell jar as a dead baby. Other than being a 'ritual of being born twice,' what does the lifting of the bell jar signify for esther? How does she think the bell jar would come back?
ReplyDeleteBuddy tell Esther he wonders who shes is going to marry now that she had been in an asylum. Esther replies that she doesn't know. Does Esther's rebirth out of the asylum feel more free because she doesn't have the pressure of marrying someone now that she is "crazy"?
ReplyDeleteEsther's friend Joan who dated Buddy before her and comes to the asylum under the inspiration of Esther's suicide story is almost a double of Esther herself. However at the end of the novel Joan hangs herself despite seeming to be improving in her mental state. Besides a reflection of herself, what does Joan represent to Esther? Why does Esther have conflicting feelings about her? What does Joan's suicide mean to Esther and what does it say about her recovery?
ReplyDeleteWhat exactly does the bell jar represent? After Esther's shock therapy, she says that she felt "surprisingly at peace." At that time, the bell jar was above her, and she felt open. This seems to mean that the shock therapy worked. It was as if all the heat and fear had purged itself. Since the shock therapy worked, does that mean Esther was crazy and this cured her?
ReplyDeleteIn Chapter 20, there is a line that reads, “To the person in the bell jar, blank and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is the bad dream.” What is the significance of this line and how does it relate to “the baby” mentioned in the beginning of the book?
ReplyDeleteEsther in these last parts seems to openly want support, especially from her doctor, easily seen when she is about to get shock therapy again, and near the end when she's about to meet with all the other doctors, and wants her support. Are these signs that she's getting better or just getting more accustomed to the society she's in and wants confirmation?
ReplyDeleteAfter Esther loses her virginity to Irwin, she starts to bleed uncontrollably. She goes to the hostiptial for it, and then practically forces Irwin to pay for her hospitial bill. She then completely shuts Irwin out of her life. Did this action hold some sense of empowerment for Esther? Was this some how her way of having power over a man and getting rid of the double standard of men and women?
ReplyDelete-Rebecca Sai
Esther's "return to sanity" seems to happen at the same time Joan dies. What is the connection between these two events? Why might they occur simultaneously? Additionally, what can the reader learn about Esther as she recognizes the absence of her "craziness" which had pervaded the majority of the novel?
ReplyDeleteAlthough not quite Jennifer Love Hewitt, this question is still really really awesome. Good catch.
DeleteDr. Nolan is the maternal figure that supports Esther mentally and physically throughout her time in the asylum. Even after she feels betrayed by Dr. Nolan, Esther still trusts and relies on her. Esther’s feelings toward her doctor contrast those she has for her own mother. Does the relationship between Esther and Dr. Nolan allow Esther to finally feel valued by a maternal figure? Is Esther nearly “reborn” because she now has someone who will understand her and help her if the bell jar envelops her again?
ReplyDeleteJoan plays a large part in the last few chapters of the novel and Esther seems to see a parallel between their lives. What does this connection show and what does Joan's death mean? Since Esther thought of Joan's life as an alternate to her own, what does this say about the role of women in society and what type of lives they can have? How does this relate to the idea if the asylum and Esther's craziness?
ReplyDeleteAlso, in many scenes when Esther visits a doctor or is being taken care of by buddy, why do the men always laugh or have a smile on their face? What does this say about the power relation between women and men? What does this say about the men that they laugh when the female is hurt and needs theis assurance?
I vaguely recall someone at some point saying these don't necessarily have to be questions (besides, I'm a rebel...) I'd like to comment on her being "crazy":
ReplyDeleteEsther isn't crazy. The latter half of the book where she seems crazy is just a result of temporary depression.
The genius of Plath is to take a character like Ester who is critical, analyzing, self-aware, and intelligent and to strip her of control of her life. The shift in Esther’s character is so fantastic that it seems like she has gone insane. Throughout the book, though, Esther still retains part of her self-awareness and criticality. The mind of somebody insane probably doesn’t work that way.
The bell jar is a metaphor for being trapped in a vicious cycle of depression. And the more time she spends in the jar, the more “sour” it gets inside. The metaphorical “lifting” of the jar is releasing her from that depression. But more importantly, who or what controls the lifting of the jar? Ester knows that it is not herself.
“… the bell jar, with its stifling distortions, wouldn't descend again?”
Why did Joan commit suicide? Why were there no signs at all that she was suicidal?
ReplyDeleteaside from the limiting, depressing effects that bell jar has on Esther, she states that " Those [college girls] too, sat under a bell jar of a sort" (277). Why does Esther think normal girls would also be trapped under the bell jar? How is this statement significant with regard to Esther's experience as a female in the society and to feminism at large?
ReplyDeleteIn Chapter 18, Esther is at a new ward getting new shot treatments. It is in this chapter that she decides to lose her virginity What connection can be made, if any, to the shock therapy treatment at the new ward and Esther's decision to get fit for a diaphragm in order to lost her virginity?
ReplyDeleteHow does the "removing" of the bell jar show Esther's rebirth? How does Plath's own life and its end allude to what probably happened to Esther beyond the final pages?
ReplyDeleteAt one point of reflection, Esther says "Sometimes I wondered if I had made Joan up. Other times I wondered if she would continue to pop in at every crisis of my life to remind me of what I had been, and what I had been through..." What does this statement reveal about Esther's frame of mind? What does Esther's recognition of Joan as a parellel figure in her life say about Esther's state of being at this time? If Esther see's Joan as the younger, once healthier version of herself, she reminds her of what she once had been, and then Joan commits suicide, what does this say about Esther's awareness of her own journey?
ReplyDeleteTowards the end of the novel, Esther is waiting for the Doctor when she comments to herself, "There ought, I thought, to be a ritual for being born twice - patched, retreaded and approved for the road." How does this quote show how Esther psychologically now views herself? Is she saying she has been "approved for the road" and fixed from her depression? Or is it just wishful thinking?
ReplyDeleteEsther ostensibly experiences two instances of rebirth--once after meeting and leaving Irwin and again after the funeral. Do these instances of rebirth correspond to Esther's relationships with others? Do they show Esther's attempts to break a societal double standard (a societal bell jar, as it were)?
ReplyDeleteHow does Joan represent a darker, suicidal side of Esther? Why does Joan's death lead to the rebirth of Esther?
ReplyDeleteEsther doesn't get her breakfast one morning, and she knows it is because she will have her shock treatment. Although she feels betrayed by Dr. Nolan, she is calmed down by Dr. Nolans motherly nature. After she gets shocked, she cracks open an egg with a knife and remembers loving knives but cant recall why. What may the egg and the knife symbolize at this point in the story?
ReplyDeleteAfter the suicide of Joan, Esther appears to have felt remorse for her death. Compared to previously where Esther showed no sympathy, Joan definitely appears better or cured by the shock therapy. Does this suggest that Esther was crazy before and that the combination of maternal love from Dr. Nolan, the insulin shots, and the shock therapy worked to lift the "bell jar" that trapped her with suicidal thoughts?
ReplyDeleteThe image of a floating cadaver head that is introduced on the first page of the book is one of the many motifs found throughout the story. The most recent instance is when Esther finds out about Joan's death, and when she then tries to go to sleep she describes Joan's face as "float[ing] before me, bodiless and smiling, like the face of the Cheshire cat." Obviously death troubles Esther very much, but at the same time she is so infatuated with finding ways to cause her own death. Is this dichotomous personality done with by the end of the book? Or is she still "crazy" in that sense?
ReplyDeleteTo go along with the theme of birth and rebirth, what do you think Esther really means at the end of the novel when she says, "There ought, I thought, to be a ritual for being born twice..." (p 244)
ReplyDelete"To the person in the bell jar, blank and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is a bad dream" (Electronic version) What does this quote mean? Does this quote symbolize Esther and her life in New York? How?
ReplyDelete