“Wherever I sat—on the deck of a ship or at a street café in Paris or
Bangkok—I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own
sour air.” This small excerpt from The Bell Jar is undoubtedly a pivotal
and important statement made by Esther. It puts Esther’s thoughts into a light
that the reader can understand. She describes her situation as endless, it will
exist with her no mater where she goes. She is trapped inside of her own madness
with no external stimulation – nothing can be of amelioration… This notion of
the “bell jar” is a metaphorical way of representing the madness that separates
her from those she loves, those who love her, or even just people in general.
This is an interesting paradox in contrast with the beginning of the book when
she was merely the observer looking in on other people. Back to the point, the
bell jar symbolizes something deeper than a sturdy division. It suggests that
her feeling of madness descends on her without her own control, as if an
implied scientist is doing it. Because of this enclosure, she comes to suicidal
urges that stem from a deep rooted isolation.
“To the person in the bell jar, blank and stopped as a dead baby, the
world itself is the bad dream.” This quote serves to draw some conclusion
between some of the experiences that Esther has encountered. While her mother
insists that her condition should be treated as if it was merely a bad dream
that she can wake up from, she feels as if she cannot awake from the dream.
Esther likens a person that suffers from a mental illness to to the jarred
fetuses she saw with Buddy. This is an important illustration that portrays her
morbid connection of being trapped and the terror of madness.
For me the beginning of the book seemed promising, full of growth.
However, the book took a weird turn, Esther made immense progression towards
coming of age right at the very beginning but after her fall almost reverted
back into the life she once lived. There is no doubt that the experiences that
she had whether through people, moving to NY, or her internal thoughts gave her
a newfound maturity from the initial Esther that we saw, however, her situation
is hard to pinpoint. He thoughts about the Bell jar indicated that she was
hyper-aware of who she was and what was going on with her mental health, which
personally I think is a big step towards being of age.
This is an important point: that the progression from Esther noting vaguely and uneasily that "something was wrong with me" to the point where she (as a poet, with metaphorical inclinations) is able to frame her illness with the image of the bell jar, and all it implies, represents a significant development in her character, a coming-to-terms with her situation and even an ability to deal with it (as the metaphor then allows her to formulate her sense of the jar temporarily "lifting" and the fresh air now circulating around her). Given that Esther has a distinctly poetic intelligence (which we see throughout her metaphorical narrative), this way of demonstrating her understanding and awareness of her own condition is huge. She sees it as *not* "her" but something that *affects* her; the self she presents while under its influence is, to a significant extent, "not her."
ReplyDeleteYour examples from the preliminary stages of Esther's downward spiral are crucial to bring up when discussing how she descends deeper and deeper into her depression. Having now finished the novel, the reader can look at a scene like Esther's visit to the hospital with Buddy and see how something that didn't seem all that bad at the time affects her later in the institution and at the lowest point of her illness.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think that, even though she sort of comes into recovery and returns to being somewhat mentally sound, the fact that she's now aware of the bell jar, knows it follows her, and understands that it could descend on her again at any point, is a really massive step for Esther. Being in New York she's obviously cut off from the people around her, confused and isolated, and feeling profoundly disillusioned with the city, but she doesn't really seem to understand why quite yet. Once she's had everything fall down on her and begins to rebuild at the end of the novel, she's seen what it is that's causing all the pain and confusion in her life, and I think this marks a vital change in her world; perhaps it isn't coming-of-age, but more a sense of deep comprehension of herself as a person.
ReplyDeleteThe quote itself that states the world is a bad dream also becomes quite literal as the book progresses, in that the Bell Jar that Esther becomes confined by is one that she can't escape from. She can't fall asleep, so in a way, she never does get this break from the bad dream that is a result of the Bell Jar.
ReplyDeleteI think you touch on good points here in mentioning isolation and loss of control as reasons why the bell jar relates to Esther's disease. In addition I think that the bell jar in being used for observation shows the way Esther feels like her life is being controlled and watched because of her success and gender. It's a really interesting part of the book to play around with. Nice post, really well articulated!
ReplyDeleteThe talk of this bell jar hanging over her head was really sad, especially with Plath's life in mind. It's hard not to read this as some sort of cruel foreshadowing on Plath's later life when the Bell Jar did fall again and she took her own life.
ReplyDeleteI think that your pain about how she was at first observer and then feels like the observed is really important. It shows her transformation throughout the book, although she eventually comes back again. Additionally when the bell jar descends, she sees a now distorted view of the world, as glass often distorts how you see things. These two things together are really significant to showing her "madness".
ReplyDeleteI agree that Esther's new self-awareness at the end of the novel is a huge step towards coming of age. Even if she does end up resuming her previous life where she left off, she does so with a whole new outlook and set of understandings.
ReplyDelete