The Bell Jar - [short] Book Review

tw/ suicide attempt, suicidal thoughts, brief mention of sexual assault

Plath’s only novel, The Bell Jar, is painfully harsh. I went into this book without any prior knowledge (shocking, I know) so I did not really have a clue what it was about. I am both delighted and sad about that; glad because I was quite impressed with what I read and upset for not knowing that the book is not a light-hearted one.

Plath’s The Bell Jar follows the life of Esther Greenwood, a straight-A student, and how her mental health steadily spirals down resulting in her suicide attempt and then being institutionalized. The book starts off with her on her summer job in the city of New York, it then shifts back to her past studying in an all-girls school, and shifts again to the present when she suffers from depression and receives treatments for it.

As an already great admirer of Plath’s poetry, I was very much pleased with her composition in her sole novel. The writing of the text is quite comprehensible despite the constant shifts from past to present and vice versa.

Plath frequently questions the societal role of women and what is expected of them. Esther’s character is an embodiment of women that are trapped in this patriarchal society which expects them to follow what is “right” for them. For instance, Esther often questions if she should just marry a man and bear his children because that is ultimately what she has to do. And after Esther is institutionalized, she is declared undesirable for men, that no one would marry her. What this shows is how women are perceived in the public eye and how everything they do must be in accordance with society or else they are considered as indecent or rebels. The dos-and-don’ts for a woman are established by an invisible yet influential authority.

The men in Plath’s book are not presented in a nice light: they possess the qualities of selfishness and asserting dominance. Esther’s former boyfriend, Buddy, hides his affair he had with “some slutty waitress”. Despite the several times he had intercourse with the waitress, he still considers himself “pure” because it was not his fault that he was seduced by a woman. And when a girl agrees to have sexual intercourse with a man after being emotionally manipulated, she “would lose all respect” because if she could do it one man, she could with “other men” as well.

When Buddy visits Esther during the period she is hospitalized, instead of asking after her, he egotistically asks her if he possesses some quality which drove women “crazy” (Buddy’s former girlfriend, Joan, was also in the same hospital as Esther). Another instance of such arrogant behavior is displayed by Marco, a man she is set up with by her friend at a country club. He treats her harshly, forcing her to dance with him, and even attempts to sexually assault her, asserting his dominance over her and repeatedly calling her a “slut”.

Although the book did disturb me on multiple occasions, I personally enjoyed reading it. Many of Plath’s feminist arguments aligned with that of my own. While I would highly recommend this book, I warn you this book is definitely not for the light-hearted. Though Plath does not explicitly describe the triggering subjects, they are nevertheless uncomfortable topics to approach without prior knowledge.

The Bell Jar is not simply about the confinement of a woman’s mind, but also her body by a society that determines what is fitting for her. The book ends on a hopeful note, indicating that Esther would possibly recover from her despondent thoughts and reclaim both her mind and her body. The ending also seems to advocate that a woman can proudly stand on equal terms with a man, with or without achievements attached to her life.