"The Bell Jar"

Paper Summary:

A central theme in Sylvia Plath's "The Bell Jar" is that of mother and daughter relationships, both biological and surrogate. This paper examines the relationship between Esther Greenwood and Mrs. Greenwood in the novel and briefly considers the surrogate mothers to whom Esther attaches herself.

From the Paper:

"The Bell Jar opens during a "queer, sultry summer" (Plath 1) with the events of the novel moving temporally forward until the fall. The female narrator and principle character of the novel, Esther Greenwood, begins her tale in New York, having won a scholarship to college and a fashion magazine contest that led to an internship at the same magazine as hosted the contest. Esther says, "I was supposed to be having the time of my life" (2), but a series of inner struggles lead Esther quickly down an initially dark road of depression, attempted suicide, institutionalization, and eventual recovery. Larson notes that "from the first pages Esther is concerned with the increasingly unbearable tension between external expectation and internal perception" (6). One significant source of this external expectation comes from Mrs. Greenwood. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Plath, Sylvia. The Bell Jar. Great Britain: Faber and Faber, 1966.
• Partridge, Stanley, Larson, Castricano. Engl 442: Modern American Fiction. 3rd Ed. Unit Five. Burnaby, BC: Open Learning Agency, 1997.
• Bourjaily, Vance. "Victoria Lucas and Elly Higginbottom." Publications of the Modern Language Association 76 (1961). Rpt. In Readings From the Critics. Ed. Keith Learmonth. Burnaby, BC: Open Learning Agency, 1997.

More papers on "The Bell Jar":

• Analytical Essay # 123039 : "Symbolism in "The Bell Jar"
• Book Review # 104279 : "Male Character Depiction in "The Bell Jar"
• Analytical Essay # 68614 : "Sylvia Plath's "The Bell Jar"
• Book Review # 68856 : "The Bell Jar"

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