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- This quotation, which concludes the first section of Chapter 1, describes the disconnect Esther feels between the way other people view her life and the way she experiences her life.
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“Whenever I’m sad I’m going to die, or so nervous I can’t sleep, or in love with somebody I won’t be seeing for a week, I slump down just so far and then I say: ‘I’ll go take a hot bath.” ~Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar, Esther Greenwood, Chapter 2, Page 19. “I wondered why I couldn’t go the whole way doing what I should any more.
A summary of Chapters 19 & 20 in Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar. Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of The Bell Jar and what it means. Perfect for acing essays, tests, and quizzes, as well as for writing lesson plans.
Eventually, the gap between societal expectations and her own feelings and experiences becomes so large that she feels she can no longer survive. Explanation of the famous quotes in The Bell Jar, including all important speeches, comments, quotations, and monologues.
Find the quotes you need in Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, sortable by theme, character, or chapter. From the creators of SparkNotes.
When Esther sits up, she is alone and feels “limp and betrayed, like the skin shed by a terrible animal. It was a relief to be free of the animal, but it seemed to have taken my spirit with it.”. In her compact mirror, her face appears to be the face of someone beaten up in jail, staring out between bars.
The Bell Jar is set in 1950s America, a time when American society was predominantly shaped by conservative values and patriarchic structures. It was a society that placed particular restraints on women as it expected them to embody traditional ideals of purity and chastity and to aspire to the life of a suburban mother and homemaker rather than pursuing their own careers.
The Bell Jar Summary. In the summer of 1953, Esther Greenwood, a brilliant college student, wins a month to work as guest editor with eleven other girls at a New York magazine. Esther lives with the other girls at the Amazon, a woman’s hotel, and attends a steady stream of events and parties hosted by the magazine.
