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Autobiographical novel
- The Bell Jar is an autobiographical novel that conforms closely to the events of the author’s life.
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May 3, 2024 · Summary. The Bell Jar details the life of Esther Greenwood, a college student who dreams of becoming a poet. She is selected for a month-long summer internship as a guest editor of Ladies’ Day magazine, but her time in New York City is unfulfilling as she struggles with issues of identity and societal norms.
- Sylvia Plath, Frances Monson McCullough, Lois Ames
- 1963
- Sylvia Plath wanted to write a bestseller like The Snake Pit. Plath always called The Bell Jar a “potboiler”—a term used to refer to something created with the popular tastes of the day in mind.
- The Bell Jar is partially based on Sylvia Plath’s “guest editorship” at Mademoiselle. The first half of the novel follows Greenwood though a summer internship at Ladies' Day magazine in New York.
- Like Sylvia Plath, Esther Greenwood tries to die by suicide and is sent to a hospital. After returning from New York, Greenwood discovers that she didn’t get into a writing class, which accelerates her depression.
- After years of writer’s block, Sylvia Plath wrote The Bell Jar very quickly. Plath repeatedly tried to write about her mental breakdown but found that she was hopelessly blocked on the subject.
Esther describes her life as being suffocated by a bell jar. A bell jar is a thick glass container sometimes used to create a vacuum space. Here, it stands for "Esther's mental suffocation by the unavoidable settling of depression upon her psyche".
- Sylvia Plath, Frances Monson McCullough, Lois Ames
- 1963
Jul 3, 1971 · July 3, 1971. Photograph by Jean Gaumy / Magnum. The story of a poet who tries to end her life written by a poet who did, Sylvia Plath’s “The Bell Jar” (Harper & Row) was first published...
- Howard Moss
The novel, which has been described as a witty but harrowing coming of age story, contains autobiographical elements relating to Plath’s struggles with bipolar disorder. It was originally published in London in January of 1963—a month before Plath’s suicide—under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas.
The Bell Jar is an autobiographical novel that conforms closely to the events of the author’s life. Sylvia Plath was born to Otto and Aurelia Plath in 1932 and spent her early childhood in the seaport town of Winthrop, Massachusetts.
Feb 9, 2023 · The Bell Jar tells the story of a young woman’s breakdown and recovery, but it is also a devastating critique of a paternalistic psychiatric system that regarded ambition in women as neurotic. In 1953, Plath had won a coveted spot as a summer guest editor at Mademoiselle magazine in Manhattan.
