Marilyn Hassett
Esther Greenwood
Search results
People also ask
Who are the characters in the bell jar?
What is the plot of the bell jar?
What is a typical coming-of-age story in the bell jar?
Who wrote the bell jar?
A list of all the characters in The Bell Jar. The Bell Jar characters include: Esther Greenwood , Mrs. Greenwood , Buddy Willard .
- Quick Quiz
Take a quiz about the important details and events in of The...
- Esther Greenwood
Esther Greenwood is the protagonist and narrator of The Bell...
- Quick Quiz
Need help on characters in Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar? Check out our detailed character descriptions. From the creators of SparkNotes.
- Overview
- Summary
- Legacy
The Bell Jar, novel by Sylvia Plath, first published in January 1963 under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas and later released posthumously under her real name. The work, a thinly veiled autobiography, chronicles a young woman’s mental breakdown and eventual recovery, while also exploring societal expectations of women in the 1950s. Plath committed sui...
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. She meets two other interns who manifest contrasting views of femininity as well as Esther’s own internal conflicts: the rebellious and sexual Doreen and the wholesome and virginal Betsy. During this time, Esther thinks about her boyfriend, Buddy Willard, and her anger when he admitted that he was not a virgin, claiming to have been seduced. She believes he is a hypocrite, having acted as if she was more sexually experienced. After being rejected for a writing class, Esther must spend the rest of her summer at home with her mother; Esther’s father died when she was young. She struggles to write a novel and becomes increasingly despondent, making several half-hearted suicide attempts. She ultimately overdoses on sleeping pills but survives.
Britannica Quiz
Famous Novels, Last Lines Quiz
Esther is admitted to a mental institute, where she is treated by a progressive psychiatrist who, among other things, eases her concerns about premarital sex and encourages her to obtain a diaphragm. In addition, Esther undergoes electric-shock treatment, which makes her feel as if she has been freed from a bell jar. While on a night pass, Esther loses her virginity, which she sees as a millstone. When she begins hemorrhaging, she seeks the help of another patient, Joan, who goes with her to the emergency room. Shortly thereafter Joan commits suicide, and her death seems to quell Esther’s own suicidal thoughts. The novel ends with a seemingly reborn Esther about to face the examination board, which will decide if she can go home.
Initially celebrated for its dry self-deprecation and ruthless honesty, The Bell Jar is now read as a damning critique of 1950s social politics. Plath made clear connections between Esther’s dawning awareness of the limited female roles available to her and her increasing sense of isolation and paranoia. The contradictory expectations imposed upon women in relation to sexuality, motherhood, and intellectual achievement are linked to Esther’s sense of herself as fragmented. Her eventual recovery relies on her ability to dismiss the dominant versions of femininity that populate the novel.
Although concerned with the stifling atmosphere of 1950s America, The Bell Jar is not limited to examination of gender. The novel opens with the sentence “It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs,” which refers to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted of spying for the Soviet Union. This allusion to the Cold War and McCarthyism makes implicit connections between Esther’s experiences and the other paranoias and betrayals that characterized the decade.
The novel was inspired by events that occurred when Plath was in her early 20s. Although the work ends on a hopeful note, Plath took her own life in 1963. Her acclaimed poetry collection Ariel (1965) was published posthumously.
Students save 67%! Learn more about our special academic rate today.
- Sylvia Plath, Frances Monson McCullough, Lois Ames
- 1963
Character List. Esther Greenwood The "I" of The Bell Jar. Buddy Willard Esther's boyfriend, the son of one of her mother's friends. Buddy is a student at Yale; he plans to be a doctor. Doreen The glamorous, sexy, fiction contest winner from the South. She and Esther meet in New York City, where Doreen tries to help Esther with clothes and men.
Characters. Publication history. Style and major themes. Womanhood and women's roles. Mental health. Parallels in Plath's life. Reception. Legacy and adaptations. See also. References. Further reading. External links. The Bell Jar is the only novel written by the American writer and poet Sylvia Plath.
- Sylvia Plath, Frances Monson McCullough, Lois Ames
- 244
- 1963
- January 1963
Sylvia Plath. Characters Discussed. PDF Cite. Esther Greenwood, a bright college student who aspires to be a writer. At the age of nineteen, brown-eyed and brown-haired, Esther feels somewhat out...
