The Bell Jar

Plath's only novel is a semi-autobiographical account of a girls slow decline into madness. I was expecting something harrowing and evocative, much like Elizabeth Wurtzel's "Prozac nation" which really made me angry and annoyed with her self indulgence. Plath's character, Ester, is however easy to identify with and doesn't create any of these negative emotions. I was surprised at how easy Ester was to like and how much I identified with her. Ester did not seem crazy, she didn't act crazy, with one exception, she attempted to kill herself. Her suicide grew from one particular and easy to identify with place, she had no idea where to go with her life. A brilliant collage student, she was on the precipice of life in the real world, and she had no idea which way to go. Constrained by the conventions of her time, does she get married and have children and become dull? Or does she travel to amazing place like the wilds of Africa or Europe? Does she become a writer? Or a tough New York Editor? She sees all these choices as figs on a tree, and she knows if she chooses one, the rest will fall so she sees herself sitting immobile as all the figs turn black and rot around her. This is why I can relate to Esther, I too am at a cross roads as to what I do with my life. I too can see all the figs and I'm hesitant as to which ones to take, but fortunately I don't see that suicide will solve my dilemma.

My problem with Esther stems most likely from the time period of this novel. Esther is obsessed with her virginity and her childhood sweethearts lack of it. She sees Buddy as a hypocrite as he has already had sex, this was however before he and her got together so I really can't understand her problem. She becomes increasingly obsessed with this fact and trying to out do him or get one over in some way. In these parts I felt increasingly distant from Esther and as though she was just a character, not a real person.

I do think the ending of the novel was slightly abrupt, but then again that might be just because I enjoyed it so much. I do feel that if Plath had lived longer there may be more beautifully penned prose into which I could delve, but unfortunately the bell jar was the first and last novel before Plath's untimely death. Unfortunately unlike Ester she never crawled from under her personal bell jar.