Jonathan Holt

The Bell Jar Critical Review Jonathan Holt

“The Bell Jar” by Sylvia Plath was originally written under a pseudonym in 1936. This book follows a young woman named Esther Greenwood through her unsteady life and takes you through an “emotional rollercoaster” as you become more intrigued by Esther and her strange thoughts. The novel is one which centres around a personal and emotional journey. This study will examine how the author’s use of aspects such as structure helps to convey a journey taking place.


The structure used conveys the state of mind of the main character. Throughout the text Sylvia uses a stream of consciousness narrative, a form of first person narration. This allows the reader to see the whole novel through our protagonist’s perspective, Esther Greenwood. This is portrayed within the structure of the novel. Esther skips from talking in the present tense to talking in the past tense, “Buddy Willard was a hypocrite. Of course, I didn’t know her was a hypocrite at first. I thought he was the most wonderful boy I ‘d ever seen.” This shows the reader that Miss Greenwood is somewhat living in the past, reliving her life with each thought that she has. This continues throughout the novel until Esther realises that she is fortunate to have overcome her deep state of depression and she begins to live each day as it comes. This transformation shows that Esther is realising the value of life and day by day a journey is taking place.

Throughout the novel Miss Greenwood’s life changes immensely and the factor which overcomes the biggest change is her outlook on life as a whole. At the beginning of the novel Esther feels that she is wasting many opportunities and feels that she has no power to change this, “I guess I should have been excited the way most of the other girls were, but I couldn’t get myself to react.” This shows that Esther is realising that she isn’t enjoying he experience fully but she fails to repair that downfall. “But here I was, sitting back and letting it run through my fingers like so much water.” Once again Miss Greenwood realises that she may be wasting one of the biggest opportunities that she is ever going to get but she still fails to repair her pessimistic attitude towards life.
By the middle of the novel Esther becomes very depressed and she even becomes incapable of doing day to day activities, “I can sleep. I can’t read. I tried to speak in a cool, calm way, but the zombie rose up in my throat and choked me off.” This quote shows that Esther is starting to understand that her life isn’t normal and she wants some type of help but something inside her is stopping her from getting it. During her deep state of depression Miss Greenwood sees many doctors, “I hated him the minute I walked in the door.” By passing her judgement so quickly, Esther shows that she isn’t willing to give anyone the chance to give her any type of aid, confirming that she feels that no one can do anything to help her and that she knows best.
By the end of the novel Miss Greenwood realises that she cannot recover from depression on her own and is admitted into a mental asylum. Throughout her time there here negative, depressive attitude changed into one which was happy and somewhat optimistic. Whilst in the mental asylum Esther realises that it is winter and she makes the comment, “The heart of winter,” which shows that she is looking at things in a positive manner. Whilst having a conversation with her old friend Buddy she says, “Oh Buddy, I laughed, I’m alright,” showing that she is on the road to recovery and is embracing it. Esther also shows that she is her own person and no one can interfere wither her life when she says, “I was perfectly free,” showing that she is in charge of her own well-being. The reader knows that Miss Greenwood has made an amazing transformation when she says, “There ought, I thought, be a ritual for being born twice,” proving to the reader that she feels like she is getting a second chance in life and she is embracing it with open arms. This immense change in her attitude from the start of the novel to the end shows how far Esther has come and shows the reader her long, hard journey to recovery.

In the novel there are many references to graphic imagery which shows the reader how Esther deals with the many problems which occur throughout her life. These mainly occur in the middle of the novel when Esther is dealing with her depression. The very first graphic references that Esther uses are fairly mild, “I thought drowning must be the kindest way to die, and burning the worst.” She uses these remarks when she is interacting in everyday conversations and they get worse as the book goes on, “If you were going to kill yourself, how would you do it ?” This simple question escalates out of control and Miss Greenwood puts it into use when she begins to self harm herself, “I had locked myself in the bathroom, and run a tub full of warm water, and taken out a Gillette blade.” She takes her self harming to the next level when she tries to take an overdose of pills, “I unscrewed the bottle of pills and started taking them swiftly, between gulps of water, one by one.” The reader then realises that Esther is deeply suicidal and begins to fear for her health. When Esther finally allows doctors to intervene the disturbing graphic images which she used to have slowly began to disappear and by the end of the novel they disappear completely. This shows the reader that mentally Miss Greenwood has overcome so much, and has taken a mentally straining journey.

When it came to Esther’s illness, she felt rather embarrassed about asking for help and this is shown through the conversations in the novel. This is shown when Miss Greenwood is requesting some more medication and she fails to give each character a title, showing the reader that she is there in body but not in mind,
“You say you want more sleeping pills ?”
“Yes.”
“But the ones I gave you last week are very strong.”
“They don’t work anymore.”
This quote also shows that Esther is using the pills as a “security blanket”, as if they will solve all of her problems which is not the case. By the end of the novel Esther shows that she is comfortable with her illness whilst having a conversation with a close friend, “Oh Buddy, I laughed, I’m alright.” This shows the reader that Miss Greenwood had noticed that her illness is a part of her and she is doing all that she can to overcome it, so there is no need for any embarrassment. This shows a personal journey taking place one which is both metal and physical.

Throughout the novel the reader becomes very attached to Esther and feels as if they know her personally. The journey which Miss Greenwood takes is both mentally and emotionally straining for her and the reader admires her great transformation from a girl who was once very pessimistic and felt that she could do nothing to change her life for the better, to a strong young woman who by the end of the novel has gained much admiration from the reader. The transformation made by Esther no doubt helped her everyday life but it made her a stronger person and someone who appreciated life and the people around her.