The Bell Jar in title.org.in

Sep 06, 2021 Darshayita Thakur rated it really liked it

Shelves: favorites

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Does it ever feel like you are a mere spectator, with no control over the course of events happening before your eyes? Keeping my personal experiences aside, I felt this all over again while reading The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.

I think it is important to mention that I had a fixed mindset before going into the book and that may have influenced my experience with this read. The Bell Jar is known to be Plath’s semi-autobiographical novel that was published MY BLOG | INSTAGRAM/BOOKSTAGRAM | TWITTER

Does it ever feel like you are a mere spectator, with no control over the course of events happening before your eyes? Keeping my personal experiences aside, I felt this all over again while reading The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.

I think it is important to mention that I had a fixed mindset before going into the book and that may have influenced my experience with this read. The Bell Jar is known to be Plath’s semi-autobiographical novel that was published shortly before her death in 1963. The author was clinically depressed most of her adult life and did receive Electro Convulsive Therapy, an experience that the main character in this book, Esther Greenwood shares.

Esther Greenwood begins her story in the Bell Jar in New York. The way it is written brings forth Esther’s condition in a subtle way. I felt the language itself was detached. It was just a recount of events that kept happening in her life. Esther must have felt the same way.

“I was supposed to be having the time of my life. I was supposed to be the envy of thousands of other college girls like me….”
This “I was supposed to be” and what she actually was, are at odds with each other. Having won a fashion magazine contest, Esther and eleven other girls were given jobs in New York for a month, with all expenses paid as a prize. This entire month we see Esther having different experiences and getting involved with various people, but in none of those does the reader find the character seeking out the good things, there is always despair. There is always a comparison.

“The silence depressed me. It wasn’t the silence of silence. It was my own silence.”

In the entire first half of the book, Esther has conversations with herself that are a form of self-realization and paint a worrisome picture of her mental health.

“After nineteen years of running after good marks and prizes and grants of one sort and another, I was letting up, slowing down, dropping clean out of the race.” It takes a certain kind of honesty to be able to accept this. Many can’t deal with what comes after the acceptance part.

“All my life I had told myself studying and reading and writing and working like mad was what I wanted to do, and it actually seemed to be true,..”

I can fill this write-up with quotes from the book and it won’t be enough. It never is. The second part of the book where Esther deals with herself in an asylum is something I don’t want to talk about. It just shows how mental health was treated back in the 1960s
...more

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Aug 31, 2021 Suhana rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: on-the-bookshelf

THE BELL JAR BY SYLVIA PLATH

RATING: 4.25/5

"I am, I am, I am."

I heard of this book when I was 17, after which I slipped into a paralysing depressive episode and physically feared the power this book held over me. I couldn't read for the next two years. So I am glad that I picked it up again, thanks to my bookclub. I treaded carefully this time, understanding the importance to detach myself from Esther Greenwood. So finishing this book felt like a personal achievement for me, although I felt I s THE BELL JAR BY SYLVIA PLATH

RATING: 4.25/5

"I am, I am, I am."

I heard of this book when I was 17, after which I slipped into a paralysing depressive episode and physically feared the power this book held over me. I couldn't read for the next two years. So I am glad that I picked it up again, thanks to my bookclub. I treaded carefully this time, understanding the importance to detach myself from Esther Greenwood. So finishing this book felt like a personal achievement for me, although I felt I shared a brain with Esther when I was 17, there she was and here I am, better than before, and healed.

"Because wherever I sat-i would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air"

The book is loosely inspired from Plath's own life, and her untimely death. It is evident, that Plath is writing about her struggles, through experience, rather than assumption of this illness. At some areas, her writing is so striking that it starts to get to you. I believe, that a part of her wanted to heal and live, just like Esther.

"I saw myself, sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose."

The book is broken in pieces, describing various occurrences of Esther's life , separated with the use of a news headlines, until she becomes one, the amount headlines being directly proportional to her mental state. Her narration has a distracted manner to it, often isolating her in social situations, while she relives her past, and in a way the entire book seems to give off a dazed effect, similar to anyone who often finds themselves dissociating in uncomfortable circumstances. There are lot of difficult themes discovered in the book such as, "gifted kid burnout" syndrome, the conversations around "purity" while being religiously bound from sexual exploration, the need for a women to be married and have children, and the ethics of shock therapy and lobotomy, making powerful appearances and striking much needed conversations.

"The silence depressed me. It wasn't the silence of silence. It was my own silence."

And lastly ,
Much love to Sylvia Plath for I feel like I owe her something. ...more

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Aug 23, 2021 Sahil rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: bildungsroman, just-not-for-me, books-that-stick-with-you

“The trouble was, I had been inadequate all along, I simply hadn't thought about it.”

Sylvia Plath is one of the, if not the most potent writer I've read. She's so incredibly influential over the readers and their subconscious it's rather intimidating – considering the themes she chose to explore. The Bell Jar, being (semi) autobiographical only serves to exemplify this.

Esther, the main character – who represents Plath herself, is sure of herself, to an uncanny degree. She displays exemplary con “The trouble was, I had been inadequate all along, I simply hadn't thought about it.”

Sylvia Plath is one of the, if not the most potent writer I've read. She's so incredibly influential over the readers and their subconscious it's rather intimidating – considering the themes she chose to explore. The Bell Jar, being (semi) autobiographical only serves to exemplify this.

Esther, the main character – who represents Plath herself, is sure of herself, to an uncanny degree. She displays exemplary confidence in her beliefs, despite being rather underconfident in other matters. What's the most evident – Plath seems to make no attempt to make it comfortable to the reader.

Knowing Plath's life, and its end, makes the book feel like a cacophony of grim reminders. From Esther being increasingly less cognizant, more paranoid, and the hope of things getting better dimming – there's only the scope for it getting worse, even when you can't imagine how it can. Past the introduction, the book teeters on each chapter feeling like it's the last, and how Plath finds that enjoyment in there being instant closure for each storyline created. There really isn't much in the usual "buildup", because Esther herself seems to be losing track of events and time by the end. Simple, objective and factual statements make the book seem more like a journal. Every time Esther points out how many days she's gone without sleeping made me shudder, since it felt like it was building up to her mental state falling into stronger disarray.

As a reader, you tend to root for the characters. You want them to find the answers they're looking for. You want them to be happy – or content. You want their objectives, their storylines to be completed satisfactorily. You want them to have a purpose, grander or not. The Bell Jar, is incredibly frustrating, in the sense that it mocks that hope, and that rooting, in a way that you wouldn't be able to blame Esther – just circumstances. Mental health is a difficult thing to observe, especially for the uninitiated / those struggling themselves.

Every time Esther has a way out, or a helping hand, and she turns it down, as a reader, it's SO difficult to accept her falling further down of her own volition. You tend to put yourself in her shoes, and think 'I would've done this' or 'I would've said that', and that comparison between Esther and yourself is what's severe, since her confidence, and her sureness influences your own understanding of yourself.

Though, despite all my reservations – the book was well written (not particularly standout), and free of any clear negatives.

The book 'shines' because of the context that Plath's demise provides, and how it shines. It's one of the new books where it's impossible to differentiate the art and the artist, for if the book was published by a happy, normal person, it would lose the very context that makes it good. The mere foundation of the book isn't particularly special. It's the fact that it's autobiographical – and the parallels with Plath's own life, which makes it so chilling. It makes it all the more genuine.

4.2/5 ...more

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