book club: young as the morning, old as the sea. discussion
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The Bell Jar
NOV'/ The Bell Jar
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What did you think?
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Rereading my first paragraph I realise that I judged Joan the way everyone else judged Esther. Maybe she did have real problems. And as I only got her description from Esther's perspective I am in no position to say anything about the way she was feeling.I guess you could say that it felt to me as if she never really had real problems, like Esther did but she liked all the fuss everyone made around Esther and that was what she wanted as well. Something like that.
I have to agree with you, Nicky. The ending wasn't all that great, way too open to really give the reader an idea about what's going to happen next in Esther's life. I also share the feelings you have towards Joan, though of course your additional comment makes a lot of sense and might even be what Plath intended for us to think about in the aftermath. Apart from that, I must say that I really, truly enjoyed the book, which actually surprised me a bit. I thought that Plath's novel would be just another classic that one should get through sometime in life, I expected it to be a rather long, viscous read. I'm all the more happy that her writing was so fluid and pleasant. Plath obviously had a talent for finding the words in situations and for emotions where others just remain unable to articulate themselves. Just like Nicky said before.
Of course the story itself wasn't a happy one, and it's almost sad thinking about all the opportunities Esther had and how she just couldn't make use of them, because her mental problems got in her way time and time again and left her basically unable to do anything. In that regard the open ending at least gave the reader some hope that Esther was truly on her way to getting better and that maybe she would get other chances in life, chances she felt she could actually take on.
Plath's own life ends, as is well known, tragically with her suicide. I think that with "The Bell Jar" she left an important literary work, though. Getting to know about mental illnesses through the words of a woman who actually struggled her whole life with them makes her book tangible and leaves the reader affected and pensive about the whole topic ... a topic which has always stayed relevant and still is today.
Apart from that I kind of enjoyed the book. I liked Plaths style of writing and I enjoyed many of Esthers descriptions and she was very insightful. She described feelings everyone (or at least I have) has very accurately. Feelings you have but can't really voice all the time.
It was a sad story though of course. No one understood her or her feeling of being held inside the Bell Jar. I really liked (or hated, depends on the point of view) the chapter with her psychiatrist (p. 124):
--- "Suppose you try and tell me what you think is wrong."
[...] What did I THINK was wrong?
That made it sound as if nothing was REALLY wrong, I only THOUGHT it was wrong. ---
This captures it so well for me. Just because people cannot see what's wrong with you or think you have no reason to feel the way you feel does not mean it is not legitimate.
I also very much liked the scene where she threw all her expensive clothes out of the hotel room window. It was such a poetic and capturing moment. Beautiful.
As I understand the book was finished or published just a few weeks before Sylvia Plath's suicide. I would now very much like to read her journals to see how much of Esther Sylvia really was.