The Bell Jar Summary

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

This is a semi-autobiographical novel about a young woman named Esther Greenwood who gains an internship at a prominent magazine in New York. There she meets her adventurous friend Doreen, the goody-goody Betsy and Philomena Guinea, a fiction writer, who will later pay some of Esther's hospital expenses. 

After she finishes the internship, she is back in her hometown, Massachusetts with low spirits and wishing to gain another scholarship. She hears about a writing course taught by a famous writer and applies for it, but her mother breaks the news and tells her that she was not accepted there. She spends the summer writing a novel but she has a lack of experience and imagination which frustrates her.

She becomes depressed and is not able to sleep. Her mother forces her to see a shrink named Dr. Gordon who she does not trust. He prescribes ECT, but she tells her mom that she will never go back there.

Her mental state gets worse and after trying to suicide several times, she is sent to a mental hospital where she meet the female therapist Dr. Nolan who ensures that the shock treatments that she is receiving are being properly administrated. Esther feels that the shocks are setting her free from the methaphorical bell jar in which she is trapped.

Esther tells Dr. Nolan how worried she is about sex, pregnancy and marriage. Dr. Nolan who refers her to another doctor for a diafragm. After this, she feels free and confident with her sanity back.

Sylvia Plath

 

Sylvia Plath was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 27, 1932. Plath met and married British poet Ted Hughes, although the two later split. The depressive Plath committed suicide in 1963, garnering accolades after her death for the novel The Bell Jar, and the poetry collections The Colossus and Ariel. In 1982, Plath became the first person to win a posthumous Pulitzer Prize.