The Bell Jar
Ratings812
Average rating3.9
I was promised a sad ending. Where is it???
Sylvia Plath and I share the same birthday and I can say that she and I have a lot in common
Plath's ability to relay Esther's experience of being drawn into an abyss is simultaneously remarkable and unfortunate. It's easy to see that she was a poet.
Lo que en un principio parece la descripción de una vida cómoda, se va desarrollando como la depresión de la protagonista hasta (prácticamente) la locura.
“I wanted to tell her that if only something were wrong with my body it would be fine, I would rather have anything wrong with my body than something wrong with my head”
I think I practically highlighted and marked up the entire book. Plath was so spot on in her depictions of life with depression and how much it affects you that I could not put this book down. I never had to read this in high school, and I'm almost glad I didn't because I didn't really experience major depression until I was in college, and I don't think I would have appreciated this enough. Plath's descriptions of living in a “bell jar” really resonated with me and I thought it was a very accurate way to try to describe depression. Depression is a very hard thing to understand unless you've experienced it yourself. It's kind of taboo to even admit to experiencing depression because then you risk being seen as whiny and someone who just wants pity and attention from everyone. That's how I used to see it before experiencing it myself. Until you go through it personally, it's hard not to dismiss it as something silly and someone being desperate for attention. And that's just in the current day and age! Plath's experiences back in the 50s and 60s must have been so much worse. Her own mother didn't really understand at all either:
“I knew my baby wasn't like that. Like those awful people. Those awful dead people at that hospital.” She paused. “I knew you'd decide to be all right again.”
It's heartbreaking to see how misunderstood depression was back then. My parents were a major source of support to me when I was struggling and I can't imagine not being able to rely on them because they thought I was “choosing” to be sick. Having no one to empathize with her and truly understand how she was feeling must have been so horrible and I really can't imagine how awful it must have felt. However, Plath chronicling her experiences through her novel has hopefully helped to shed light on the true nature of depression. It's not a choice, it's an awful illness that can have a severe impact on your life, and Plath did an amazing job of representing this in her novel. Everyone should read this book so they can truly get a glimpse into what it's really like to have depression and how misunderstood it really is.
“The trouble was, I hated the idea of serving men in any way.”
Also very worthy of mention is Plath's discussion of sexism and gender issues. Plath was rightly frustrated with the standards of her time that limited her freedom and enabled men to get away with doing so much more than women. I really appreciated Plath's frank discussion of how stupid it was that men were able to get away with so much more and how she decided she wasn't going to get married just because she was supposed to. Plath's way of describing things really shed light on how ridiculous the double standards of her time really were. I loved how she called BS on the norms of her time, saying things like,”I couldn't stand the idea of a woman having to have a single pure life and a man being able to have a double life, one pure and one not.” She was so amazing for calling attention to these issues, especially back when it was far less acceptable to do so, and I really appreciate her honesty and frankness. Even today, it's still sort of applicable, and it's just very refreshing to read a classic novel that doesn't shy away from these issues and instead highlights how stupid they really are.
I had resisted reading this for a long time, a little turned off by the idea of being inside a suicidal person's head. But someone gave me a copy and well, I felt I needed to read it because hey, great American literature!
Well. All the feels. Really, all of them. I think at this point in my life I somehow identify with Esther even more than I would have at 20 years of age. The fear of the descending jar is palpable, her despair so real...and then the timid sweetness of relief. Not without scars, but strong.
Bare with me as i try to find the right words to describe the way this book has touched me. I normally stick to my easy breezy romance reads for the simple fact that they are relaxing and fun. This book challenged me to look at depression in a different way. I have a background in psychology so it was extremely refreshing to read about the struggles that a person goes through with this disorder on a real level verses an applied science level. I enjoyed this is a 5 star read for me.
So, I really need to stop reading other people's reviews because it only furthers my hate for ignorant people.
This book to me has nothing to do with a “privileged girl afraid to lose her status” or young twenty-something female angst or anything with feminism nor does it cause me to hate Ted Hughes with the fury and passion of a thousand suns. It's a story of a woman who has worked so hard and studied intensely for so many years and kept herself as pure as society wanted her - but for what? I can relate in that I thought I knew for the first 23 years of my life exactly what I wanted to do and then realized I had no clue. And to be caught in this deep depression that can't be cured by a man taking care of you or some group therapy sittings.
It's the same people who don't see how depression can consume you that won't appreciate this novel for what it is. Semi-autobiographical or not, it hits close to home. Scary.
¡NEVER STOP A BOOK IN THE MIDDLE! This book started out bad. The writing was fine, but the story simply was not going anywhere. Then suddenly it is interesting (and especially relevant to me) and continues through to the end. The Bell Jar, that demon! Luckily mine is behaving right now, though we all live with the preparation and knowledge of its eventual persecution.
Rereading this for bookclub. Found my dog-eared high school copy on the shelf and am pretty interested in the experience of reading it as an adult without the heightened teenage angstiness. As suspected, was not as enthralled this time around...thankfully
The idea of The Bell Jar always seemed so... boring. The title alone elicits yawns. Plus it was an attempt to write a novel by a poet. And not just any poet, but Sylvia Plath. Now, in my head, Plath was born in the 1800s and was a boring and shy woman who locked herself in her house. It seems I may have merged the likeness of Plath with Dickinson. Knowing that The Bell Jar was semi-autobiographical, I didn't expect much.
What a shock I received in the opening chapters of The Bell Jar. Not only was Plath not what I thought she was, but she was lively and interesting. I followed her words closely and was deeply involved in her character, Esther Greenwood. I adored her. I rooted for her.
The first half of the book follows Ester through parts of her college career and her internship at a New York fashion magazine. There is a certain maturity which Esther exudes despite her juvenile antics which make her even more endearing–and which makes her eventual descent into “madness” more believable. Not much happens in the first half of the book, but it doesn't matter–Esther and her relationship with others is enough to propel the book forward.
But The Bell Jar is largely about Esther's time in various mental institutions, the story of which comprises the second half of the novel. Plath wrote these scenes well. They are a vivid and accurate portrayal of asylums of the time. But they're just not as interesting as Esther's trials in “the real world.” And with these stories as it's backbone, The Bell Jar begins to drag on.
Overall, I liked The Bell Jar. Esther Greenwood is a wonderful protagonist and the insight into Plath's life is equally fascinating and haunting. It's unfortunate that she lived such a short life.
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I'd also like to comment on the Audio Book version of this title. This is my second attempt at listening to a Book on CD. I resisted the idea for a long time, and my first attempt involved a narrator who felt the need to exaggerate every character's voice. Annoying. The Bell Jar was read by Maggie Gyllenhaal, and what a different experience it was. I was able to follow the story really well and found Gyllenhaal's voice to be pleasant. Honestly, I sort of fell in love with her voice (never before have I realized that I had an attraction to a particular tone of voice). Regardless, Gyllenhaal and The Bell Jar have supplied me with a belief that perhaps audio books aren't so bad after all.
The author makes going insane somehow seem rational. A must read.
Even though I didn't understand it completely I couldn't help but love it.
First reading: I should not have read this book when I was sixteen.
I'm not sure anyone should read this book when she is sixteen.
It was dark and despairing and bleak and reading it left me feeling dark and despairing and bleak.
Nevertheless, The Bell Jar was the truest picture of teen depression I've ever read.
If only someone could write a book that good that would help teens find their way out of depression.
Second reading:
Did reading The Bell Jar at sixteen drop a bell jar on my head? Or was it already descending?
I was Esther as a teen, in many ways. I was competitive about academic achievement to the exclusion of everything else, and when all the prizes I'd worked for didn't come my way, I found myself lost and depressed and alone. Esther's experience provided no solace at sixteen; it only increased my pain.
Reading The Bell Jar as an adult who has scrambled to find ways to fight depression all her life was a different experience than reading the book as a teen. I saw how Esther isolated herself rather than finding people who could offer help. I saw how Esther plummeted rather than responded with resilience when her plans did not work out. I saw how the psychiatrists of Esther's time did not have the knowledge or the treatments to effectively help her.
The Bell Jar should be a book that is read and reread, with much to offer readers of all ages.