Suffocation In The Bell Jar (The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath)

Member Name: jillmurphy

Product:	The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Date:	27/07/00 (385 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautiful writing, enlightening.

Disadvantages: Not for the faint-hearted.

Who amongst us has not had at that awful ‘closed in’ feeling during stressful or depressing times in our lives when all we would like to do is run away, far far away?

The title of this book by Sylvia Plath is a metaphor for just that. The Bell Jar represents that feeling of claustrophobia depression can bring on. You’re stuck inside it feeling as though there is simply no way out.

The book charts the course of Esther’s (Plath’s) depression which leads to a nervous breakdown and her subsequent treatment and recovery. It is loosely autobiographical; Sylvia Plath suffered from manic depression thoughout her life. Sadly her treatment was not successful and she committed suicide whilst still in her thirties leaving behind two small children and an estranged husband, the future Poet Laureate Ted Hughes.

Esther’s life is shaping up perfectly – she has a summer job on a fashion magazine in New York and all is going well but slowly the cracks start to appear. Her course at Harvard falls through and her relationships with her mother and boyfriend become increasingly strained.

Plath tells the story in the first person, speaking directly to the reader, and the personal experience and honesty of the writing shine through. The first time that I read this book I got about half way through and thought ‘well, poor girl, no wonder she has a nervous breakdown, it’s all going wrong for her’. Horrifyingly I subsequently realised this WAS the nervous breakdown. So perfectly had Plath captured the essence of this dreadful illness that I had felt Esther’s reality as she had.

This book is not one for the faint-hearted, although Esther does undergo treatment which helps her and the book does end on a note of optimism, unlike the end for poor Sylvia Plath herself. It is fantastically well written, true, honest and poetic. If you would like to understand the real meaning
of mental illness from someone who has suffered themself this book will help you.

Much has been written about Sylvia Plath, and her husband, Ted Hughes, some of it very angry. They are both dead now and their relationship was their own, not ours to share. All we should do is read their work, and appreciate it.

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