of The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

I just finished reading 'The Bell Jar' by Slyvia Plath. It was just one of those random book I picked up from the national library and boy am I glad I did that.

It is the first and only novel by Sylvia Plath and the protagist life's run somewhat paralle to the life of Plath.

*Warning* Spoiler ahead.

Esther Greenwood is a young girl who wins a dream assignment in a big-time New York fashion magazine in 1953. She is elated, believing that she will finally realise her dream to become a writer. Instead she finds herself spiralling into depression and eventually a suicide attempt.

The story is written in 3 parts. Esther's glamour life in New York during her intern-ship at the fashion magazine, her depression and suicide attempt back home and lastly her time at the asylum.


During her internship in New York, Plath subtly suggest that the significant causes of Esther's depression is certainly the high-pressure environment in which Esther lives. As Esther is the quinessential overachiever, a scholarship winner and gifted student who consistently wins prizes and scholarship.

Jay Cee, Esther's boss during her internship repeatedly told Esther : " Don't let the wicked city get you down". Which aparently, Jay Cee has seen many young and inspiring writer fallen from grace.

Esther grew increasingly depress each day even though she is supposingly leading the time of her life. She questions about her own sexuality in the time of sexuality repression in America. She is uncertain about her career and what she wants to be.

After her internship, Esther went home and found out that she is not selected for a pretigious writting class. She grew more listless each day and have insomia each night. Both symptoms indicating a deeper depression. Death fills her mind that she consider many methods to end her life before deciding to down her sleeping pills.

Esther woke up in a hospital and was later sent to an asylum to recuperate on her 'illness'. She received shock therapy to make her feel 'better'.

" Sitting in the front seat, between Dodo and my mother, I felt dump and subdued. Every time when I tried to concentrate, my mind glided off, like a skater, into a large empty space, and pirouetted there, absently."

I suppose the shock treatment just stopped Esther from thinking/concentrating but not really making her feel better. In this case, the cure of the diesease seems worse than the dieseas itself.

Soon after, Esther is being transferred to another asylum and stayed there, receiving treatments until she feels better. Her path towards recovery.

The author uses The Bell Jar as a metaphor as to how depression can trap the soul and being or the patient.

"If Mrs Guinea had given me a ticket to Europe, or a round-the-world cruise, it wouldn't have made one scrap of difference to me, because wherever I sat - on the deck of a ship or at a cafe in Paris or Bangkok - I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own soul air".

This book reminds me of 'Girl Interuppted' by Susanna Kaysen in her best-selling book in 1993.

A strongly recommended read, though you might feel slightly depress after reading.