Feminism in Sylvia Plaths The Bell Jar :: Feminism Feminist Women Criticism

Feminism in The Bell Jar   In Sylvia Plaths autobiographical novel The Bell Jar, the reader learns of the adventures of a young cleaning lady in a male-dominated society that will non let her procure her true potential. Plaths alter ego, Esther, is thus driven to a nervous segmentation and attempts suicide numerous ms. In many ways, this novel is a libber text, centered around the struggles of a young woman who burnnot reach her goals in our male-dominated society.   People close to Esther, do not accept her talents as a poet and writer, but rather try to push her into traditionally more fair(prenominal) roles. For example, Esthers mother repeatedly tries to convince her to learn shorthand, but Esther rebels, saying ...when I tried to picture myself in some job, briskly jotting peck line after line of shorthand, my mind went blank. (100) Esther, unlike many women of her time, refuses to be controlled by societys gender-based constraints The last thing I wanted was inf inite certificate and to be the place an arrow shoots forth from. I wanted interpolate and excitement and to shoot off in all directions myself, like the benighted arrows from a Fourth of July rocket. (68) The phrases infinite security and the place an arrow shoots off from come from Mrs. Willards description of the womans role in society (58). This passage presently addresses Plaths central purpose in the novel, which is to look at the mental problems that can befall a woman with ambitions that the surrounding culture will not allow her to fulfill. This book was published in 1963, towards the beginning of the feminist run the events chronicled in this book, however, take place in 1953 (208), in a menses during which womens rights were not yet widely recognized in our society. The passage quoted above, and the emotions which it conveys, atomic number 18 typical of a feminist like Esther, but Esther is ahead of her time and is thus unable to express herself to society in the w ay she wants.