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 subscribes of the adventures of a young woman in a male-dominated society that will not let her achieve her true potential. Plaths alter ego, Esther, is thus driven to a nervous breakdown and attempts suicide numerous times. In many ways, this novel is a feminist text, centered around the struggles of a young woman who cannot 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 feminine 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 down line after line of shorthand, my mind went blank. (100) Esther, opposed many women of her time, refuses to be controlled by societys gender-based constraints The last thing I valued was infinite security and to be the place an arrow shoots kill from. I wanted change and excitement and to shoot off in all directions myself, like the colored 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 directly addresses Plaths central purpose in the novel, which is to look at the mental problems that can find 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 movement the events chronicled in this book, however, hold in place in 1953 (208), in a period during which womens rights were not yet widely recognized in our society. The passage quoted above, and the emotions which it conveys, are typical of a feminist like Esther, but Esther is ahead of her time and is thus unable to express herself to society in the way she wants.