Chapter One:

The novel begins in a "queer, sultry summer," the one in which the Rosenbergs were electrocuted. The narrator, Esther Greenwood, was in New York, and is preoccupied with news of the Rosenbergs; she cannot imagine being burned alive that way. Esther was supposed to be having the time of her life after winning a scholarship to college and a fashion magazine contest that led to an internship at that magazine. She stays with the twelve other girls at an all-female hotel, the Amazon. Most of the other girls at the hotel were daughters of wealthy parents who wanted to keep them away from men.

One of Esther's major troubles is Doreen, who came from a society girls' college down South. Doreen has a perpetual bemused sneer, and makes Esther feel that she is much sharper than the others. Doreen makes sarcastic comments about Jay Cee, their boss at the magazine. Among the other girls there is also Betsy, a girl from Kansas nicknamed "Pollyanna Cowgirl" by Doreen. Doreen and Esther go out for drinks, where they meet several men. Esther compares them to Buddy Willard, a Yale boy whom she knows from home. Esther gives a pseudonym to one of the men, Frankie, calling herself Elly Higginbottom from Chicago (she is actually from Boston). Esther and Doreen go out with one of the men, Lenny, back to Lenny's apartment.

Analysis

In the first chapter of The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath introduces and develops the character of Esther Greenwood, the narrator and protagonist of the novel. Since the major concern of the novel is the mental health of Esther Greenwood and her progression into a deep depression and eventual recovery, the first chapter establishes the roots of Esther's mental illness. Although Plath does not attribute one specific cause to her protagonist's condition, she does in this chapter lay the foundation for the causes of Esther's dissatisfaction.

One of the most significant causes of this depression is certainly the high-pressure environment in which Esther lives, for Plath early establishes that Esther is the quintessential overachiever, a scholarship winner and gifted student who consistently wins prizes and contests for her academic abilities. While Plath implies that the other girls who are working for this magazine internship in New York are from wealthy backgrounds of leisure, Esther comes from a more modest family. The internship that Esther wins elucidates one of the major themes of the novel: the disparity between what Esther believes should be and what actually occurs. Plath states this most explicitly when Esther notes that she should have been having the time of her life in New York, but instead finds herself quite dissatisfied.

A second prominent cause of anxiety for Esther concerns matters of sexuality. The society of the early fifties in which the story takes place is one noted for its sexual repression, and Plath bolsters this through the inclusion of various details of Esther's stay in New York. She stays in a hotel for women only, presumably intending to keep the women of the hotel away from predatory men. The name of this hotel, the Amazon, is ironic, for the name elicits the idea of strong women warriors, but instead places these girls in cloistered positions of safety and seclusion. This also introduces a theme that will recur throughout the novel, the idea that Esther is trapped or confined.

Plath introduces the theme of sexuality partially through the contrast between Doreen and Betsy, the former savvy, urbane and liberated, and the latter a symbol of a rustic innocence. The suburban Esther mediates between these two extremes: she chooses to associate with Doreen, but admits that Doreen causes major trouble for her. The trouble that Doreen will cause will be the subject of following chapters, as will Esther's relationship with Buddy Willard, mentioned in the chapter but not yet given prominence.

The inclusion of information on the Rosenbergs also brings in Esther's preoccupation with death, a character trait that foreshadows the suicide attempt that will be the central event of the novel.

Chapter Two:

Lenny's apartment is built exactly like the inside of a ranch, only in the middle of a New York apartment. Lenny is a disc jockey. Doreen tells Esther to stick around, for she won't have a chance if he tries anything funny. Lenny and Doreen become more physical with one another, and Esther leaves as this becomes progressively violent. Esther returns to the hotel, where the silence depresses her. She takes a hot bath to cheer herself up, for she never feels so much herself as when she is in a hot bath. She thinks that "Doreen is dissolving, Lenny is dissolving, Frankie is dissolving, New York is dissolving." She at last gets out of the bath and returns to her room where she falls asleep. A knocking at the door awakes Esther; it is Frankie, who has brought Doreen back. Frankie calls for "Elly," while Doreen calls for "Miss Greenwood," as if Esther has a split personality. Doreen topples into Esther's arms, and Esther carries her back to their room., where she vomits. Esther vows that she would care for Doreen that night, but would have nothing at all to do with her afterward. Esther realizes that she actually better resembles Betsy, the "Pollyanna Cowgirl," than Doreen.

Analysis:

The encounter between Doreen and Lenny at his apartment elucidates Esther Greenwood's perspective on sexuality. Since Plath frames the novel from a first-person perspective with Esther as narrator, the events of the novel must be taken as the memories of a biased and possibly unreliable narrator. The important detail of the events at Lenny's apartment is that Esther views the sexual encounter as a violent and bizarre activity that nevertheless intrigues her. For Esther, sex is unmistakably bound with violence and physical harm, a perspective that will be elucidated and given credence as the story progresses. It is this position on sexuality that causes Esther to retreat from the liberated Doreen and choose the safety and repression exemplified by Betsy.

Plath continues a slow progression of Esther's descending mental health. This chapter includes a self-diagnosis of Esther's mental health in which she claims that she feels like a person with multiple personalities when Doreen and Lenny call out to Esther using both her name and pseudonym. The most significant event demonstrating this decline is Esther's acute reaction to the silence around her and her reaction by taking a bath; she attempts to deal with her problems through mentally dissociating herself from the situation.

Chapter Three:

Esther attends a Ladies Day banquet, the first time that she has eaten out at a proper restaurant. Esther can eat as much as she wants without gaining weight, but all of the other girls are trying to reduce their weight. Doreen does not attend, for she spends most of her free time with Lenny Shepherd now. Esther eats as much as she can, even eyeing the caviar. She notices Hilda, a six foot tall girl with huge green eyes who goes to a special school for making hats in New York. Betsy invites Esther to a fur show that day, but she has to meet Jay Cee that afternoon. When she meets Esther, Jay Cee asks her if her work interests her and what she plans to do after graduating from college. Esther answers that she doesn't know, and knows that it is true. Jay Cee tells her that she will never get anywhere with that attitude, and recommends that she read French and German so that she can offer more than the run-of-the-mill person. Esther realizes she has no room in her schedule for this, and thinks about how she manipulated the Class Dean into letting her out of her chemistry course (a difficult subject for her) by convincing the professor, Mr. Manzi, that it was dishonorable to take his course merely for the A and the credit, and she should merely audit it.

Analysis:

The centerpiece of this chapter is the meeting between Esther and Jay Cee; this confrontation highlights once again the central problem in Esther's life. She is a girl without any particular direction; she has no definite goals and cannot commit to any single course of action. In this chapter, Plath contrasts Esther with the other girls, including Hilda and Doreen, who have modest but definable goals (Hilda wants to make hats, Doreen is interested only in her new boyfriend); in contrast, Esther has a multitude of possibilities but the inability to choose a single one. Furthermore, the meeting with Jay Cee emphasizes the detriments to Esther's indecision and anxiety; by refusing to commit to one action, Esther wastes the distinctions that she has and becomes a "run-of-the-mill" person, as she fears. However, Jay Cee's attitude toward Esther also shows that Esther has the pressure of great expectations; she does have special talents and abilities and feels the burden of these hopes that people like Jay Cee have for her. It is this that most separates Esther from the other girls such as Doreen and Hilda; they do not have the same talent as Esther, but do not have the same burden of expectations.

The story concerning Esther's manipulation of the Class Dean serves to show that Esther does not handle pressure well and deals with it primarily through avoidance. She does not face her difficulty with chemistry; she merely uses courtesy and diplomatic means to get out of taking the class and thus ignore this possible challenge. This continues a trend of denial that prevails when Esther faces a problem and that will continue as her problems become more and more serious.

Chapter Four:

Jay Cee hands Esther a pile of story manuscripts and begins speaking more kindly to her. She tells Esther "don't let the wicked city get you down." Esther imagines what it would like to be a famous editor like Jay Cee, and wishes she had a mother like her. Esther's own mother isn't helpful, for she spends most of her time working to support her family, since Esther's father died without providing the family with insurance. Esther reminisces about how she saw a fingerbowl for the first time at the home of Philomena Guinea, a wealthy novelist who donated the scholarship that enabled Esther to go to college. Esther goes with the other girls to see a Technicolor movie, a football romance. During the movie, Esther begins to feel sick, so Betsy accompanies her back to the hotel. In the cab back to the hotel, Esther and Betsy both vomit, and the next thing that Esther remembers is seeing someone else's shoe. All of the girls have food poisoning from the Ladies Day banquet, and find themselves in the hospital. Doreen is the only one who is healthy. Doreen gives Esther a present from Ladies Day; each of the girls were sent a book, The Thirty Best Short Stories of the Year.

Analysis:

Sylvia Plath develops the idea of Esther Greenwood as a girl faced with significant pressures and expectations in this chapter through the important biographical point that Esther comes from a family of modest means in which her mother has struggled to support her family and can offer her daughter only limited emotional support. Esther finds her mother inadequate in some as yet undefined sense, thus wishes that Jay Cee could be her mother instead. Yet Esther is rather unfairly critical of her mother for her apparent neglect, showing a sense of solipsism that is both uncompassionate and even a bit selfish; Esther is too consumed by her own problems to adequately comprehend the problems of others.

Esther's story concerning Philomena Guinea adds to the idea of Esther as an overachiever who is expected to excel in whatever she does; this wealthy patron has assumed a position as benefactor for Esther for her scholastic achievement and skills. Furthermore, Plath introduces another recurring theme of the novel through Philomena Guinea, who represents polite and genteel society. Propriety and sociability is a prominent concern throughout the novel, as when a fingerbowl, a symbol of this rarefied society, triggers Esther's memory of Philomena Guinea. Along with the Ladies Day luncheon, this suggests that Esther lives in a society with strict social codes of behavior that constrict her behavior. This proves an additional explanation for Esther's feeling that she is trapped.

The more mundane events that occur to Esther as she lives in New York are significant primarily to show Esther's attitude and perception of life around her. Esther approaches the movie with a combination of cynicism and sarcastic detachment; she expresses a dissatisfaction with Technicolor movies nearly equal to the dissatisfaction she displays when she and the other girls have food poisoning.

Chapter Five:

Esther gets a call the next morning from Constantin, an interpreter at the United Nations. Mrs. Willard had introduced Esther to Constantin, who was now calling to arrange a meeting for her so that she could see the United Nations. Esther expects that he will be short and ugly, and she would look down on him the way she does Buddy Willard, who she believes to be a hypocrite despite her initial conviction that he was the most wonderful boy she had ever seen. Buddy wants to marry her, even though Esther now hates him. Esther reads from her new book a story of a Jewish man and a Catholic nun who meet regularly at a fig tree then part after an awful event, and Esther compares herself and Buddy to these two characters. Buddy has a very scientific mind; he compares a poem to "a piece of dust." She reminisces about how Buddy Willard told her how he was going to the sophomore prom at Esther's college with Joan Giling, presumably because she asked months ago. Although this makes Esther jealous, she goes to the Yale junior prom with him. He treats her like a friend or a cousin during most of the dance, but at the end they go up to the chemistry lab, where he kisses her.

Analysis

Buddy Willard, although he appears minimally as a character during the present frame of the story, occupies a significant place in Esther Greenwood's life and is a frequent preoccupation for her. For Esther, Buddy Willard is a symbol of her deflated expectations, yet the specific reason why Buddy Willard has proved such a disappointment will only later be revealed. Esther's disappointment is borne of an idealistic treatment of Buddy Willard; he disappoints her so greatly precisely because she considered him "the most wonderful boy" she had ever seen and thus positions him so that he may only be degraded. Whatever his faults, whether real or exaggerated by Esther, Buddy Willard is one facet of the repression that Esther faces. In this chapter, the repression is an intellectual one; with his scientific approach to matters, Buddy Willard dismisses the more artistic and literary mind of Esther, shown most clearly when he dismisses a poem as a "piece of dust."

The details of Buddy's and Esther's courtship establish Esther Greenwood as more repressed than even her actions around Doreen would imply. She compares her courtship with Buddy to what is essentially a fairy tale, and thinks of her relationship with him only in terms of a single kiss. This repression additionally relates to the sense of confinement that Esther feels, but in this case it is specifically self-inflicted; one of the obstacles that Esther must overcome is her idealized and innocent view of romantic relations in which there is no room between the spectrum of the innocent Betsy and the worldly Doreen.

Chapter Six:

Esther reminisces about how she kept begging Buddy to show her some really interesting hospital sights, so one Friday she cut classes and visited him for a long weekend. Buddy showed her a hall where they kept big glass bottles full of babies that had died before they were born. Buddy shows her the birth of a baby, which horrifies Esther. When she hears about the drug that the women will take to make her forget the pain, she thinks that it sounds like a sort of drug that a man would invent. Afterward, Esther nearly asks Buddy if there are any other ways to have babies; for some reason she thinks it is important to stay awake to make sure later that the baby is actually yours. Later, Buddy asks her if she has ever seen a man, and she says only statues. He then asks if she would like to see him. Buddy undresses, telling her that she ought to get used to seeing him like this, then asks to see how she looks naked. She undresses for him. After they dress, she asks Buddy if he has ever had an affair. Buddy tells her that he has gone to bed with a woman. Buddy tells how he was seduced by a waitress at the hotel where he worked as a busboy. Esther is offended not that Buddy slept with someone else, but that he pretends that Esther is so sexy and he is so pure, when all the time he had been having an affair with a "tarty" waitress. Buddy tells Esther that when his mother asked about Gladys, the waitress, Buddy replied that Gladys was "free, white and twenty-one." Esther knows that Buddy would never talk to his mother as rudely as that for her. Later, Esther gets a call from Buddy in Boston. He had caught TB and was going to the Adirondacks on a scholarship for medical students who caught TB. Buddy has always been proud of his perfect health and thinks that all of Esther's illnesses are psychosomatic. Esther thinks that the TB might be punishment for Buddy living the double life he lived and feeling so superior to others.

Analysis:

Sylvia Plath focuses on Esther's view on sexuality in this chapter, in which she approaches the subject from two very divergent perspectives. The first perspective is a clinical and medical view of sexuality, as shown by Esther's visit with Buddy to the hospital ward and the details of that visit. The second is a more idealistic and moral sense of sexuality, as demonstrated by her reaction to Buddy's disclosure that he had an affair with the waitress. Plath uses intense medical imagery, often grotesque, to portray this first perspective on sexuality; she perceives this in terms of procreation that ends in either painful, agonizing childbirth or in the macabre stillbirths that she sees in bottles at the hospital. This also confirms Esther's view on sexuality as related to violence and pain, earlier established during the incident with Doreen and Lenny Shepherd.

Part of this perspective on sexuality comes from Buddy Willard himself, who Œteaches' Esther about the male form by disrobing as one would do for a doctor and not an intended lover. As Plath describes Buddy, he seems more and more responsible for Esther's dissatisfaction with the world. He treats her as childish and foolish. His teaching Esther about the male body is both offensive and presumptuous; he places himself as a living anatomy text because he believes that Esther will certainly be his wife someday.

However, despite Buddy Willard's obvious problems with Esther, the greatest problem that Esther has with Buddy is self-inflicted. She can view Buddy only as an idealized hero or a person who commits tawdry and sordid actions. She cannot reconcile the two facets of Buddy, and instead views him as a person leading a Œdouble life' instead of considering that both aspects of Buddy might exist in the same person.

Chapter Seven:

Esther meets Constantin, who is handsome but too short. He differs from American men most in that he has intuition. While at the United Nations, Esther realizes that it has never occurred to her that before that she had only been purely happy until she was nine years old. After that, she had never been really happy again. While watching Constantin and another interpreter, Esther realizes that she cannot cook, does not know shorthand and cannot dance. Her talent is for winning scholarships and prizes, but that era is coming to an end. Esther sees her life "branching out before [her] like the green fig tree in the story" she read earlier, and from the tip of each branch a wonderful future beckons. However, Esther sees herself sitting in the crotch of the fig tree, starving simply because she cannot decide which figs to choose.

After getting a bite to eat with Constantin, Esther decides that she will let Constantin seduce her. The only boy other than Buddy Willard whom Esther considered sleeping with was Eric, a bitter Southerner from Yale who found that his date had eloped with a taxi driver. Eric had told Esther how his first time was at a whorehouse, for he went to a Southern prep school that had an unwritten rule that its students lost their virginity before they graduated.

Esther goes to Constantin's room under the pretense that she likes balalaika music. She considers an article from Readers' Digest that her mother had given her called "In Defense of Chastity," but thinks that it holds men and women to different standards. She sees the world in terms of virgins and those who have had sex, rather than other divisions such as men and women, black and white. She thinks about what it would be like to be married to Constantin, Esther merely falls asleep beside Constantin.

Analysis:

In this chapter, Sylvia Plath yet again focuses on the two recurring themes of The Bell Jar, Esther Greenwood's anxiety over her future and her problems dealing with her own and others' sexuality. Sylvia Plath relates Esther's anxieties over her future to more general problems with gender roles in the early fifties society in which Esther lives; her problem is not that she believes she will be unsuccessful at whatever career she chooses. Instead, part of the problem seems to be that she cannot reconcile a successful career that she may choose with the traditional gender roles of her society. Esther worries most that she cannot cook nor take shorthand, for these are tasks traditionally performed by a wife or a female secretary; ironically, Esther worries about not being able to fulfill mundane duties rather than worrying about larger questions of what she do as a successful career woman. In essence, her problem is that she has too many options, but no satisfying option that can conform to what is traditionally expected of her.

Esther's decision to abandon her longtime devotion to chastity can be interpreted several different ways. Most directly relating to her situation with Buddy Willard, her decision to let Constantin seduce her is a reaction and revenge against Buddy Willard. More generally, the decision may represent an assertion of her independence in the face of the societal repression around her. This idea is corroborated by the mention of the "In Defense of Chastity" article and Esther's conviction that she is doing something quite improper.

However, the most likely interpretation the aligns with Esther's increasing mental illness is that Esther decides to let Constantin seduce her primarily as a move of desperation. She wishes to abandon the moral system that she believes has failed her by proving Buddy Willard to be a fraud. Also, since Esther sees the world in stark terms of contraries, she believes that the simply loss of her virginity will render her a different person and she will thus escape the confinement in which she presently finds herself. Her decision is thus not a move of empowerment, but instead a sign of great weakness and frailty.

Chapter Eight:

Esther thinks about how Mr. Willard drove her up to the Adirondacks on the day after Christmas to visit Buddy at his sanatorium, where she finds that Buddy is now fat, for the doctors stuff them day after day and let then do little. Buddy gives her an ashtray, even though she does not smoke. Buddy then proposes to Esther, who has an awful impulse to laugh. Esther tells him that she will never get married. She admits that she is a neurotic, as Buddy had once told her.

Esther further reminisces about going skiing with Buddy Willard, and how she thought that she might kill herself doing so. She does get hurt, however, and has her leg broken in two places. As she lies on the snow, Esther vows that she will go up the mountain again, but Buddy tells her that she will be stuck in a cast for months.

Analysis:

In this chapter, Sylvia Plath lends credence to the idea that it is repression that drives Esther Greenwood to despair and depression. Plath once again implies that Esther suffers from the stifling intellectual atmosphere that Buddy has created for her, in which her ideas and emotions are diagnosed as mere neuroses instead of legitimate choices and decisions. The definition given of neuroses also relates to Esther's indecision about her possible career path; she defines being neurotic as a person who wants "two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time," implying an inability to choose a single path. Buddy Willard also comes to symbolize in this chapter the broader forces of society that repress Esther; he literally calls her "crazy" for never wanting to get married, thus assuming that the only sane choice for a woman is to become a wife, despite Esther's obvious questioning of that value system.

Sylvia Plath further foreshadows the eventual suicide attempt by Esther with the anecdote concerning Esther skiing. She considers the possibility that she may die while skiing, yet even after she breaks her leg doing so she wishes to attempt it again. Esther seems somewhat incapable of realizing the effect that physical actions have on her body; this mental disjunction between mind and body will manifest itself later during her suicide attempt.

Chapter Nine:

Hilda discusses the Rosenbergs with Esther, claiming that she is "so glad they're going to die." Esther says that the Rosenberg situation is awful, but Hilda says that "it's awful such people should be alive." Esther has her picture taken in Jay Cee's office, but feels as if she is going to cry. During this round of photographs, the girls are photographed with props showing what they wanted to be. Esther does not know what she wants to be, but Jay Cee says Esther wants "to be everything." Esther claims she wants to be a poet, and Jay Cee gives her a long-stemmed paper rose with which to be photographed. The photographer notices how Esther seems about to cry, and she finally breaks into tears. She buries her head into Jay Cee's couch, and when she lifts her head again the photographer and Jay Cee are gone. When Jay Cee returns, she gives Esther an armful of manuscripts to amuse her.

Doreen tries to set up Esther with a man from Peru during her final days in New York. Esther meets the man, Marco, who gives her a diamond stickpin and says that perhaps he "shall perform some small service worthy of a diamond" as he tightens her hand around Esther. Esther immediately deigns Marco a "woman-hater," and refuses to dance with him when they go out to a country club. She begins to realize why she hates woman-haters: they were "like gods: invulnerable and chock-full of power." Marco admits to Esther that he is in love with his first cousin, but it is impossible to marry her, for she is going to be a nun. Esther tells Marco that if he loves this woman, he'll love someone else someday. Marco flings Esther back and attempts to rape her while calling her a slut, but Esther pushes him away. Marco demands to have his diamond back, and threatens her when she does not give it back to him immediately.

Analysis

The recurrence of the Rosenbergs as details of the plot establishing the setting of the novel is evidence of foreshadowing on the part of Sylvia Plath; Esther's horror concerning their imminent electrocution foreshadows the more personalized horror that will come when Esther receives electroshock treatment, while the lack of sympathy Esther receives will parallel that which the Rosenbergs receive from Hilda.

The first true breakdown that Esther has occurs primarily because of her established indecision concerning her career. Faced with making a concrete decision about what she wants to do after graduating from college, Esther becomes unstable and breaks into tears. Jay Cee echoes Esther's defined Œneuroses' through her answer that Esther wants to be "everything," and thus once again defines her primary problem.

Once again, Sylvia Plath equates sexuality with violence during the encounter between Esther and Marco in this chapter. Marco is physically threatening toward Esther; his actions toward her definitely constitute a rape attempt. However, it is more important to note that Marco is a threat to Esther because he holds power over her. He is, as Esther describes him, "invulnerable," using his financial power and sexuality against her, attempting to rape her but still branding her a slut. Marco is simply a more violent extension of Buddy Willard, aggressive in his contempt for Esther and her gender where Buddy Willard is more subtle and passive. Plath even parallels the earlier proposal by Buddy Willard in this chapter; Marco offers Esther a diamond, a symbol of marriage, in exchange for her independence, sexual and otherwise. For Esther, the Œproposal' by Marco is a more violent extension of the one offered by Buddy.

Chapter Ten:

On the train returning home from New York, looks at herself in the mirror and notices lines of blood leftover from her assault by Marco. When she arrives, Esther's mother asks what happens to her face, but she merely says that she cut herself. Esther's mother immediately gives her bad news: she didn't make the writing course, and would be spending a summer in the suburbs. Esther returns to her house, a small, white clapboard house in a quiet suburb. Their next door neighbor is a spiteful woman named Mrs. Ockenden, a retired nurse who would often call Esther's mother to report Esther's wrongdoing. Esther sees Dodo Conway, a Catholic who interests Esther because of her six children. Jody calls Esther from Cambridge, where she is studying that summer. Esther is working at the Coop while taking a sociology course. Esther admits that she did not get into the writing course at Harvard, but Jody tells her to come anyway and take another course. Despite knowing that she should come, Esther tells her to give her room to another girl. Esther opens a letter from Buddy Willard, who writes that he was falling in love with a nurse who also has TB, but he thinks that if Esther visited he would realize that his feeling for the nurse is mere infatuation. Esther writes back that she is engaged to a simultaneous interpreter and never wants to see Buddy again. Esther decides to spend the summer writing a novel, but she wonders how she can write about life without having a love affair or a baby or seeing anyone die. She considers learning shorthand instead, or spending the summer reading Finnegans Wake and writing her thesis. After starting Finnegan's Wake, she decides to junk her thesis and become an ordinary English major. Esther goes to get stronger sleeping pills from Teresa, her family doctor, but Teresa tells her to see a psychiatrist, Doctor Gordon, instead.

Analysis:

For Esther, the lines of blood that remain on her face are a sign of honor representing her defiance of Marco, but they also signal a casual acceptance of physical harm and an inability to fully comprehend the effects of violence, once again foreshadowing her suicide attempt. Esther's growing mental illness also becomes more evident through more physical symptoms, including insomnia and listlessness. By this point her depression has become clear enough that her doctor recommends psychiatric treatment. This illness additionally manifests itself the continuing indecision and defeatist attitude that Esther begins to display; while her problem at the novel's beginning was that she found herself unable to make any concrete choices, her current problem is malaise and inaction. She can choose a course of action such as writing a novel or working on her thesis, but she does not have the energy to commit to it. Esther accepts the single failure of the writing program as a rationale that she is a failure.

Away from the foreign setting of New York City, Sylvia Plath places Esther in her normal environment, which reveals some of the other causes of her current anxiety. While her mother is well-intentioned, she deals with Esther abruptly, as when she tells Esther that she did not make the writing course. While intending to soften the blow of this news by giving it immediately and outright, this instead makes Esther's mother seem somewhat callous and insensitive, a woman who unfortunately tends to say the wrong things in delicate situations.

Plath continues to relate Esther's anxiety to fears concerning sexuality and gender roles through the details of Esther's life in the suburbs. The two most notable personalities in the neighborhood both represent traditional female roles that Esther perceives as negative. Mrs. Ockenden is a widow and former nurse whose empty life leads her to intrusive behavior against others and an unhealthy interest in preserving Esther's good reputation by monitoring her behavior. Dodo Conway, in contrast, represents the full-time mother whose life is devoted simply to child-rearing; Esther views Dodo as an object of simultaneous pity, scorn and fascination.

While Buddy Willard recedes from prominence in this chapter, he nevertheless remains a presence for Esther. His behavior toward Esther remains rude and condescending. When he writes her about the nurse with TB, he essentially asks Esther to prove to him that she is worthy of his love over this possible infatuation.

Sylvia Plath additionally foreshadows Esther's suicide attempt through her attempt to procure more sleeping pills. Plath leaves open the possibility that Esther does not want the sleeping pills in order to cure her insomnia, but rather to use them for an overdose.

Chapter Eleven:

Esther visits Doctor Gordon, after a week without sleeping nor washing her clothes or her hair. Esther feels that it is silly to wash her hair one day, when she would only have to do it again the next day. Esther hates Dr. Gordon, for his features are so perfect he is almost pretty, and she had imagined an ugly, intuitive man and not a person who could be conceited. When Dr. Gordon asks what is wrong, she answers that she is not sleeping, eating or reading, but does not tell that she can barely write by hand anymore either. Dr. Gordon only asks where Esther went to college, then tells her that he will see her next week. While Esther is in Boston Common, a sailor introduces himself to Esther, who tells him that she is Elly Higginbottom from Chicago. Esther thinks that if she ever does go to Chicago, she might change her name to Elly Higginbottom for good, and would show herself to be an orphan. The sailor, who is thirty but looks only sixteen, wants to kiss her, but she thinks that she sees Mrs. Willard and attempts to hide.

During her next session with Dr. Gordon, Esther tells him that she feels the same. She shows Dr. Gordon her handwriting, and he merely asks her if she minds if he would speak to her mother. Dr. Gordon tells her mother that Esther should have shock treatments at his private hospital in Walton. Esther suspects that Dr. Gordon wants her to live there, but she does not believe her mother when she says otherwise. Esther reads a newspaper article about a suicide saved from a seven story ledge, but thinks that the trouble with jumping is that one doesn't choose enough stories, the fall might not be fatal. She also thinks about the Japanese and how they disembowel themselves when anything goes wrong. Esther goes to her appointment at the hospital.

Analysis:

The cure for Esther's depression in this chapter proves worse than the disease, for Esther Greenwood finds Dr. Gordon to be indifferent to her problems and unwilling to learn anything significant about Esther other than which college she attends. This contrasts starkly to even Jay Cee, who displayed significantly more compassion and concern for Esther's mental condition despite her intensely businesslike manner. Instead of dealing with Esther's problems, Dr. Gordon merely prescribes shock therapy for her, shifting her to another doctor for treatment. This may be seen as additional evidence of the misogyny that Esther faces; although there is nothing that automatically suggests that Dr. Gordon gives poor treatment to Esther because of her gender, his behavior toward her will contrast with the later, more compassionate treatment that she will receive from the female Dr. Nolan.

Perhaps the most significant evidence of Esther's mental illness is her handwriting, for her handwriting represents that quality which best defines Esther, the self-professed writer and poet. She grasps at her identity and eventually disavows it, as she continues to employ the pseudonym Elly Higginbottom" when she meets the sailor whom she kisses in Boston Common. She even states that she wishes to assume a new identity as Elly Higginbottom, disavowing her parents and claiming to be an orphan.

Esther's encounter with the sailor in Boston Common once again reinforces the idea that Esther is intensely conflicted about her sexuality, using it as a means for personal expression yet still aware of the disapproval that surrounds her. That she believes that she sees Mrs. Willard when she kisses the sailor in Boston Common shows that she suffers from guilt and anxiety over her sexuality, but also that Buddy Willard is still an omnipresent force in her life.

Although Plath has continually foreshadowed a suicide attempt by Esther in previous chapters, in this chapter Plath becomes more explicit as the attempt seems imminent. At this point Esther considers the various methods to make an attempt, thus implying that the actual attempt will occur quite soon.

Chapter Twelve:

Everything in the hospital seems normal: there are no bars on the windows nor wild noises, but none of the people are moving, or are rather moving with such small, birdlike gestures that she did not discern them. Esther feels as if she were in a department store and the people around me were "shop dummies, painted to resemble real people and propped up in attitudes counterfeiting life." Esther wonders what a terrible thing it was that she had done when she prepares for the shock treatment. Afterward, she claims that she feels all right despite loathing the treatment, and Dr. Gordon once again asks which college she attends. On her return home, Esther tells her mother that she's through with Dr. Gordon and won't go back for treatment. Her mother says that she knew her baby wasn't like those awful people there.

After twenty-one days without sleep, Esther locks herself in the bathroom and prepares a hot bath so that she can commit suicide by opening her veins. However, she can only bear to make a Œpractice' cut on her knee, which she bandages. Esther goes to Deer Island Prison in Boston, where she goes along the nearby beach. She asks a guard nearby how one gets into that prison, and he answers "steal a car, rob a store." Esther still has the razors in her pocket, but now has no bath in which to commit suicide.

Analysis:

Sylvia Plath does not give Esther Greenwood's mother a name and she occupies a somewhat minor role in the novel as compared to characters given more description such as Buddy Willard or even Jay Cee, yet the few times in which Esther mentions her mother the comments are important to detail the relationship between the two and the tension that Mrs. Greenwood places on Esther. Her one major comment concerning her daughter's refusal to get electroshock treatment again is that she knows her baby isn't like the "awful" people in the hospital, demonstrating that a primary concern for her is her daughter's reputation and not in curing Esther's problems.

The major theme of this chapter is the dehumanizing aspect of the hospital. Esther describes the patients there in entirely inhuman terms. Although first believing them to be inanimate, she then compares them to birds and finally mannequins; there is the omnipresent sense that Esther has entered a strange and horrific world foreign to her.

Once again, Plath slowly moves Esther closer and more tentatively to the impending suicide attempt. Esther's slow progression toward attempting to kill herself demonstrates that it will certainly be a premeditated action, yet this also shows that the action is reluctantly done. She must prepare herself to actually undertake the action, giving credence to the interpretation that a suicide attempt will be a cry for help rather than an attempt done definitively to end her life. She has no unending drive to end her life; it is in some sense a whim that comes and goes, as when she thinks about killing herself while at the beach. Nevertheless, Plath indicates that the time will soon come when Esther does finally commit to this particular course of action.

Chapter Thirteen:

Along with Jody and her boyfriend Mark, Esther goes to the beach with Cal, a baby-faced blond boy Jody wanted Esther to meet. While Jody and Mark swim, Cal and Esther discuss a play in which a young man finds that he has a brain disease on account of his father fooling around with unclean women, and in the end his brain snaps completely. Esther only remembers the play because it has a mad person in it, and everything about the insane sticks in her mind. Cal and Esther discuss how they would kill themselves: Cal would use his father's shotgun. Esther considers drowning the kindest way to die, burning the worst. That morning, Esther had tried to hang herself using the silk cord of her mother's yellow bathrobe, but her home has the wrong type of ceiling. While swimming with Cal, Esther tries to drown herself but finds herself unable.

Esther begins work as a volunteer at the local hospital, where she works on the maternity ward. She tries to help out by taking out dead flowers in the patients' rooms, but patients complain. Esther considers becoming a Catholic, despite the religion's conviction that suicide is a mortal sin and the fact that she doesn't believe in life after death or the virgin birth. She wants only to concentrate on her sin so that she could repent. Esther visits her father's gravestone and realizes that neither she nor her mother cried for her father's death.

Esther writes a note to her mother, claiming that she is going for a walk, then takes a bottle of pills. At first nothing happens, but Esther begins to see red and blue lights as she takes the pills one by one. Finally the bottle slides from her fingers and she lies down.

Analysis

Esther's date with Cal reinforces several of the prevalent themes of the novel. The play that they discuss deals with several of these themes, including mental illness and problems of sexuality, and in fact explicitly states that the cause of this mental illness is the play's character's association with Œunclean' women. Plath, however, repudiates the assumption that deviant sexuality causes mental illness, for the problems that Esther faces are either entirely unrelated to sex (such as problems deciding on a career) or stem from a repressed, not a liberated, sexual atmosphere.

The suicide attempt that Plath has for so long foreshadowed comes to bear during this chapter, but the most successful attempt only occurs after Esther makes slight forays into attempting to kill herself. Her first tries, through drowning and hanging, prove unsuccessful, until Esther finally takes the sleeping pills at this chapter's end. There is no definitive explanation for what causes Esther to take these sleeping pills. However, the accumulation of details throughout this chapter give some greater indication for the rationale behind the decision.

While previous chapters have focused primarily on Esther's anxiety over the future and her sexual preoccupation, Plath suggests that there is a larger self-hatred and longstanding pain that underlies all of Esther's actions. This chapter certainly does continue to show Esther's anxiety over her sexuality, most clearly with Esther's experience working at the maternity ward, but religion and forgiveness also become prominent themes. Esther considers becoming a Catholic as a form of penance, although she has no concrete idea for what she must repent. For the first time, Plath indicates that it might be the death of Esther's father that promotes this constant pain that Esther feels; she has no sense of catharsis from her father's death and has not even cried for the loss of her father.

Chapter Fourteen:

Esther is in complete darkness, and she feels as if she is being transported at enormous speed down a tunnel into the earth. She feels as if she is in an underground chamber, lit by blinding lights, and that people are holding her down. She cries out that she can't see, and hears a voice say that she'll marry a nice blind man someday.

When Esther regains consciousness, the doctor tells her that her sight is perfectly intact, and brings her mother and brother in to see her. Esther denies that she called out for her mother. Another visitor, George Bakewell, also visits. Although Esther does not remember him, he goes to her church and she dated his roommate at Amherst. He is houseman at the hospital. Esther tells him to leave and not to come back. Esther asks the nurse for a mirror, but the nurse refuses to give her one because she does not look very pretty. The nurse relents, but when Esther sees that her hair was shaved off and her face is purple and bulged, Esther breaks the mirror. As they clean up the glass, one nurse says that "at you-know-where they'll take care of her."

After the incident with the mirror, the nurses move Esther into a different ward, with Mrs. Tomolillo, a woman who claims she is there on account of her French-Canadian mother-in-law. Esther remains truculent in her new ward, even kicking the black worker who serves her food.

Analysis:

Sylvia Plath drastically alters the tone of this chapter to mirror Esther Greenwood's altered mental state. The imagery that Plath uses to describe Esther's initial awakening from unconsciousness is frightening and grotesque, part reality and part nightmare. It is here that the narrative voice of the novel is most unreliable; at least some of the details are imaginary, such as the voice claiming that Esther will marry a nice blind man, but some seem distorted but nevertheless grounded in reality, such as the blinding hospital lights.

The suicide attempt is a turning point for Esther Greenwood for obvious reasons, but the most visible change that it effects is in her personality. Esther becomes truculent and rude after her awakening; while previously listless and lacking sufficient interest or energy to confront others, Esther treats the visitors and nurses with complete contempt. There are several possible interpretation for this new behavior. This may be the first major step toward her recovery; she is now capable of feeling emotions, however negative they may be. This may also signal Esther's final abandonment of the societal norms that confined her before her suicide attempt; Esther knows that she is now a pariah and feels free to deviate from social norms, even simple polite behavior, as she wishes.

Although the suicide attempt is the most dire expression of Esther's problems, this does not necessarily mean the end of conflict for Esther. Plath foreshadows a difficult time at the asylum ("you-know-where," as the nurse refers to it) where Esther will soon be taken.

Chapter Fifteen:

Philomena Guinea becomes interested in Esther's case, for she had read about her in a Boston paper. She returned to Boston and took Esther out of the city hospital ward and chauffeurs her to a private hospital that resembles a country club, where she would pay for Esther until the doctors make her well. Esther knows that she should be grateful to Mrs. Guinea, but she cannot feel a thing. She believes that no matter where she may be, should would be "sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air." A female psychiatrist, Dr. Nolan, introduces herself to Esther. Dr. Nolan is a "cross between Myrna Loy and [Esther's] mother." Esther lives in a brick building called Caplan, where she has a room on the first floor. Valerie, a girl who reminds Esther of a Girl Scout leader, introduces herself to Esther, but she ignores her.

Dr. Nolan asks Esther her opinion of Dr. Gordon, and she claims that she dislikes shock treatment. When she describes the treatment, Dr. Nolan says that if it is done properly, it I like going to sleep. Dr. Nolan tells Esther that she won't have any shock treatments, and if she does, she'll tell her about it beforehand and promises that it won't be like she had before. Dr. Nolan claims that "some people even like them." Esther introduces herself to a new woman who moves into the room next door. The woman, Miss Norris, does not answer, but instead goes to the dining room. Although supper doesn't start for another hour, Miss Norris and Esther sit there silently until it begins.

Valerie tells Esther that she is on insulin, and she receives three shots daily. While on a walk with Valerie, she shows Esther her scars from a lobotomy. She tells Esther that she is not angry anymore, but before the lobotomy when she was in Wymark, a hospital for more serious cases, she was far more angry. Later, Miss Norris is sent to Wymark while Esther is moved to a different room. Esther gets a surprise visit from Joan, who is now in the hospital herself.

Analysis:

In this chapter, Sylvia Plath constructs the analogy that gives the book its title: Esther diagnoses her problem as sitting under a bell jar. This fulfills the theme of confinement that pervades the novel and also relates to the societal pressures that Esther faces. The Œbell jar' is intended to preserve Esther as an ornament, but merely suffocates her. This implies that Esther's problems are societal pressure, but Esther herself disputes the charge and accepts some of the blame for her own problems. This is an important step for Esther, for she assumes responsibility for her actions even if she is not ready to repair her life.

Dr. Nolan is one of the few characters in the novel for whom Esther displays any significant admiration or trust; she is the antithesis of the callous Dr. Gordon, and treats Esther with compassion and candor. However, despite Esther's immediate faith in Dr. Nolan, Plath foreshadows later conflicts between Dr. Nolan and Esther. Whatever compassion Dr. Nolan might show, she nevertheless believes in shock treatment. Furthermore, her promises seem authoritative but are still ambiguous; she cannot promise Esther that she will never receive shock treatment, and her promise that Esther will know about shock treatment beforehand is vague. This leaves open the possibility that Dr. Nolan may betray Esther without realizing it or having malicious intent.

Sylvia Plath frames the hospital as a parallel to the college environment from which Esther comes. The mental institution even replicates the competitive atmosphere of the college campus, as patients are promoted or demoted to better types of hospitals and dormitories based on their evaluations. Esther even finds her scholarship replicated at the mental institution, for Philomena Guinea pays for her stay in the institution as she does for Esther's college education. This suggests that the societal structures from which Esther has attempted to escape are omnipresent even in this separate society; Esther must now face the same challenge in the hospital as she did during her time before entering the institution. This reinforces the notion that the change in location will not cure Esther, but rather an internal change separate from her environment.

The sudden reappearance Joan at the hospital contributes to this comparison and will provide the greatest test for Esther. Although her reasons for entering into the hospital are still unclear and her relationship with Esther is still undefined (she was mentioned only briefly as the girl whom Buddy took to a dance), her past experiences with Esther are less important than the effect that Joan will have on Esther throughout the final chapters of the novel.

Chapter Sixteen:

Joan explains to Esther that she read about her in the paper and ran away. Joan had a summer job working for the chapter head of a fraternity, which she quit. Joan went to see a psychiatrist, who interviewed her while nine psychiatry students observed. This doctor suggested group therapy for Joan, but then Joan read about Esther in the paper. There were articles about how a "scholarship girl" was missing and then found alive in the laundry room. Joan herself had attempted to kill herself by shoving her fists through her roommate's window.

After Esther has a reaction to her medicine, Dr. Nolan suggests shock treatments as a possibility, but instead prevents Esther from having visitors. When Dr. Nolan prohibits visitors, Esther reacts by exclaiming "why, that's wonderful." Esther hates the visits from her former boss, English teachers, and even Philomena Guinea herself. The worst visits are from Esther's mother, who kept begging Esther to tell her what she had done wrong. One afternoon, Esther's mother had brought her roses, but Esther reacted by telling her mother "save them for the funeral," but Esther does no realize that it is her birthday. Esther tells Dr. Nolan that she hates her mother, but Dr. Nolan only smiles as if she has said something pleasing.

Analysis:

In this chapter, Sylvia Plath contrasts the respective psychiatric states of Joan Giling and Esther Greenwood; while Esther Greenwood appears to deal with deep psychological trauma, while Joan wears her mental illness as something fashionable or trendy. There is even the subtle indication that Joan attempted suicide to imitate Esther. This does not necessarily mean that Joan's problems are insignificant or nonexistent; rather, this demonstrates that Esther takes a more serious and conscientious approach to life in comparison to Joan.

Esther begins the first steps in her healing process in this chapter, as Dr. Nolan removes her from contact with those well-intentioned visitors who merely oppress her with their kindness. Esther's reaction to Dr. Nolan's edict is ironic, for Dr. Nolan expects Esther to be upset that she cannot have visitors, when in fact this is the relief that she needs. The most significant step in this healing process occurs when Esther tells Dr. Nolan that she hates her mother; this is important, for it shows that Esther is becoming more emotional and less fatalistic. As Dr. Nolan appears to note, Esther is becoming more able to pinpoint the sources of her problems, most prominently the constant worry and attention given to Esther by her mother.

Chapter Seventeen:

Dr. Nolan orders Esther to be moved to Belsize, a different hospital ward in which the patients have greater privileges and do not undergo shock treatments. Joan is in Belsize, where she has walk privileges, shopping privileges and town privileges. The women in Belsize are fashionably dressed and made-up, and Esther watches several of these women gossip. There is also a society woman named Mrs. Savage who worries that her daughters will not be debutantes because of her time in the asylum. After speaking to a nurse who tells her about the "boobies in the state place that worry [her] off her feet," Esther worries that she will be demoted back to Caplan, then Wymark and finally the state institution.

The nurses do not serve Esther breakfast one morning, for she will receive shock treatment. Esther feels incredibly betrayed, but for the shock treatment but for the "bare-faced treachery" of Dr. Nolan. Esther shouts at Dr. Nolan that she said she would tell her, but Dr. Nolan says she thought it would only keep Esther awake. Esther makes Dr. Nolan promise that she will be there. Dr. Nolan gives Esther over to Miss Huey, a very tall woman who prepares her for the treatment.

Analysis

Sylvia Plath develops the parallels between the mental institution and Esther's normal society in this chapter, in which Esther's new hospital ward essentially replicates the social order of the outside world. Even in an asylum, Esther cannot escape this fashionable society in which catty gossip and trends reign; these women do not have any concrete concerns, but rather manifest greater interest in their image in society, as when Mrs. Savage panics over jeopardizing her daughters' debutante status.

Dr. Nolan finally betrays Esther in this chapter, but this betrayal is less momentous and malicious than Plath had constructed this inevitable breach of faith to be. Although Esther initially describes Dr. Nolan's decision to administer shock treatment as treacherous, she seems to accept Dr. Nolan's decision and rationale as long as Dr. Nolan proves her devotion and concern for her. This does not fully absolve Dr. Nolan of responsibility for lying to Esther; it is more important for Esther's relatively mature and measured reaction to the act. This is more definitive evidence that Esther's mental health is significantly improving.

Chapter Eighteen:

Esther awakes out of a deep sleep and sees Dr. Nolan, who tries to reassure Esther that it wasn't like it was before. She tells Esther that she will receive shock treatments three times a week. Joan and Esther both receive letters from Buddy Willard, and Joan asks whether Esther will let Buddy visit her at the asylum. Joan suggests inviting Mrs. Willard, for she has always liked Buddy's family more than Buddy himself. Esther is somewhat shocked by Joan's suggestion. Esther does not particularly like Joan, but she fascinates Esther, who believes she may have just made up Joan. Joan tells Esther that she likes her better than Buddy, and she stretches out on Esther's bed. Esther reminisces about a scandal at her college involving two supposed lesbians. She tells Joan that she does not like her, and that she makes her puke. Dr. Nolan schedules an appointment for Esther to get birth control pills, which will give her "freedom from fear, freedom from marrying the wrong person, like Buddy Willard, just because of sex." Her next step is to find a proper man.

Analysis:

Sylvia Plath leaves ambiguous the effects of the shock treatment on Esther; although Dr. Nolan attempts to reassure Esther that it was not like it was before, Esther registers little reaction to the electroshock therapy. She only asks whether she will have the treatment again and how often this will occur. This indicates some acceptance of the treatment. Barring the near-impossible scenario that Esther actually enjoys the shock treatment and believes in its benefits, her most plausible reaction is stoic acceptance.

With the recurrence of Buddy Willard in the novel comes a resumed interest in the theme of female sexuality. The idea that Buddy Willard might visit the asylum prompts reactions from Esther and Joan, neither of whom relish the idea of dealing with Buddy. In this chapter, Buddy comes to symbolize dominant male sexuality and power, for Esther and Joan both react to Buddy through exploring unconventional sexual methods. Whether Joan is a lesbian who attempts to seduce Esther is quite debatable, yet through the juxtaposition of Buddy Willard's letter and Joan's seeming invitation to Esther seems to indicate that Plath is constructing lesbianism as a reaction to the male dominance that Buddy represents.

Esther's decision to get birth control pills represents a different reaction to the male sexuality that Buddy symbolizes. Esther secures birth control pills as a means for female empowerment. For her, the birth control pills symbolize freedom and power. In contrast to her previous attempt to use sexuality by allowing herself to be seduced by Constantin, Esther is now an active agent of change. She no longer will wait for a man such as Buddy Willard to seduce her, but has decided to make an active attempt to free herself from the mores of society and find a man herself.

Chapter Nineteen:

Joan tells Esther that she had a long conversation with her psychiatrist, Dr. Quinn, and she will become a psychiatrist herself. Esther thinks it is unfair that Joan is leaving before she does, even though Esther is merely staying at the asylum until her winter term begins. Esther meets a man named Irwin on the steps of Widener library at Harvard. He is a professor of mathematics, and Esther decides to seduce him after seeing his study. Esther has sex with Irwin, and afterwards she begins to bleed heavily. She goes to stay with Joan, for she is now staying with a nurse in Cambridge, and Joan realizes that she is hemorrhaging. When Esther goes to the hospital, the doctor tells Esther that she is a one in a million case.

Esther returns to the asylum, and Joan moves back in there as well, but one night Dr. Quinn awakes Esther to ask where Joan might be. Esther does not know, but Dr. Quinn awakes her later that night to tell her that Joan has been found in the woods by the frozen ponds. Joan has hanged herself.

Analysis:

Despite Esther's independence and defiant decision to empower herself through her sexuality, Plath continues to relate sexuality to violence and pain through this chapter, in which Esther suffers severe hemorrhaging when she has sex with Irwin. Although Esther's independent sexuality is a definite sign of her improvement and freedom, it is not without consequences. In fact, Plath succumbs to a judgmental moral attitude similar to the one which she condemns; Esther suffers great pain for having a sexual encounter with a man she barely knows, as if her hemorrhaging were punishment for her promiscuity.

Nevertheless, this chapter indicates that Esther has made a significant recovery through contrasting Esther's concrete independent attitude with the false confidence that Joan displays before her suicide. Plath contrasts Esther's resolve, even when making poor decision such as sleeping with Irwin, to the random behavior displayed by Joan Giling. Joan shifts from location to location, unsure of what she will be; this parallels the behavior demonstrated by Esther during the early chapter of the novel, and thus indicates how far Esther has progressed.

Chapter Twenty:

Esther prepares to leave the asylum that January, if she passes her interview with the board of directors. She realizes that people will treat her differently, either avoiding her or treating her gingerly. Her mother tells Esther that they will take up where they left out and "act as if this were a bad dream," but to a person like Esther in the bell jar, the world itself is a bad dream. Buddy Willard visits Esther, who feels that she has to reassure Buddy that she is all right. Buddy awkwardly asks whether she thinks that there's something in him that drives women crazy, and Esther bursts out laughing. He wonders because he dated Joan and then Esther.

Esther wonders whether someday the bell jar might descend again, and whom she will marry now that she has been in an asylum. Esther calls Irwin to confront him about the hospital bill from their encounter together. He agrees to pay, but when he asks when he will see Esther again, she responds "never." Esther feels that she is perfectly free. Esther attends Joan's funeral, despite Dr. Nolan's reassurance that she does not have to go.

Esther prepares to have her exit interview from the institution, and dresses herself for the occasion in "something old, something new" as if she were getting married. She compares this to a ritual for being born twice, "patched, retreaded and approved for the road."

Analysis:

Joan's suicide is the dramatic climax of the novel, effectively demonstrating through the contrast between the two characters that Esther is moving toward a complete recovery. Plath approaches the suicide almost entirely as an engine for the plot and not for its effect on Esther, whose minimal reaction to Esther's suicide emphasizes how little Esther cared for Joan. The only significant act related to Joan's suicide is Esther's decision to attend the funeral, and that serves primarily to demonstrate to Dr. Nolan that Esther is capable of making independent decisions.

Plath uses the final chapter to provide final comment on several of the plotlines throughout the novel. The comments by Buddy Willard about how he may have caused Joan's and Esther's insanity absurdly demonstrate his arrogance and self-importance. However, at this point Esther can dismiss Buddy as foolish where previously he would severely frustrate her.

Esther adopts a new tone in this chapter, specifically stating that she feels free and rejuvenated. While previous chapters have demonstrated this through Esther's actions and attitude, Plath makes this explicit through Esther's self-confident narration in which she states outright that she is "patched, retreaded and approved for the road." Plath still concedes that Esther may never fully be cured, as when Esther wonders whether she may be trapped again by the bell jar, but includes this only as a vague conjecture.

Still, Plath leaves Esther rejuvenated at the end of the novel but with her major problems unresolved. The negative comments by Esther's mother show that she is still a problem for Esther, while Dr. Nolan makes clear to Esther that she will face some scorn and delicate treatment upon leaving the hospital. In essence, very little has changed for Esther with regard to her relationships with family and friends. What has changed, however, is Esther's ability to cope and face the challenges that these may provide her.

• Biography of Sylvia Plath
• About The Bell Jar
• Character List
• Major Themes
• Short Summary
• Full Summary and Analysis
• Summary and Analysis of Chapters 1-4
• Summary and Analysis of Chapters 5-8
• Summary and Analysis of Chapters 9-12
• Summary and Analysis of Chapters 13-16
• Summary and Analysis of Chapters 17-20
• Related Links on The Bell Jar
• Author of ClassicNote and Sources
• Purchase The Bell Jar and Other Works
• Test Yourself! Quiz 1
• Test Yourself! Quiz 2
• Essays on The Bell Jar
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