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I had read several articles about Sylvia Plath's life and death over the last several years, having crept up on them slowly because the subject matter is so sad and I can be affected by the sadness of a person's life, in ways that don't feel healthy. I never planned to read The Bell Jar and I'm still a bit surprised that I did so but it was suggested as one of the books to read with members of The Traveling Friends Group and after looking it over, I decided to read it. I've never read Sylvia's poems and haven't ever been interested in poetry, but here was something that Sylvia wrote that might give more insight into her life and thinking and for that reason, the book called out to me.
Esther, the main character of the book, was a poor girl living in a rich society, making her way through her high school and college life, financing her education by winning awards and scholarships and working hard to earn money while making top grades, in contrast to the rich students around her who could party, travel, and live the high life while attending college, because they came from wealthy families. At the age of nineteen, she was able to be one of 12 young women who were chosen to intern for a month at a New York fashion magazine and this is where Esther's mental illness began to manifest itself.
This is the time in her life when she begins to think (and she is so very wrong but she is sinking into mental illness) that nothing she has ever done has been important, that the only talent she has (winning scholarships) has come to and end, that she can no longer even accomplish that feat anymore, and that all that she had ever wanted no longer interests her at all. She can't even remember why she wanted the things she wanted, she's lost all interest in life, the future, even getting out of bed.
We read her descent into madness and the treatment she gets from others (through her eyes only so what we see often may not be reality...but it IS Sylvia's reality) and the treatment she gets from the medical community. Because I know of Sylvia's life and death, and because this book is semi autobiographical, when the book ends, with Esther moving from the asylum where she was last treated, straight to her winter semester of college, after missing the fall semester, we are left with doubts about whether Esther is really going to be okay in the future.
I enjoyed Sylvia's writing and her sense of humor, which was there under the cynicism and despair. I don't know how anyone in her condition can be really helped, back in her time or in this time, because I haven't been in that state of mind and health and but my heart goes out to all who feel such despair and worthlessness. Sylvia Plath was a talented women who felt tortured by her mind and talents and this book gives us some insight into what it was like for her.
Esther, the main character of the book, was a poor girl living in a rich society, making her way through her high school and college life, financing her education by winning awards and scholarships and working hard to earn money while making top grades, in contrast to the rich students around her who could party, travel, and live the high life while attending college, because they came from wealthy families. At the age of nineteen, she was able to be one of 12 young women who were chosen to intern for a month at a New York fashion magazine and this is where Esther's mental illness began to manifest itself.
This is the time in her life when she begins to think (and she is so very wrong but she is sinking into mental illness) that nothing she has ever done has been important, that the only talent she has (winning scholarships) has come to and end, that she can no longer even accomplish that feat anymore, and that all that she had ever wanted no longer interests her at all. She can't even remember why she wanted the things she wanted, she's lost all interest in life, the future, even getting out of bed.
We read her descent into madness and the treatment she gets from others (through her eyes only so what we see often may not be reality...but it IS Sylvia's reality) and the treatment she gets from the medical community. Because I know of Sylvia's life and death, and because this book is semi autobiographical, when the book ends, with Esther moving from the asylum where she was last treated, straight to her winter semester of college, after missing the fall semester, we are left with doubts about whether Esther is really going to be okay in the future.
I enjoyed Sylvia's writing and her sense of humor, which was there under the cynicism and despair. I don't know how anyone in her condition can be really helped, back in her time or in this time, because I haven't been in that state of mind and health and but my heart goes out to all who feel such despair and worthlessness. Sylvia Plath was a talented women who felt tortured by her mind and talents and this book gives us some insight into what it was like for her.
