Hannah Roberts

Norton

M3

12-16-16

The Bell Jar

A bell jar is a glass cover used for covering delicate objects or is used in a laboratory,

typically used for enclosing samples. (Merriam-Webster). Its made of thick glass, distorting the

view of those inside. Sylvia Plath uses the metaphor of a bell jar multiple times in her first novel,

aptly named, The Bell Jar.

Wherever I sat -- on the deck of a ship or at a street caf in Paris or Bangkok -- I would be

sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air (Plath 98); this is the first

mention of a bell jar in the novel. Shes describing how she feels that shes confined to her own

mind, she cant escape her own intrusive and depressive thoughts - matter the situation. Esthers

mental illness renders her incapable of caring for those around her, and her relation of this

feeling to a bell jar implies her belief that her depressive states can descend at any time, with no

warning at all. She feels isolated and lonely, as well as helpless and hopeless; she doesnt have

any reassurance or certainty in her life, at any moment of any day everything could be ruined.

The next mention of a bell jar is far more positive, All the heat and fear purged itself. I felt

surprisingly at peace. The bell jar hung, suspended, a few feet above my head. I was open to the

circulating air (Plath 113). Esther had just experienced shock therapy, done right, for the first

time in her life; she is describing the sense of relief that proper therapy and treatment gave her.

This is the first instance of Esther feeling that the bell jar had been lifted.
 By the last chapter, Esther feels that shes in a stable enough condition to leave the psychiatric

ward, but she knows that is likely temporary. How did I know that somedayat college, in

Europe, somewhere, anywherethe bell jar, with its stifling distortions, wouldnt descend

again (Plath 126)? Her desire to kill herself has vanished and she finds herself able to form

relationships with others; she no longer feels like her own mind is isolating her. Even through all

this though she knows it will ultimately end, and if we as readers take the novel as

autobiographical, it isnt long until Esther finally succeeds in killing herself.

The bell jar represents the ever looming force of mental illness. Mental illness often leaves

those diagnosed feeling cut off and separated from those around them, they experience a warped

outlook on life, the constant fear that once it disappears itll just come back at a later time. The

bell jar is a metaphor for all of this, and it allows Plath to express that.
 Works Cited

"Definition Of BELL JAR". Merriam-webster.com. N. p., 2016. Web. 22 Dec. 2016.

Plath, Sylvia, Fran McCullough, and Lois Ames. The Bell Jar: A Novel. New York: