Nikola Peterová

KAA/LITEO
01/02/2016
Sylvia Plath: Under the Bell Jar

FEMINIST CRITICISM

of

UNDER THE BELL JAR

by Sylvia Plath

1. Introduction

I would like to dedicate this essay to a novel called The Bell Jar, which was written by
Sylvia Plath. It is , considered to be her autobiography and first published in 1963 under the
pseudonym Victoria Lucas. This essay focuses on analyzing the novel in terms of feminist
criticism.

The novel depicts a young woman, Esther Greenwood, who spends her summer as an
intern at a prominent fashion magazine called Ladies’ Day under the editor named Jay Cee.
Instead of being excited and full of expectations for her new adventure, Esther feels out of place,
uncertain and confused about her future and especially about herself. Her desire not to be a
stereotypical housewife but to be able to pursue the career as a writer are the main aspects which
are analyzed in this essay following the Tyson’s theory of feminism criticism.

2. Theoretical background of feminist criticism

Being brainwashed by patriarchal society is the first factor Tyson introduces when
explaining what feminism essentially is. Patriarchy has set norms which are still visible to this
day. Those norms indicate women as unequal to men. Based on traditional gender roles, women
are considered “emotional (irrational), weak, nurturing, and submissive; men as rational, strong,
protective, and decisive.” (Tyson, 2006, p. 85)

Tyson introduces two terms in her essay about feminism. They ose terms fall into the
concept of traditional gender roles. She suggests the term “good girls” and “bad girls” which are
defined by the patriarchal ideology in a particular period of time. “Good girls” are essentially

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Sylvia Plath: Under the Bell Jar

those who are submissive towards men, who are “modest, unassuming, self-sacrificing and
nurturing.” (Tyson, 2006, p. 90) They are happy to with serveing their family. In the Victorian
period, “good girl” was also someone who lacked/suppressed sexual desire simply because it was
considered natural for women to only experience it when procreating. This attitude towards
women’s sexuality endures exists in some form up to today. For example, Tyson points out the
fact of using the word ‘slut’ with a negative connotation when talking about a woman, but using
the word ‘stud’, which has positive connotation, when talking about men. (Tyson, 2006)

3. Text analysis

These following paragraphs are dedicated to specific hints moments in The Bell Jar
which in some way follow Tyson’s depiction of feminist criticism. I would like to focus on the
role of Esther in the male-dominated society in the 1960s. Her one true desire in life is to be a
writer. However, this career was mainly men’s the domain of men. (Maxzúd, 2003, p. 1) In
chapter 4, Plath depicts there is depicted a situation of a famous writer, a man, selling his stories
to the New Yorker as well as to fashion magazines. The stories of the other writer, a woman,
were sold only to the fashion magazines and even there in a smaller number.

“The lady writer wrote stories too, but she had never had any in the New Yorker and
Jay Cee had only taken one from her in five years. Jay Cee had to flatter the more
famous man at the same time as she was careful not to hurt the less famous lady.”
(Plath, 2000, p. 43)

However, Esther does not want to be under men’s power: “I hated the idea of serving men
in any way.” (Plath, 2000, p. 72) Throughout the novel, Esther, who is an excellent student,
experiences rejection from a writing course she wanted to focus on after finishing her internship.
The inability to pursue her career as a writer and not being able to write, were the main triggers
of her mental illness.

The aspect of focusing mainly on the career brings the attention concerning Esther’s
attitude towards marriage. In the novel, the topic of marriage is encountered several times. It is
suggested that women are basically waiting their whole life to get married. Girls of the same age
as Esther from wealthy families are described as follows:

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Sylvia Plath: Under the Bell Jar

“They were all going to posh secretarial schools like Katy Gibbs, where they
had to wear hats and stockings and gloves to class, or they had just graduated from
places like Katy Gibbs and were secretaries to executives and junior executives and
simply hanging around in New York waiting to get married to some career man or
other.” (Plath, 2000, p. 16)

The marriage is also brought up by Esther’s mother, who provided her with an article
written by a married woman lawyer with children. The article pointed out the facts of men and
women having different sets of emotions and only marriage can bring them together.

For Esther, marriage is a situation which she understands in the following way:

“getting up at seven and cooking him eggs and bacon and toast and coffee
and dawdling about in my nightgown and curlers after he’d left for work to wash up
the dirty plates and make the bed, and then when he came home after a lively,
fascinating day he’d expect a big dinner, and I’d spend the evening washing up even
more dirty plates till I fell into bed, utterly exhausted”. (Plath, 2000, p. 78)

The concept of marriage is explained to Esther also through by the point of view of Mrs.
Willard, who is athe mother of Esther’s fiancé at some point in the novel. Mrs. Willard says that
women need to feel secure and for them, men are “an arrow into the future” and women are “the
place the arrow shoots off from.” (Plath, 2000, p. 70) However, Esther does not feel that way.
Marriage for her seems as nothing but a waste of life. She refuses wanting the infinite security
and being the place where the arrow shoots off from: “I wanted change and excitement and to
shoot off in all directions myself, like the colored arrows from a Fourth of July rocket.” (Plath,
2000, p. 78)

Here comes the aspect of “a modern good girl” Tyson mentionesd and which are those
women who have to balance their job as well as the status of a housewife at the same time.
(Tyson, 2006)

“I knew that’s what marriage was like, because cook and clean and wash was
just what Buddy Willard’s mother did from morning till night, and she was the wife
of a university professor and had been a private school teacher herself.” (Plath, 2000,
p. 78)

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Sylvia Plath: Under the Bell Jar

Following the issue of marriage, the issue of sexuality comes to light as well. Using the
same example of the article about marriage Esther came across thanks to her mother, it is
suggested that a girl should not be sleeping with anybody but her husband and then only when
they are married. It also points out the fact that there is “no one hundred percent sure way not to
have a baby” and when women who go on sleeping with other men they will get “stuck with a
baby and then would really be in a pickle.” (Plath, 2000, p. 76) When Esther meets Eric, a boy
who believes that love and sex do not go together, she learns a new point of view some men hold
about women. He said that he would never want to spoil his wife with going to bed with her. He
would much prefer to go to a whore and leave his wife, a woman he loves, “free of all that dirty
business.” (Plath, 2000, p. 75)

Another hint sign of a male dominance over women that describes gender stereotypes,
showing how men dominate women, is when Ester goes to have a look at a woman giving birth.
When seeing the woman in a great pain getting a drug which makes her forget all the pain she
suffers from, Esther immediately thinks about the fact that the drug is definitely a man-
constructed product. Simply because men want women to forget the pain so she is willing to go
through the same action the next time. (Plath, 2000)

“I thought it sounded just like the sort of drug a man would invent. Here was a
woman in terrible pain, obviously feeling every bit of it or she wouldn’t groan like
that, and she would go straight home and start another baby, because the drug would
make her forget how bad the pain had been, when all the time, in some secret part of
her, that long, blind, doorless and windowless corridor of pain was waiting to open up
and shut her in again.” (Plath, 2000, p. 64)

In the last paragraph, I would like to focus on the relationship Esther has with the female
character of Jay Cee in the novel. Jay Cee, the woman editor of Ladies’ Day fashion magazine,
has a positive influence on Esther in terms of standing up to patriarchal society. The traditional
gender stereotype can be observed when Jay Cee is described. Here, the stereotype is presented
oppositely. Esther considers tThe editor is considered by Esther to be ugly, yet smart. The fact
that a womean, who does not abundant in beauty and still is able to hold a prestige social position
shows women not only as a pretty objects. (Maxzúd, 2003, p. 2)

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Sylvia Plath: Under the Bell Jar

4. Conclusion

This novel depicts the struggles of a young woman who does not conform with agree with
taking the role of a stereotypical woman. The desire to Wanting to be an independent woman
and not interested in having a family and committing to all the aspects connected to the issue of
being a full-time housewife could be are among the factors that caused Esther to be trapped in her
own mind, or under the bell jar, as explained the meaning of the title of the novel.

To sum up, Esther does not fulfill the criteria which the society anticipates from women
in order to maintain a secure role in the society. Esther would not be satisfied with the passive
role of a woman cooking dinner, waiting for her husband to get back home from work and taking
care of children. However, this novel is not only a novel prone to be analyzed from the
perspective of feminism. The lack of self-identity, feeling lost and insecure of the society and
overall dissatisfaction with life are the issues which, in combination of paying attention to gender
roles, make the novel a complex issue worth a large number of literary criticisms.

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Sylvia Plath: Under the Bell Jar

5. List of literature
1. BOND, Diane S. The seperative self in Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar. Women's

Studies. United Kingdom: Gordon and Breach Science Publishers S.A.,

1990, 49-64. [online]. [cit. 2016-01-31]. Available from:

http://users.clas.ufl.edu/ssmith/separativeself.pdf

2. MAXZÚD, Norma. A feminist analysis on Sylvia Plath´s The Bell Jar [online].

2013 [cit. 2016-01-31]. Available from:

https://www.academia.edu/5077280/The_bell_jar_feminist_approach

3. PLATH, Sylvia. The bell jar. 1st Perennial Classics ed. United States:

HARPERCOLLINS (PA), 2000. ISBN 00-609-3018-7.

4. TYSON, Lois. Critical theory today: a user-friendly guide. 2nd ed. London:

Routledge, 2006, xiv, 465 s. ISBN 04-159-7410-0.