Imagine undergoing a night terror: an ax murderer chases you down an abandoned alley or, the turbulence in the plane on your trip to Hawaii turns into an aviation accident. You want it to be over- the sweat drips down from your temples on to your cotton pillow as the beat of your heart matches the beat of the music played from the party you attended the other night. There’s this zenith, the highest point in which you just have to wake yourself up. Philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer, asks the world what the difference is between waking and killing yourself from escaping a terrible nightmare. Nightmares, in forms of dream sequences or in real life, are abominable enough for any human to desperately free themselves from them- whatever it takes for them to get there. In Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, we see a human who goes through extreme measures to escape from the nightmare they battle with. The protagonist, Esther Greenwood, suffers from Major Depressive Disorder, a psychological disorder that invades a mind’s way of thinking through attacking their sanity- a prevailing nightmare. Restrained in her mind, she attempts suicide in hopes to be free. The common reaction from an uneducated crowd is to castigate suicidal actions, in response, Plath educates them through Esther Greenwood’s psychological experiences throughout the book. Her argument is built through the critical lens of psychology: Esther’s psychological instances with self-identity through experience; retrogression of development through gender roles, tyranny from society; and the repetitive cycle of depression. Created through the contributions of Aaron T. Beck, Ian H. Gotlib, and Constance L. Hammen, who establish the understanding of a depressed patient’s mind when they consider and/or attempt suicide. Plath also utilizes analytic symbolism of the bell jar and metaphor of an animal for better clarity of Esther’s depression, brooding foreshadow of the disorder, ambiguous motif. This lens uncovers Plath’s meaning of understanding the psychological story of a suicidal patient before assuming the worst of them.
In the psychology of depression, a mental illness is like a parasite that has entered inside of a mind, it’s host, beginning the spiral downfall of a person’s mental health as the parasite invades it. From Plath’s use of metaphor, she acknowledges this parasite, comparing Esther’s parasite to an animal: “I felt limp and betrayed, like the skin shed by a terrible animal. It was a relief to be free of the animal, but it seemed to have taken my spirit with it, and everything else it could lay its paws on. (102)” Esther has something inside of her, and when it leaves, a part of her escapes as well. Many critics question when this occurred. But, their main concern is what exactly this animal is and what did it take from her.
The animal is Esther’s experiences that had transpired in her life, stealing her identity like a parasite stealing a mental territory. In Major Depressive Disorder, there is a correlation between trauma and depression, in which trauma affects the cerebral stability of a person through taking something away from them. Esther becomes lost in the world when her identity is taken away from her after multiple experiences. A critic named Kate Baldwin explains Plath’s foreshadow of Esther’s mental disorder that already ensues when the first sentence of the novel is “I didn’t know what I was doing in New York. (1)” Already beginning to feel deeply unhappy about the loss of identity from an event that had transpired prior to her trip, Baldwin tells us that Plath prepares us for the ongoing rollercoaster ride that Esther is on. Esther’s identity is being a successful writer, with multiple endeavors that coincides to her favor. This identity quickly becomes to disappear after the death of her father: the event that inspires the first sentence of the novel, aka her sign of depression. Aaron T. Beck clarifies that a “depression-prone person may have been sensitized by certain unfavorable types of life situations such as the loss of a parent (Beck 7)”, interpreting that Esther’s depression has existed at a young age. The loss of Esther’s father has been the first loss in her life. This doesn’t end here. Though being successful in her award for a magazine internship, Esther’s sense of identity begins to further slip when she talks to Jay Cee: she comprehends her unknown future journey in her life: “‘I don’t really know,’ I heard myself say. I felt a deep shock hearing myself say that, because the minute I said it, I knew it was true. (32)” As Esther entered this office meeting, it did not cross once in her mind that she will admit to herself that her next aspirations are unknown. Previously a writer with an itinerary, with an abundance of aspirations, she discovers that her itinerary is barren. This event of discovery makes her question her identity, using the motif of the fig tree as her “own fear of inadequacy constantly overhelms(ing) her” (Badia 133). Her inability to choose becomes another failure because she is ambiguous of which to choose from the many futures in her life that her fig tree displays in front of her. Esther’s identity of perfectionism is ultimately destroyed when she receives her Harvard rejection letter: “I slunk down on the middle of my spine, my nose level with the rim of the window, and watched the houses of outer Boston glide by. As the houses grew more familiar, I sunk still lower. (114)” Esther visualizes her summer living with roommates and attending a writing course- an actual future she does see herself that ceases to transpire. But when she literally sees her life going in a different direction, “as the houses grew more familiar (114),” Esther realizes that this prospective endeavor will not come true, crushing expectations. After this event, according to Beck, Esther assigns a shortcoming in herself; she blames herself for failing at an opportunity. Shown in how Esther’s insecurities rise up: “Now I saw that the stupidest person at my mother’s college knew more than I did. I saw they wouldn’t even let me in through the door, let alone give me a large scholarship like the one I had at my own college. (125)” She places herself way below the spectrum of intelligence, fully disregarding the identity that she had her whole life. The identity becomes lost, the impact has made her careless in her mind, thence, Esther attempts to commit suicide. Through her constant battle with failures and losses, Esther believes that there would never be another positive light in her life. In psychology, this is called hopelessness: patients with depression feel that there is nothing else to look forward to- to live more days for. It’s is an emotional state that leaves a person to believe of obtaining a barren future after many inferences of not having a future. Through this loss of identity through events, Esther becomes blinded of the repetition of disappointments, making her feel that she has no meaning in her life to continue on. Plath asks her readers if Esther is truly at fault for her actions when the world has failed to inspire the continuation of her journey. There is nothing for her to hold on to, becoming imprudent with the value of life. Thus, a person is not at fault for attempting to commit suicide after reading every sign from the universe that has pointed them to a no which causes them to become reckless in their behavior.
In psychology, how someone is raised pays a contribution to their mental development. Erik Erikson is the father of the psychosocial stages of developmental psychology. One stage is called, “Identity vs. Role Confusion”: an individual goes through a stage of their innermost personal values to find their identity. For Esther, she finds her innermost personal value in becoming successful in a career of her choice. But, she is raised to ignore this because she is a woman. Women her age are raised to become perfect housewives, secretaries if they are lucky, becoming sheeps to the shepherds that they are married to. Esther does not believe in this, needing to break the mold of gender roles. Yet, there is a constant barrier of her continuing in her development because of the females in her life that Esther considers her female guides who had failed to encourage and understand her, guiding her towards the opposite direction, away from her values. Mrs. Greenwood, according to Bonds, is the “patriarchally-defined expectations of women (Bonds 60)” that Esther does not see herself mirroring. Mrs. Greenwood’s goal in life is to teach her daughter to become a replica of her but when she does not, becoming the total opposite by being an asylum patient, an opposite of a normal housewife, Mrs. Greenwood fails to understand Esther’s disorder: “She never scolded me, but kept begging me, with a sorrowful face, to tell her what she had done wrong. (202)” With a mother with a tendency to obsessively conform to gender norms which has caused her to overlook Esther’s struggle with depression, Esther is left alone to ponder on how to seek her personal values. Esther also seeks comfort in Mrs. Willard, eventually discovering that she is a clone of her mother when she says, “‘What a man wants is a mate and what a woman wants is infinite security.. What man is-is an arrow into the future and a what a woman is-is the place the arrow shoots off from’” (72). Mrs. Willard’s tells her the opposite of what Esther wants to hear: women’s submission to a man. Esther is left hopeless in seeking influence from women that she is close with, yet, she still manages to break the mold by pursuing a career as a writer. Though she accomplishes in seeking her developmental stage in her life, she encounters the harsh reality of the men in her world. Plath mentions how a man’s world is dominant in treating the female body through disregarding the proper care of it. Esther describes delivery rooms in hospitals as “some awful torture chamber with these metal stirrups sticking up in mid-air (65).” Through the solemn emotion of her voice, Esther emphasizes how weak a woman is in a man’s world- as men’s callous ways of handling woman on hospital beds. Esther sees the hospital rooms as a scenario of society: men operate the rules, the “metal stirrups,” in society as women must capitulate to them. A part of a women’s gender roles is to provide the next successor for the men. Therefore, the place they should be able to shine in is the delivery room. Esther finds that breaking gender roles is not enough to successfully make her mark in society because women fall back in men’s shadows for they are always seen as servants, even in the delivery rooms that they work in. Plath indicates that Esther’s inability to auspiciously utilize the personal values that she discovers in her developmental stage has prevented herself to find the meaning her life. In psychology, this is called a role confusion. Role confusion is when a person seeks one personal value to another -after feeling discouraged from previous goals- because they are no longer stable in the paths they pursue. Esther is unstable in her life as a woman, she seeks suicide to be free from the restraints of gender roles, finding it useless in switching paths as she will always be set back. Plath tells her readers to not blame Esther for her choices because of her unsuccessful attempt at accomplishing a psychological stage that has caused the downfall of her sanity. Esther tries to hold on to life by her efforts of discovering her identity that will keep her alive, but she fails, and through her, Plath teaches us not to condemn a person for quitting a fight that they cannot win in, instead, understand the situation. Esther’s fight is keeping her newfound-self discovered in the developmental stage. She loses the meaning in her life when she discovers the impossibility of holding on to it. The meaning emerges when Plath questions the judgments in relinquishing a suicidal case that contains many trials and tribulations.
When a patient is diagnosed with a disorder, there is a change of relationship between a patient and their society. As society’s misconceptions with patients who have disorders are negative for the reason that they perceive them as “abnormal”. Thus, how society handles situations between themselves and patients are negative, seemingly annihilating them from their world. Or, a patient separates themselves from society in fears of future judgments. The underlying root for judgment is when a person doesn’t conform, instead, divergent in their thinking. Esther’s relationship with society was shown in two stages: the isolation and the communication. Esther’s isolation from society is displayed during the beginning of the book on her New York trip. Set on a glamorous internship for a famous magazine, a woman's greatest social dream, Esther’s front is nothing but adversity towards the environment around her. “The hotel-the Amazon- was for women only, and they were mostly girls my age with wealthy parents who wanted to be sure their daughters would be living where men couldn’t get at them and deceive them. (2)” In this quote, Esther is chagrin towards her colleagues who she finds spoiled and posh. There is a society of women inside the hotel that she stays in, and Esther when she compares herself to them, she discovers that there is no relation between herself and them which causes a rift. Outside the hotel, New York is filled with consumers of commodities she also does not find an affiliation with. Esther believes that she is obligated to be “the envy of thousands of other college girls just like me all over America who wanted nothing more than to be tripping about in those same size-seven patent leather shoes I’d bought in Bloomingdale’s one lunch hour with a black patent leather pocketbook to match (2)”, because of her opportunities of a free trip to New York with aristocratic events and complimentary food are not common, therefore, she is expected to flaunt everything that she receives. But when she does not fulfill those expectations, she feels isolated from society because of her dissimilar views and feelings. She describes this isolation as being encased in a bell jar: Plath’s main symbol to describe Esther’s depression. Many critics had multiple interpretations of this symbol: Esther’s isolation from society, or, society’s limits that have placed upon her because she is a woman. Regardless of the debate, the bell jar leads back to her depression and her goal remains the same: to escape from it. Esther happens to break free when she communicates to society for help for her psychological disorder. This line of communication fails when society fails to understand the extent of her disorder. An example of this is when her treatments parallel to the Rosenbergs’ electrocution. From the trauma she faces after her first electric shock treatment with Dr. Gordon, the book parallels Esther with criminals because of the pain she experiences. Esther, like the Rosenberg’s who are punished for their actions, feels that she too is being punished, but for her it is her psychological disorder. The failure of acumen, instead, receiving castigation from society persuades the sufferer to turn to suicide when they discover that there is no one else that they can consult to.
Esther’s depression improves when Dr. Nolan becomes her new psychiatrist and a similar character of hers successfully commits suicide, but, a cliffhanger questions if her depression fully ameliorates. Perloff acknowledges Dr. Nolan as Esther’s savior, “the only woman whom Esther never longs to imitate or resemble” (Perloff 512). Esther’s identity surfaces when she meets a woman that she doesn't compare herself to. Dr. Nolan has inspired Esther to establish identity through the ignorance of the woman in front of her: a female psychiatrist. Female psychiatrists are rare, Dr. Nolan is representing women by becoming one. Esther doesn’t feel the need to envy her accomplishments in a male-dominated profession, instead, focuses on her recovery. Esther then communicates with Joan Gilling, her foil character. Both inside the institution, both were infatuated with the same man, both “mad” as Buddy calls them, but, Joan is the one who successfully kills herself. After Joan’s suicide, Ted Hughes, another critic, says that Esther’s condition improves when a character in the same situation as hers has accomplished something that she couldn’t do. In a way, Esther sees herself in Joan, who comes out of the bell jar, prompting her to diminish all further attempts. Though Esther's condition gets better, in the end, critics question whether Esther’s depression will resurface in the future. “For a substantial number of individuals with major depressive episodes, the disorder is recurrent (Zis & Goldwin, 1979). Keller (1985) reported that between 50 and 85% of patients with one major episode who seek treatment will have at least one additional episode (Gotlib and Hammen, 27).” Depression is a recurring phenomenon in the human mind, therefore, the patient’s suffering is a prevalent event that is inescapable. After one psychological episode, another one transpires after- it becomes a chain reaction. Plath ends the book abruptly- Esther’s journey is unknown. In this cliffhanger, Plath’s infers that Esther’s episodes of treatment and revival, which the novel is, will become an endless cycle. Plath establishes her meaning through Esther’s endless cycle of isolation and freedom, within society, by indicating that a depression-prone individual seeks suicide once they discover that the only solution for their mental instability is to end it all because of its continuous cycle. There is an exhaustion within fighting the same battle for years because psychologically, the chain will last forever. From that pain of going through the same nightmare over and over, the desire to escape becomes desperate, resulting in seeking through uncontrollable actions such as suicide. We, as humans, understand human suffering. Esther’s human suffering is this never-ending journey with depression. If we could learn her psychological warfare, fathom that there is no cure for it, then, we would be calling Esther strong rather than a coward for lasting that long in her battle.
This book is an autobiography, and Sylvia Plath took her own life shortly after the publication of it. Though it seems that way because of her close connections with the plot, the premise of this book is to not promote the concept of suicide, but, to grasp the understanding of it. When the prevailing delusion of suicide is selfishness, cowardliness, and carelessness, Plath uses The Bell Jar to eradicate this thinking. Through grasping on the knowledge of the psychology of the whole book, we become Esther Greenwood. We understand what it is like to be in the mind of a person with mental illness. We experience the loss of identity; failure of grasping on to the meaning of life; reactions within society; and the relapse of the pain, all through the knowledge of the psychology of depression. We are in their bell jar- feeling the brooding emotion from loss of self, and seeing their full fig tree. She did not only write this for them, patients with suicidal tendencies, but for herself, to defend her actions by giving them reasons. There is a psychological explanation to suicide. The zenith of suffering is the climax of a nightmare- it is when you wake yourself up. It is the rhapsodic, highest point of when you uncontrollably break yourself free. It is wrong to berate a person’s actions, suicide or waking up, in the zenith of their nightmare for it is a moment when everything is beyond their control.