The novel The Bell Jar retells the story of a young girl Esther Greenwood who comes through the tough period of her life resulting in almost complete insanity and the suicide attempt. Esther is seen as the rebel in transition. Though her actions and thoughts contradict the public opinion and expectations; her lifetime as described in the book still lacks the organized and direct political protests as noted by Foucault in The History of Sexuality. The paper aims to analyze the dynamic relationship between the main character and her two friends and to discuss whether she can be considered a rebel.
As it has been noted, Esther is a rebel in transition, the woman that cannot find her place within the society. The author describes this story as a kind of depression experienced by the young girl. Yet, the cases of depression are hidden in both the personality of the female and the external factors including the public that have influenced the main character. Esther cannot enjoy the new city where she is sent for an internship. The work and environment itself also does not suit her. It seems that such common issues that normally bring others the feeling of joy and happiness do not appeal enough to Esther. She feels a little bit alien in this world, as nobody can understand her concerns and thoughts. All in all, her personal story of dissatisfaction and self-rejection results in the suicide attempt and the long mental rehabilitation in one of the clinics. It appears that Esther denies the public expectations of her personality; she envies the sense of freedom that men can enjoy, especially the sexual freedom of being free from any kinds of consequences. Therefore, Esther is not ready to accept the role that the society has prepared for her. She does not want to be a good wife and mother; she is afraid of marriage that was considered to be an arranged issue during those times. In other words, Esther challenges the foundations of social interactions and co-existence that were prevailing then. She disagrees and finds herself in complete despair and insanity. As she asserts:
When I was nineteen, pureness was the great issue. Instead of the world being divided up into Catholics and Protestants or Republicans and Democrats or white men and black men or even men and women, I saw the world divided into people who had slept with somebody and people who hadnt, and this seemed the only really significant difference between one person and another (Plath 43).
At the same time, following the Foucaults argument of the rebellion as directed and organized, the course of action Esther chooses is not proactive. She neither offers a new perspective or paradigm, nor does she fight openly against the societal foundations. Instead, she progresses in her insanity unable to recognize her own personality that distinguishes her from the outside world. To some extent, Ether is a kind of the future human being, the prototype of the emancipated females. However, Esther cannot absorb this new role; she is either too weak or unable to lead the process towards the emancipation of the females. Finally, due to her inability to do something about her state she decides to commit suicide seeing no perspective in the future. As she confesses, 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). Fortunately, she is saved. In this novel, Plath demonstrates all the misfortunes and despairs experienced by such humans of the future. At the same time, she demonstrates the important historical movement at the moment of its impregnation.
Ethers unsettled state and ambivalence is also reflected in her relations with the newspaper friends, Doreen and Betsy. The Esthers state of transition is also demonstrated by her inability to accept the position of one of the girls. She merely splits between two of them. Of course, the characters of Doreen and Betsy are deeper than it seems. Doreen, a confident and a smart girl, tends to challenge the societal rules and dogmas. She prefers to smoke whenever she wants to and does other things at will. She is definitely more progressive than Esther as she makes her intentions and thoughts public by behaving in an extravagant way that undermines the public expectations of the females role, whereas Esther is merely experiencing the internal disbalance and conflicts never showing them to the others. On the other hand, Betsy embodies a traditional female role, which implies bearing children, taking care of home and being submissive to a husband. Ether strives to be like Betsy; yet, her inner self protests enormously siding eventually with Doreen or, at least, with her role model.
The novel does not demonstrate the clear cases of inequality, which generate the spirit of rebellion. Yet, the text allows one to presume that the protagonist feels a little bit trapped within her own life and the role models set within the society. There are no direct manifestations of the inequality as experienced by Ether or any of the novel characters. Yet, the environment, the atmosphere and the climate in general create the impression of a lack of air, freedom and choice. All of this definitely sets the stage for the changes to come. As Esther notes, to the person in the bell jar, blank and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is the bad dream (Plath 124). She means that if changes are not about to occur in the upcoming years, she will not find peace anywhere in the world. This final thought demonstrates that at the end of the novel Esther starts to accept herself and to finalize her transition. The bell jar is up enough to her to start a new, free life and to guide it in accordance with her own desires, not the expectations of the public.
In conclusion, Ether Greenwood, unfortunately, has not reached the stage when she would be able to start an organized political movement or protest. Her rebellion is rather silent and uneven. She lacks confidence and prefers to keep her thoughts to herself. Her protest is not public, rather a private one, slowly driving her crazy. Yet, she is not giving up; she does not choose the assimilation and disagrees to side with Betsy representing the traditional female role. On the other hand, she is not yet Doreen; so in this dimension, she actually should not be. Through insanity and mental pain she manages to pick up the ball jar and to accept her original and unprecedented role within the society. At the end of the novel she, a rebel losing the battles so often, wins the war for her life and fate. She is now in control of everything. Therefore, despite the initial uneasiness and lack of confidence, Esther can be considered as a decent rebel
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