Esther’s Path for Plath Essays

Esther’s Path for Plath Essays Esther’s Path for Plath Essay Esther’s Path for Plath Essay Esther Greenwood, from the novel The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, contests the hypocrisies of 1950’s male misogyny; she endures the prejudices that come with the era’s premature perception of mental illness, and she helps Plath to live on vicariously through her, in a way the great poet could not. The Bell Jar portrays mental illness as a disease to be ashamed of, and disregarded.   The book is written from the perspective of those living in the 1950’s. Plath’s main character, Esther Greenwood, experiences this inadequacy and discovers the truth about the society as she is treated for her medical diagnosis. In this book, Plath, like Greenwood, takes a step out of the typical beliefs and boundaries of her era.   A woman ahead of her time, Plath rebels through her writing, and asks more of society than it asks of itself. Her main character, Esther, goes through depressive social interactions that play off each other, until she has an identity crisis, and looks to suicide as her only end.   The conflict stems more from the limitations of society to be able to accept this type of behavior from a young woman than the illness itself.Esther is the I of the Bell Jar, in that she perceives everything as it happens, even when it’s happening to her.   Each connection she forms throughout her growth all contribute to her final state of balance. The relationships she forms with others are documented as they happen, and each one influences her sanity.   So much so, one relationship she has causes her to lose her sanity and then another causes her to reclaim it.   Esther’s father passes away when she is 9 years old.   She never finds a good relationship with a man, and she has no, real, deep connection with her mother.   Plus she is separated from all the other girls she encounters, particularly Joan, by her lack of wealth. It should be noted that, though all the girls are in New York for the same reason, they are granted this trip according to the stereotypical confines of their male overseers. The trip in itself is a form of molding the women for their place in society. Esther makes this clear when she says,we had all won a fashion magazine contest,†¦, and as prizes they gave us jobs in New York for a month, expenses paid, and piles and piles of free bonuses, like ballet tickets and passes to fashion shows and hair styling at a famous expensive salon and chances to meet successful people in the field of our desire and advice about what to do with our particular complexions (Plath, p4).If Esther is anything like Plath, as the reader is expected to believe, she will eventually see this ploy, the same way she eventually sees through Buddy. Not to forget, the nature of the relationship she has with Buddy is very fake and empty.   The fact that she is such a poetic introspective thinker, and Buddy is the exact opposite is even more draining to her character. In fact, Plat h presents her decision to cheat on Buddy in reaction to his affair as one of the key factors to her descent into madness. It is the connection she has with Joan and Dr. Norman that bring her sanity back.   These symbolic connections are key examples of Plath’s writing style.The Bell Jar’s greatness as a book is increased even more by Sylvia Plath’s method of writing and the sharing of her thoughts. Plath opened the doors to reality and through feministic views, showed the treatment of women, images and events about sex, and the mentally ill; both were thought of as inferior and less important during her time. Family and work pressures, transitions from adolescence to womanhood, or motherhood to menopause, even the stresses of daily life can influence mental health.   In her article, . â€Å"the intricate web of influences- genetic, sexual, and social – that affect mental well-being. Throughout the novel, Esther Greenwood is cynical, rebellious, and against the conventions of society; yet she had attempted to behave normally and fit in to the crowd. Her low self-esteem, the experience and the lack of experience she has of life, and the environment that surrounds her, leads to her inability to function and attempts of suicide. Esther’s troubles originate in her mind, but become worse by all the circumstances around her.   This is another example of the bildunsgroman model.As a young woman, who rebels against the limitations of 1950 society, Esther feels a disconnection with the rest of the world. She gains the will to surpass darkness, and to live life again.   This ideal of rebirth and redemption is a classic theme of many books like this. The Bell Jar falls within the bildungsroman model, in the fact that the main character develops in reaction to her environment.   These books are known for their characters having journeys of mental and spiritual growth, and eventually finding balance.   In her article, â€Å" The Bell Jar†: A Novel of the Fifties, Linda Wagner-Martin acknowledges that the book can be taken a in a number of ways and is actually quite a difficult novel to placed into one particular genre, or category.   This is due to the fact that most bildungroman’s star male protagonists.   By arguing this in 1992, she actually slightly refutes the argument made in 1974, by another scholar, ironically also named Linda Wagner.   This just proves the categorization of Plath’s novel is up for debate on many levels.Many scholars believe that if Esther was diagnosed today, she would be identified as a victim of Borderline Personality Disorder.   This is a disorder characteristic of disrupted interpersonal relationships.   It’s most common with females, and causes mood swings.   These people tend to fear abandonment and get very frantic over the thought of failure or rejection. Esther displays many of these same characteristics throughout the novel. In h er article Mental Wellness for Women, Rita Baron-Faust describes BPD as a pattern of unstable self-image, personal relationships and moods and impulsiveness (Baron-Faust 77). Some experts describe BPD as a major â€Å"identity crisis,† characterized by extreme uncertainty about many life issues, including career choices, long-term goals, choices in friends or lovers, questions of values and even sexual orientation (Baron-Faust, p84).   It is up for debate, whether BPD is Esther’s disorder; but the authenticity of Esther’s mental illness undoubtedly is the draw for many young readers, and scholastic analysis.In her article, â€Å"A Ritual For Being Born Twice† Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, Marjorie G. Perloff analyzes the popular appeal the novel holds among young women. The concept of the emotional distress that comes from illness conflicting with the psychological and social boundaries, used to confine women during the 1950’s, is interpret ed as a major contribution to the books growing fan base. The major draw the book has is the complex nature of Esther’s dysfunctions.   She is mentally ill in a way that leaves her situation open to be theorized.   Barron-Faust characterized Esther as having borderline personality disorder.   This is based on her impulsive mood swings and unpredictable personality.   In Perloff’s essay, she cites a scholar by the name of J.D. Lang, who characterizes Esther’s behavior as being the schizoid personality type.   He says this is due to her often disconnection from reality.   Lang even gives an example from the book where Esther is being questioned by the Ladies’ Day, she asks, What do you have in mind after you graduate? Lang points out that Esther observes herself respond, and doesn’t feel attached to her actions.   Plath writes this response as, ‘I don’t really know,’ I heard my-self say†¦(Plath).   This citing enforces Lang’s position, but it is also said that people with borderline personality disorder have the same type of disconnection.   Even these scholars are left with no other choice but to theorize over what might have been Esther’s sickness.   The main sickness that leads to her almost committing suicide is still up for debate.   I personally think she suffered from avoidant personality disorder.Avoidant personality disorder is a classic bundle of character traits, which the story tellers have used to personify teenage loners, super villains, and dark heroes, since even before the Phantom of the opera, Frankenstein, or The Incredible Hulk Avoidant personality disorder is characterized by inhibition of social desires, feelings of inadequacy, and fear of negative judgment. People with this disorder are characterized as loners who feel separate from their society.   These are all characteristics which Esther exemplifies. Very few people who don’t know m uch about psychology know the difference between clinical psychological disorders and personality disorders.   For example, a student of psychology will tell you that Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder are two completely different dysfunctions.   The personality disorder is derived more of workaholic and dismissive tendencies; whereas, the clinical disease deals more with unavoidable impulses demanded by the brain.   The fact that Esther’s behavior can fall into so many separate categories of psychological health is just a testament to the depth of Plath’s character development.   And, it is also another perfect example of why so many young women can relate to this novel.Through Esther, Plath addresses practically every sociological discourse imaginable for a young woman to encounter.   The societal ideal that women are inferior is the antagonist to Esther’s heroin.   Plath confronts the hypocrisy between the sexes with the relationship between Esther and Buddy.   After Buddy cheats on her, she does the same in response.   The loss of her virginity to Irwin is another symbolic gesture of her rebellion against the misogynistic status quo.   Plath makes underlying statements about lesbianism, in a time when it too was considered a disease.   She does this in her conversation with Dr. Nolan.   Ester asks him what to women might see in one another, and he replies tenderness. This a very bold statement for any author to make, let alone a female one, in the 1950’s.   The main irony of the book is the fact that Esther doesn’t truly get sick until after her affair with Irwin.   One must wonder what Plath meant to imply by this, and what correlation it has to her own life.This novel is such a historic piece of literary art because it is a semi-autobiographical sketch of the days leading up to Plath’s own suicide. The novel is respect for its rebellious nature, a nd also the authenticity of Esther’s mental illness.   More important, than the mystery of whether she’ll improve, is the mystery behind the cause of her actual illness.   We are also left with the mystery of never knowing whether or not Esther improves, but knowing that Plath does not.   This leaves a very obscure explanation for the initial question what really leads one to suicide? In his article, Plath’s Lives, Langdon Hammer makes a clear connection of Plath to Esther, and their relation to suicide.And the moon that lives on? Is there a face in it? One biographical answer would be that the moon, in mourning clothes (Her blacks crackle and drag), is an image of the poet herself, safe above her other double, the dead woman.   Subtly associated with the slangy, tough-talking Esther Greenwood (She is used to this sort of thing), the moon hints at Plath’s hope of living on after suicide; we can read it as a sign of her wish to observe and so survi ve that bleak, approaching event (Hammer, p.85).Considering that the reader knows Plath doesn’t make it, but we are to assume that Esther does, the book is put in a very hard position. The poetic nature of Plath’s writing comes to play in the fact that the reader is given an underlying reason to believe that Esther will survive.In her essay Perloff gives notice to this underlying justification to carryon.   She claims that Esther has a rebirth and that it happens through the guidance of Dr. Nolan.   Perloff notes that since Dr. Nolan is the first woman who Esther doesn’t feel inclined to be like, it marks the beginning of Esther’s individuality.   An individuality, in which, she is completely apathetic towards the unjust world she’s been rebelling against. Perloff sums up this entire idea of Esther’s reassessment of her life, by citing one of Plath’s most poetic statements in the book, As if the usual order of the world had shif ted slightly (275, Plath)†¦This perfectly sums up the state of mind Esther is in, when she walks into the room at the end. The reader is given no reason to lose faith in Esther, this faith is slightly tainted by the fact the book is very closely based on Plath’s life and she died by committing suicide. As sad as it is to say, Plath’s death only enhanced the authenticity of Esther’s psychological dysfunction. The true identity of her mental disorder is a debate that will remain up for question, until the day we find out what happened when Esther walked into that room. By the story ending where it does, it leaves Esther’s outcome open for interpretation. With Plath’s close correlation to Esther, and her death in the back of the minds of every reader, I think Esther’s new found state of balance shows us what Plath aspired for; and by her leaving Esther’s fans to decide the outcome, in a way, she ensures an ever-changing ending for h erself.   I would hope they all turn out well.