Abstract
With its portrayal of a talented yet frustrated young American woman in the 1950s, Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar (1963) depicts the experiences of a nineteen-year-old girl before her mental breakdown. Benefitting from a Friedanian second wave feminism, this paper aims to trace the root of disappointment and identity crisis in Plath's heroine, Esther Greenwood. It is understood that besides being a personal issue, her frustration is the outcome of sociocultural factors. The lack of role models and the contradictory messages sent by the media lead to her anxiety, disillusionment, and uncertainty. The Bell Jar proposes a solution: it is indeed possible for a woman to hold a fulfilling career and at the same time be a caring wife and a loving mother. And this is the answer Esther tries to figure out at a time when the boundaries between the domestic sphere and the outside world are clearly defined for women.
Highlights
Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar was first published in the UK in 1963 under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas
In a Friedanian approach, this paper studies the sociocultural factors that lead to the central issue of the novel: the heroine's feelings of despondency and inadequacy
In 1963, Betty Friedan, known as one of the greatest feminist icons of the second wave feminism in America, wrote the groundbreaking book The Feminine Mystique in an attempt to explain the problem that many American women were facing in the fifties, namely, "the problem that has no name" (1974 [1963], p. 11)
Summary
Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar was first published in the UK in 1963 under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. The novel received good reviews; it was critically acclaimed and became a best-seller. It was published again with Plath's name on the cover. At the time, this change attracted the attention of readers who felt the urge to read the work of a novelist, who was better known as a poet. Not just the different genre in her artistic creation, and her recent suicide magnetized many readers and critics. Between 1966 and 1977, Plath's British publisher, Faber, sold over 140000 copies of the novel Between 1966 and 1977, Plath's British publisher, Faber, sold over 140000 copies of the novel (cited in Gill, 2008, p. 74)
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