Masculine World in “The Bell Jar” by Sylvia Plath

The drama of the self-inflicted death of Sylvia Plath has detracted a significant portion of public attention from her only novel—The Bell Jar—which was published in 1963 (McCrum, 2015). However, after the shock caused by the writer’s suicide had waned, the book was republished in 1966 and became a modern classic (McCrum, 2015). The Bell Jar is a story of the transformation of a young woman who despises the idea of being servile to men into a person who serves them in to escape the psychiatric institution to which she has been committed because of her numerous suicide attempts. It is also a story of male domination, victimization, and control as seen by a woman who struggles to find self in the intricate and glamorous maze of New York City. The book’s protagonist—Esther—is caught in a trap of madness that manifests in a feeling of being placed under a bell jar that stifles and alienates her. The book is filled with culturally-ingrained imagery of women that was so common in the 1950s. As the story unravels and the woman’s life starts spiraling out of control, the suffocating presence of a glass jar becomes even more static and tangible, allowing readers to see in it the reflection of the male world with its destructive forms and aggressive language. The aim of this paper is to explore how the protagonist’s attitude toward men changes over the course of the story. It will also examine what role her self-protective response to the treatment of women plays in her disease and recovery.