In the Bell Jar, Esther is plagued by depression. She describes it as being under a bell jar, where she is looking at the world through distorting glass and it is stifling her, limiting her air to only that which fits under the bell jar. The bell jar analogy seems to fit how she feels in multiple ways, from the distortion when she looks outside to the limited air inside to the observation of her from people outside the bell jar. We often see a distorted version of reality when Esther looks outside the bell jar from within. One example of this is the description of her own voice as "the hollow voice" or just "a voice." It takes a second to realize she is talking about what she is saying, not someone else in her head or next to her. The level of disconnect between reality, her own actions, and her awareness seems to suggest the distortion of her perception of reality even before she acknowledges it herself.
When she is stuck under the bell jar, Esther also feels like the constraint of it is suffocating her, and restricting her abilities to do other things. In chapter 15, she says that under the bell jar, she is "stewing in [her] own sour air." She cannot even breathe the air of the world outside the bell jar, much less live in it. This suffocation also causes her to lose the ability to do some things she had taken for granted, such as reading, writing, sleeping, and eating. It is not possible that she literally didn't sleep or eat for three weeks straight, but the idea that she feels as if she did not is significant of the fact that the bell jar is suffocating her.
The last way in which the bell jar metaphor is perfect in describing how she feels is when she is being observed and questioned by doctors. they walk into her room and look down upon her as if she is just being evaluated for research and not actually helped in her recovery process, and Doctors Gordon and Nolan seem to use her as a test subject for their ideas and practices. Esther often wonders if what they are asking is a trap to see if she gets caught be answering in a certain way. Esther is bothered by the dullness and grayness of the medicinal procedure, so when the doctors observe her it unnerves her and adds to her worries. The bell jar around her is lifted off the ground after she recovers, with help from the electroshock therapy. However, it will never truly go away, but will continue to hang above the ground, threatening to clatter back down to earth and surround her again in a distorting, suffocating jar for observation.
I mentioned this in another comment, but I really liked reading the part of the book when she felt that she was out of the bell jar. It may have been only a small section, but there was something about the way it was written that it was clear she wasn't still "Stewing in her own sour air." Cool post!
ReplyDeleteI really like this post. I like how you emphasized the "outside looking in" part of the bell jar as Esther feeling as if she is constantly being observed by others, especially the doctors. It's as if (like you mentioned), she's in a literal trap and people are just waiting for her to mess up or break under the intense scrutiny.
ReplyDeleteSimilar to your point about the "hollow voice," while at the institution, Esther doesn't even recognize herself in the mirror. She wonders who the monster is staring back at her, but in reality, it is herself outside of the bell jar. Her distorted view of the outside world from inside doesn't allow her to see herself for what she truly looks like on the outside. She can only see what her mind projects on to her body from inside her bubble.
ReplyDeletePlath's attempt to accurately depict mental illness was no small task. In this regard, I found the element of distortion to be the most brilliant part of the bell jar analogy. The idea that Esther, in this state, is unable to view the world through the same lens as everyone else is incredibly important to our understanding of her depression.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I really enjoyed about your post was how the bell jar fits into her eating and sleeping schedule. In a literal sense, if Esther was enclosed by a bell jar, she could not bring food from outside to eat or comfortably sleeps, which fits in nicely with the metaphor. Thoughtful post!
ReplyDeleteYour point about "the hollow voice" or "a voice" is very interesting. I didn't really pay attention to that until you pointed it out. I don't know how it would really fit into the whole bell jar analogy, but it seems like it could also be like Esther looking at herself, as a stranger. Along with some of the other things she mentions (such as feeling like she's not slept for many days), I can definitely understand what you mean by "disconnect".
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