Reviews with content warning for Suicide - The Bell Jar

Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

2206 reviews

ania_reads_'s review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: N/A

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

4.5 ⭐️

This was my first time reading Plath, and just, wow. It's emotionally heavy, showing the progression of mental illness, self isolation, and society's expectations of women.

Esther and Joan are distant mirrors of each other, but Joan is what COULD have happened to Esther if she kept on the same track she was. This novel shows that these changes can either be slowly progressive (Esther) or evolve quickly (Joan). Either way, this book is written in a way that captures the reader and is still so relevant today (minus the shock treatments and lobotomies).

Content Warnings

n0r_rie's review against another edition

4.25

challenging dark mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

What’s so frustrating about this book is that Sylvia Plath so clearly displays what a good writer she is, how wonderfully she can describe things, and then still resorts to short racist quips as descriptors.
How do you recommend a book that displays mental illness and the experience of young adulthood so well,, but that also alienates and disrespects so many?

Content Warnings

jessalongi's review against another edition

4.0

dark reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

thlad's review against another edition

2.25

dark sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

hollowisabel's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

she put it into words and this book is like a mirror. i have never never never felt so seen and like unspeakable things were just put into words. i was sobbing through half of it. it is the most accurate depiction of a silent internal anger, despair, envy, resignation, and grief of the self, building until it breaks. i couldn’t not give it 5☆.

that doesn’t mean it was perfect. a little piece on the racism and controversy:

some bits of prose were imperfect and also there are a few moments that are undeniable reflections of the time, which results in explicitly racist concepts that were uncomfortable; not excusing them, as there is no excuse.

That being said. Both the character and writer are a mentally unwell young middle class white woman in 1950s america, specifically boston. i think these passive comments sprinkled in and then the specific deeply wrong section at the asylum kitchen show how raw and flawed and unfiltered esther - and plath - are feeling. she’s the average young woman, and regrettably racism was so common that these things are pretty transparent for a book of this nature.

i also think it’s a fairly raw depiction of lashing out, having flaws, navigating the self without censorship. Where the problem appears is within her life, this unfortunately made it permissible to have casual thoughts about other races that are disgusting. if she was writing the same book in a different time, or if it hadn’t had been so ingrained in society, i genuinely don’t get the impression that the racist comments would have been the way this lashing out and flawed moments of judgement would have manifested. a huge example of this is with the way she talks about doreen, and other people in her life. this internal cruelty is not limited to other races, and is - crucially and tragically - most pointed at herself. the source is frustration; envy, ambition, and meaninglessness, disappointment, grief, resignation.

she is a woman lost emotionally, having existential issues and feeling suffocated, then becoming lost in her grip or caring on life itself. and even in her cruelty, this is Plath at her most unabridged: this is mental illness, and womanhood, and societal pressure.

Content Warnings