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whatsshwereading 's review for:
The Bell Jar
by Sylvia Plath
"How did I know that someday--at college, in Europe, somewhere, anywhere--the bell jar, with its stifling distortions, wouldn’t descend again?"
This book ought to come with a warning - Not for the faint-hearted!
The Bell Jar has got to be the most profoundly depressing book I've ever read. Yet once I started, I couldn't stop. Initially Esther came across as a churlish young woman who was unhappy for no reason, and as the novel progresses, you witness her slow descent into madness brought on by a hypocritical society. I often wondered what made Sylvia Plath commit suicide on the brink of being the next big thing in the literary world, but having read the book now ( based on the events of Plath's life) and the terrible experiences Esther went through ( Her mother's inability to understand her mental state and offer the kind of support her daughter needed was the most painful of all), I understood that for Plath, death probably was the freedom that she craved all her misunderstood life.
It's depressing tone notwithstanding, the novel is a brilliant insight into the lives of women of the '50s and the restrictions placed on them, things which women of today's generation can identify with. Like " hey, you're a smart girl, well-educated, why aren't you married yet? Yes Ma'am, I studied and got all those degrees so I could get married and have babies." At the risk of quoting the infamous Sonam Kapoor - You know what I mean?).
This book ought to come with a warning - Not for the faint-hearted!
The Bell Jar has got to be the most profoundly depressing book I've ever read. Yet once I started, I couldn't stop. Initially Esther came across as a churlish young woman who was unhappy for no reason, and as the novel progresses, you witness her slow descent into madness brought on by a hypocritical society. I often wondered what made Sylvia Plath commit suicide on the brink of being the next big thing in the literary world, but having read the book now ( based on the events of Plath's life) and the terrible experiences Esther went through ( Her mother's inability to understand her mental state and offer the kind of support her daughter needed was the most painful of all), I understood that for Plath, death probably was the freedom that she craved all her misunderstood life.
It's depressing tone notwithstanding, the novel is a brilliant insight into the lives of women of the '50s and the restrictions placed on them, things which women of today's generation can identify with. Like " hey, you're a smart girl, well-educated, why aren't you married yet? Yes Ma'am, I studied and got all those degrees so I could get married and have babies." At the risk of quoting the infamous Sonam Kapoor - You know what I mean?).