A review by lovelymisanthrope
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

"The Bell Jar" is a contemporary classic that follows Esther Greenwood and her gradual spiral into a mental breakdown. Esther is an incredibly talented and intelligent woman who is invited to New York for a summer program for women writers. As she progresses through time, her fragile mental state slowly deteriorates, and she finds herself completely lost to her own mind. 
"The Bell Jar" is my all-time favorite novel, and it has been a long time since I reread it, so I was elated to dive back into this story. Sylvia Plath is one of my favorite people, and I love analyzing "The Bell Jar" and seeing how although it is a story of fiction, it does mirror a lot of Sylvia's own life and experiences. This novel provides excellent commentary about how women were and still are perceived by men, and especially how mistreated woman who suffer with mental health issues truly were. This novel was written around the same time as "The Yellow Wallpaper" and I think both stories together paint the perfect picture of what it meant for a woman to have a breakdown. Mental health was not talked about and was really not understood.
This book is a classic for a reason, and I think everyone will gain something from reading it. We wall want to believe we have come so far in the past 50 years in regard to how we talk about and treat mental health. Although we as a society have made leaps, we have so much farther to travel. 
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