In Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, the reader enters into the mind of Esther Greenwood, an Honors English student who works in fashion and an aspiring poet studying in New York. Living in the Amazon hotel with other college girls, she has many adventures from going out with Doreen to getting food poisoning from a food tasting event. Esther is a hard worker who has no dreams of getting married, and she enjoys going out on dates and meeting men with unique names.
We learn about Buddy Wilkins, the man who was once her love interest; now that he loves her in return, she has unearthed his flaws of hypocrisy and is no longer interested. Their relationship grows as Buddy introduces her to the life of a medical student and she exposes him to the world of poetry. He admits to her that he has known one other woman, and this knowledge makes Esther feel inexperienced and uncomfortable with his innocent façade. Illness brings their accelerating relationship to a halt: Buddy has TB and is sent to a clinic in the mountains.
When Esther accompanies his father to go visit him, Buddy proposes to her. Esther denies him, claiming that marriage is not her plan and using her neuroticism as a scapegoat. Buddy, however, insists persistently in being with her, and the conversation lingers. He takes her skiing for the first time and she breaks her leg.
Time jumps forward, and Esther is heading home for the summer, eagerly awaiting her acceptance into a summer writing program at Boston. She had been confident and expectant about the course, and the news that she has been rejected is earth shattering to her. She is trapped at home, and she struggles to escape the tragedies of her situation by fantasizing about the future. Things take their toll on her, and her inability to sleep or read leads her to the family doctor; she refers Esther to a psychiatrist.
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Discussion Questions:
1. How does the disjointed dimension of time illuminate the narrator, Esther?
2. Through the juxtaposition of Esther’s passion for poetry and Buddy’s interest in medicine, what does Plath reveal about the intersection of these fields?
3. How do metaphors and similes function in this narrative? How do they enhance or complicate the reader’s understanding?
Investigating Illness Narratives 