October 7, 2021
Book Review: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
I put off reading The Bell Jar because I had the received notion that it was melancholic. That is to misunderstand the book the same way that mental illness is often misunderstood. It is not sadness, it is pain and struggle.
The Bell Jar presents one of the most captivating struggles with mental health issues that I have ever come across, and represents Esther not just as a realistic survivor, but one of the most recognisably human characters in literature. More than for any book to memory, I read the tale of Esther’s life with knowing empathy, that this was a person I recognised and knew.
In the middle-ground of this book, run the attitudes towards women and mental health, individually and together. Today it stands as a testament to the damage of the view that those who suffer from mental illness are inferior, child-like – and of women too.
The gentle playful absurdity of many of Plath’s images, especially in the early portion of the book, are a joy to read, symbolic of the insecurity and chaos that Esther feels so ripe. Those that see the world differently should be celebrated.