Review: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

THE BELL JAR BY SYLVIA PLATH 
Publisher: Faber and Faber
Format: Paperback
Series: No
Pages: 234
Date Finished: 08.07.15
Rating: 4/5
Summary:  Esther Greenwood is at college and is fighting two battles, one against her own desire for perfection in all things - grades, boyfriend, looks, career - and the other against remorseless mental illness. As her depression deepens she finds herself encased in it, bell-jarred away from the rest of the world. This is the story of her journey back into reality. Highly readable, witty and disturbing, The Bell Jar is Sylvia Plath's only novel and was originally published under a pseudonym in 1963. What it has to say about what women expect of themselves, and what society expects of women, is as sharply relevant today as it has always been.

I have no idea how to write this review. If I had to use one word to describe The Bell Jar, it would be haunting. It's a novel full of unsettling truths, wry commentary, dark topics and beautiful prose. And honestly? I don't know what to say.

The reason I bought this was book is because I'm going to study Plath's poems for my A Level course next year (alongside the poems of her husband, Ted Hughes). Whilst this book isn't actually on the syllabus I wanted to give it a go just to see what it was about. The Bell Jar is not normally the kind of novel I'd pick up but I'm trying to read more classics and this seemed like a good place to start.

That’s one of the reasons I never wanted to get married. The last thing I wanted was infinite security and to be the place an arrow shoots off from. I wanted change and excitement and to shoot off in all directions myself, like the colored arrows from a Fourth of July rocket.

I knew it was about depression, but I didn't expect this book to be so...I don't know. Affecting? Thought provoking? Harrowing? I'm keeping this review short because I don't want to say something just for the sake of it, but I have so many thoughts and no idea how to express them.

For those of you who don't know, Sylvia Plath was a poet who was clinically depressed and unfortunately committed suicide at thirty. The Bell Jar is semi autobiographical.

She paused. 'I knew you'd decide to be alright again.'

Some of Esther's struggles were so relatable even to me--not knowing what you want to do with your life and the troubles/expectations women face as an example. Equally it explores themes which I am fortunate enough not to know much about, and in that case it was an unsettling insight into things such as depression. I understand that it's because of the time that the book was set, but the way that people who suffered with depression were treated made me angry to say the least.

I found the prose to be wonderful. There were a few phrases which really stood out to me, though on the whole I found it quite detached. I think that that was intentional and really highlights Esther's emptiness regarding her depression. The use of the bell jar metaphor was particularly harrowing and scarily honest.

I felt very still and empty, the way the eye of a tornado must feel, moving dully along in the middle of the surrounding hullabaloo.

The Bell Jar isn't a gripping page turner and I wouldn't exactly say that I enjoyed it immensely, but I'm so glad that I read it. It's a very important book and even if it isn't the kind of thing you'd normally read (it certainly isn't like anything else in my TBR) I would definitely recommend it.

Esther seemed so shockingly real and I was terrified for her throughout most of the novel. Her depression is so subtly evident right from the beginning, even before it's thrust into prominence. It's clear that Plath knows what she's talking about and that's so utterly heartbreaking because every word is genuine.

This quote effected me the most:

How did I know that someday--at college, in Europe, somewhere, anywhere--the bell jar, with its stifling distortions, wouldn't descend again?

I don't want to say much more about The Bell Jar apart from the fact that it's such an important book, and that I really recommend that you give it a try.