The Bell Jar

TW- Self-harm, suicide, depression, sexual assault.

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

How do I even begin to review this brilliance? Is this even a review? No, I don't think so. Reviewing this book almost feels blasphemous, if I'm being honest. If I were to be asked what did I like the most in this book, I would be tongue-tied because there is not a part of this book I didn't adore with my whole heart.

A book that broke the boundaries between fiction and reality, this is believed as a semi-autobiographical work of Sylvia Plath. It portrays the journey of Esther Greenwood through her descent into mental illness and recovery.

Esther is such a complex and amazing character. I think we all have a part of Esther in us or we've been in a position where we felt like Esther, living in a stilled silence that's suffocating, like that of an inside of a bell jar. Up until a point, I saw Plath through Esther. Equating everything Esther thought and did with that of Plath. But I realised later, yes, this is a semi-autobiography, but it's also so much more than that. I'm somewhere adrift between thinking this should be viewed as a literary masterpiece without being overshadowed by Plath's life and seeing it from the context of Plath's journey; an autobiographical fiction.

"A bad dream.

To the person in the bell jar, blank and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is a bad dream.

A bad dream"

The prose, God, I will never get over how beautiful Plath's writing is. There's a hard-hitting force in her subtle writing. Her writing shows you rather than telling you what's going on. Sexuality, feminism and the importance of Mental health(albeit the lack of enough knowledge to treat a disorder is so disheartening to read) in this book made me fall in love with it all over again. The poor role women play in any field of work, the double standards of society and how Esther thought about them is written in a very nuanced way.

Esther's spiraling into depression, the bleakness of it were described so organically without being rushed. There are many instances in the starting chapters where we can see hints of possible depression. This gradual build-up of Esther's journey with mental illness is what makes this so relevant and relatable. If I were to read this book after 50 years, I'd still resonate with it and it would still be just as relevant.

- Vasudha.