Sylvia Plath's the Bell Jar: A Feminist Novel

In Sylvia Plath's semi autobiographical novel The Bell Jar, the reader learns of the adventures of a young woman in a male-dominated society that will not let her achieve her true potential. Plath's alter ego, Esther, is thus driven to a nervous breakdown and attempts suicide numerous times. in the way she wants.In many ways, this novel is a feminist text, centered around the struggles of a young woman who cannot reach her goals in our male-dominated society. This novel is a feminist text because of Esther's experiences with societal expectations such as purity and the traditional female role.

An example of The Bell Jar as a feminist text is that Esther Greenwood lives in a patriarchal society, and an element of the patriarchy is shown in the themes of sex and marriage. Plath presents this when Esther’s mother sends her an article written by a married woman called “In Defense of Chastity.” In this article Esther sums up that “…the main point of the article was that a man’s world is different from a woman’s world… and the best man wanted to be pure for their wives, and even if they weren’t… they wanted to be the ones to teach their wives about sex….” Plath here reveals that although a woman’s world is different from that of men’s, their identities are defined by their relationships with men. This shows that the society she is trying to find does not fit the criteria she puts for herself, what is right and appropriate for them does not seem to be right for her. Esther often expresses her feelings that having children is a man’s way of keeping power over his woman. Esther often thinks about the sexual double standards that she faces in society. In particular, she has constant thoughts about her sexual status. She is a virgin for most of the novel, and this constantly weighs on her mind. This is shown when she states, “When I was nineteen, pureness was the great issue. Instead of the world being divided up into Catholics and Protestants or Republicans and Democrats or white men and black men or even men.” She “couldn’t stand the idea of a woman having to have a single pure life and a man being able to have a double life, one pure and one not”. Esther has difficulty in dealing with men and sex and this increases as she begins to encounter men from both the modern and the conventional world.shows that Esther inhabits a world of limited sexual choices. Convention dictates that she will remain a virgin until she marries. If she chooses to have sex before marriage, she risks pregnancy, displeasing her future husband, and ruining her own name. Esther sets out to defy conventional expectations by losing her virginity with someone she does not expect to marry. Despite this firm goal, she finds it difficult to gain an independent sexual identity. When Esther finally loses her virginity, she does not experience the “spectacular change” that she expects, but by losing her virginity, she frees herself of the oppressive mandate to remain pure.

In addition to enforcing a double standard for women and men’s sexual