CONNECTION BETWEEN CLASS, GENDER-STEREOTYPES, AND ECONOMICS IN PLATH’S BELL JAR
The Bell of Jar brings an in-depth meditation on womanhood and presents a most disturbing portrait of what is meant to be female. Esther reflects on the differences between men and women as well as on different social roles all are expected to perform. Esther’s interaction with other female characters in the novel complicates more these reflections by bringing different stances the idea of womanhood. Esther is upset by the society insisting on young women to remain virgins until marriage, while the boy given sexual freedom, she is subject to the virgin dichotomy, which is a troubling standard a community uses to value women. Dr. Gordon, Esther’s doctor, has stereotypically male characters, she thinks he will help her. However, when Esther meets the doctor and sees how he is good looking and proud, she assumes he will not help her.
Society considers madness not as bad behavior and not as mental illness, and as women refuse to hide the sexuality and to tame their threatening femaleness through subjection their bodies to male control. After Esther’s suicide attempt on taking and hiding in a crawlspace, she should not have been made to a mental hospital as she was having psychological problems. Esther is an epitome of a woman who suffered from the double standards of Plath’s era; she suffers significantly from the expectation the community has for her (Plath, Sylvia,1972).
Society considers madness not as bad behavior and not as mental illness, and as women refuse to hide the sexuality and to tame their threatening femaleness through subjection their bodies to male control. After Esther’s suicide attempt on taking and hiding in a crawlspace, she should not have been made to a mental hospital as she was having psychological problems. Esther is an epitome of a woman who suffered from the double standards of Plath’s era; she suffers significantly from the expectation the community has for her (Plath, Sylvia,1972).
Society considers madness not as bad behavior and not as mental illness, and as women refuse to hide the sexuality and to tame their threatening femaleness through subjection their bodies to male control. After Esther’s suicide attempt on taking and hiding in a crawlspace, she should not have been made to a mental hospital as she was having psychological problems. Esther is an epitome of a woman who suffered from the double standards of Plath’s era; she suffers significantly from the expectation the community has for her (Plath, Sylvia,1972).
References
Plath, Sylvia. The Bell Jar. (1963). Faber & Faber, 1972.