Review of Sylvia Plaths Novel The Bell Jar

Written in the early 1960s, and Sylvia Plaths only full-length prose work, The Bell Jar is an autobiographical novel that relates the childhood longings and descent into madness of Plaths alter-ego, Esther Greenwood. Plath was so concerned about the closeness of her novel to her life that she published it under a pseudonym, Victoria Lucas (just as in the novel Esther plans to publish a novel of her life under a different name). It only appeared under Plaths real name in 1966, three years after she committed suicide. Plot The story relates a year in the life of Esther Greenwood, who seems to have a rosy future in front of her. Having won a competition to guest edit a magazine, she travels to New York. She worries about the fact that she is still a virgin and her encounters with men in New York go badly awry. Esthers time in the city heralds the start of a mental breakdown as she slowly loses interest in all the hopes and dreams. Dropping out of college and staying listlessly at home, her parents decide that something is wrong and take her to a psychiatrist, who refers her to a unit that specializes in shock therapy. Esthers condition spirals even further downwards due to inhumane treatment in the hospital. She finally decides to commit suicide. Her attempt fails, and a rich older lady who was a fan of Esthers writing agrees to pay for treatment in a center that does not believe in shock therapy as a method for treating the ill. Esther slowly starts her road to recovery, but a friend she has made at the hospital isnt so lucky. Joan, a lesbian who had, unbeknownst to Esther, fallen in love with her, commits suicide after her release from the hospital. Esther decides to take control of her life and is once more determined to go to college. However, she knows that the dangerous illness that put her life at risk could strike again at any time. Themes Perhaps the single greatest achievement of Plaths novel is its outright commitment to truthfulness. Despite the fact that the novel has all the power and control of Plaths best poetry, it does not skew or transform her experiences in order to make her illness more or less dramatic. The Bell Jar takes the reader inside the experience of severe mental illness like very few books before or since. When Esther considers suicide, she looks into the mirror and manages to see herself as a completely separate person. She feels disconnected from the world and from herself. Plath refers to these feelings as being trapped inside the bell jar as a symbol for her feelings of alienation. The feeling becomes so strong at one point that she stops functioning, at one point she even refuses to bathe. The bell jar also steals away her happiness. Plath is very careful not to see her illness as the manifestation of outside events. If anything, her dissatisfaction with her life is a manifestation of her illness. Equally, the end of the novel does not pose any easy answers. Esther understands that she is not cured. In fact, she realizes that she might never be cured  and that she must always be vigilant against the danger that lies within her own mind. This danger befell Sylvia Plath, not very long after The Bell Jar was published. Plath committed suicide in her home in England. A Critical Study The prose which Plath uses in  The Bell Jar does not quite reach the poetic heights of her poetry, particularly her supreme collection Ariel, in which she investigates similar themes. However, this does not mean the novel is not without its own merits. Plath managed to instill a sense of powerful honesty and brevity of expression which anchors the novel to real life. When she chooses literary images to express her themes she cements these images in everyday life. For example, the book opens with an image of the Rosenbergs who were executed by electrocution, an image that is repeated when Esther receives electro-shock treatment. Really, The Bell Jar is a  stunning portrayal of a particular time in a persons life and a brave attempt by Sylvia Plath to face her own demons. The novel will be read for generations to come.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and Jane Eyre by...

â€Å"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek to find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.† - Jalalad-din-Rumi The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontà «, both show two people that are fated to meet within forbidden circumstances that should have prevented them from being together but causes them to push against the destiny laid out. Night Circus by Morgenstern shows the main characters, Celia Bowen and Marco Alisdair, slowly develop feelings for each other, as they learn the true ending of their story. In Jane Eyre by Brontà «, the protagonists, Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester, learn to trust one another as they face difficulties and a major secret that tests her loyalty to†¦show more content†¦In Jane Eyre, both Jane and Edward keep breaking rules and boundaries that come their way. The rules of their society forbid their relationship, which should have prevented them from being together but it brings them closer. In the period of time that the book is set in, the difference in social classes are visible between the two. This creates the problems that arise as she feels the difference that separates them. Jane Eyre is not only an orphan; she is also poor with no permanent home and relatives. Edward Rochester is a man that is wealthier and much older than she is. This displays the two people that should have not been able to meet and fall in love the way they did. The boundary that they face later in the story is that as they are about to get married, it is revealed that he is still married to a mentally ill woman. These boundaries and rules that exist in both stories are the reasons to why their love prospers as they face them together and break though limits imposed upon them. Thirdly, the first time they speak in a social context is the starting of a new journey and the desire to step forward into the unknown world of complications. The first meeting of the two destined lovers is what in the future, triggers the feelings of survivability and the desires to break the restrictions in their way. Throughout night circus, the characters are drawn to each other through the exhibitions that

Ted Talk Analysis Free Essays

Patricia Ryan talked about her experience in living and teaching english for over 30 years in the gulf where she has seen vast cultural and linguistic change. This strategy helped her build her credibility with the audiences. The topic of her speech at Ted was â€Å"Don’t Insist on English! †. We will write a custom essay sample on Ted Talk Analysis or any similar topic only for you Order Now She addressed the question: Is the world’s focus on English preventing the spread of great ideas in other languages? The primary audience to her speech was English teachers. Patricia Ryan has the same background that helps the primary audience to relate to her. There were many questions in her speech that trigger the audience to think, it created audience interaction in he speech. Although answers were not expected from the audiences, Patricia Ryan gradually reveals the solutions to the issues in a very well organized fashion throughout her speech. She opened her speech with a little bit of humours related to the topic, this helped the audience to loosen up a bit and ready to accept what she was trying to deliver while making her a likeable person to them. She delivered a very persuasive speech with an indirect approach. First she revealed a prediction of how number of languages in the world will decrease overtime through globalization of English. She then supproted this claim with statistics. Throughout the speech Patricia Ryan told various kinds of facts that relates to the topic. Stories of actual events was her way of slowly persuading the audiences and selling her ideas. Since indirect approach is harder to follow and harder to understand, Patricia Ryan had all her facts and stories well organized. Every one of her facts and stories had a purpose of delivering her next point in her speech. Patricia Ryan’s communication style was ‘sell’. She was trying to sell an alternative ways of doing things. She persuade the audience through her credibility as a very experienced English teacher while staying modest throughout her speech. Her tone was very confident , persuasive, and sometime humourous. She tried to communicate with pictures sometimes funny pictures to attract audiences’ attention. Her languange use was very clear and slow yet you can hear power in her speech. She used various natural body language. We find that Patricia Ryan’s speech was delivered in a very well organized manner and very persuasive. She was well qualified to deliver the speech with her vast experience in English teaching industry. With her credibility, the audiences who were mostly English teachers were easily relate and persuaded to her ideas. Supported by tatistics and facts while a little bit stories here and there helped her to further persuade the audience into her cause. These statistics and facts acted as her supporting arguments to her main idea. Indirect approach in this case was used successfully as in her way of delivering her ideas she showed many of those arguments and proofs to support her main idea at the conclusion of her speech. Her closing was emotional and interacted with the audiences’ spirit. Inviting them to her cause in a very persuasive and energetic way. How to cite Ted Talk Analysis, Essay examples