full title · The Bell Jar
author · Sylvia Plath
type of work · Novel
genre · Coming-of-age novel; autobiographical fiction
language · English
time and place written · First draft as early as 1957,
Cambridge, England; completed in 1962, Devon,
England
date of first publication · January 1963, under the pseudonym
Victoria Lucas
publisher · William Heinemann Limited (1963);
Faber and Faber (first edition under Plath’s name, 1966);
Harper and Row (first American edition, 1971)
narrator · Esther Greenwood
point of view · First person
tone · Matter-of-fact; cynical; terse; detached; girlish
tense · Past
setting (time) · June 1953–January 1954
setting (place) · New York City; the Boston suburbs; hospitals in and
around Boston
protagonist · Esther Greenwood
major conflict · Esther struggles against her oppressive environment
and encroaching madness.
rising action · Esther spends a month as a guest editor in New York.
When she returns home, she finds herself unable to read, write,
or sleep. She receives her first shock treatment, and contemplates
methods of suicide.
climax · Esther almost succeeds in killing herself.
falling action · Esther recovers in a city hospital and then in a private
mental hospital, where she finds a psychiatrist whom she can trust.
After losing her virginity, she prepares to leave the hospital.
themes · Growth through pain and rebirth; the emptiness of conventional expectations;
the restricted role of women in 1950s America;
the perils of psychiatric medicine
motifs · News and fashion media; mirrors; blood
symbols · The bell jar; the fig tree; headlines; the beating
heart
foreshadowing · Esther’s semi-suicidal plunge down the ski slopes foreshadows her
later, more systematic suicide attempts.
