Essay: The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath

The 1950’s is a time of pure bliss for women who aspire to be a housewife or a secretary, however for women like Esther Greenwood who see the many forms of inequality that are imbedded in society, life is full of difficulty. The main protagonist Esther Greenwood is a young adult who lives in the 1950’s, where she takes the readers with her on her journey to find purpose in a society that does not welcome independent women like herself. Throughout the course of the novel, she struggles to find solace with her place in society due to the “women haters” that she interacts with consistently, in which these men ultimately ruin her self confidence and her mental state. In the novel, The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath, Esther’s emotions of inadequacy occurs due to her experiences in a society that runs on the means of patriarchal oppression.
In the novel, Esther’s first real boyfriend is with a young man named Buddy Willard, although he is athletic and intelligent, Esther begins to realize that the way he treats her is unfair. Buddy Willard’s demeanor towards Esther is a prime example of the sexism that she endures that attempts to inhibit her not reach her full potential as a woman. Buddy Willard is a stereotypical male from the 1950’s who subtly believes that men are better than women, and he shows this belief in his various sexist remarks towards Esther. After a conversation with Buddy, Esther thinks to herself, “I also remembered Buddy Willard saying in a sinister, knowing way that after I had children I would feel differently, I wouldn’t want to write poems anymore” (Plath 79). This quotation allows the reader to visualize the inequality and sexist undertones that are held in Esther’s male-dominated society. Buddy only see women in roles that they feel are simplistic and beneath them, such as a housewife or a secretary,  to ensure their own standings as leaders. The way Buddy Willard communicates with Esther comes off as purposefully demeaning and degrading because he believes that women should not be writers, rather they should be mothers. This illustrates patriarchal oppression due to the tone of Buddy confidently explaining a topic he clearly would never have experience doing, yet still turns it to make Esther second guess her place in society.  Author Allison Wilkins, of the literary journal, The Domesticated Wilderness: Patriarchal Oppression in the Bell Jar, expands on the stigma of Esther’s low place in society on the basis of her gender. Wilkins states,
Each male character has already decided what he thinks Esther become. By trying to force into roles that she has not chosen for herself, the male characters thwart Esther’s ability to make decisions and oppress her (Wilkins 54).
Wilkins depicts how the men in The Bell Jar, and in this case, Buddy Willard, hinders Esther’s growth intellectually by his oppressive tactics of his subtle degradements. With their own opinions on Esther’s future, Esther is stuck between what she desires versus what is expected of her just because she is a women in a predominantly male society. With Wilkins argument of of patriarchal oppression, one can infer that Esther holds emotions of inadequacy since she is being torn in two different directions with faults on both ends. This allows the reader to visualize the issues that she endures due to how the men in her life hinder what she is meant to be. In Esther’s life, not only does she experience oppression from a sexist standpoint, but men also use her for sexual deeds against her will.
Not only does Esther experience oppression from Buddy, a man she trusts, she also deals with men who are “woman haters”, such as Marco. Marco and Esther meet at a party one evening, and he continuously tries to flirt and overpower Esther through the course of the entire night, which ends with his attempts to rape her. Marco’s non-consensual sexual advances and his nature that belittles women, such as Esther, is another form of patriarchal oppression that she has to endure which degraded her as a woman. This type of male aggressive behavior that Marcos emits is prevalent and acceptable in 1950’s society, since women are not given a voice to speak out. For example, Marco sexually assaults Esther while she relays her experience and says,
Marco set his teeth to the strap at my shoulder and tore my sheath to my waist. I saw the glimmer of bare skin, like a pale veil separating two bloody-minded adversaries. “Slut!” The word hissed by my ears (Plath 59).
Marcos attempts to rape Esther illustrate that he has little respect for women by his desire to take advantage of her for no true reason except to please himself, and most importantly, to make Esther feel that she is beneath him. He is not truly attracted to Esther; he only wants to tear her down to make him feel like he is in control because his personal life that involves his love for his own cousin, he is not in charge of his emotions. Esther comprehends the situation that she is in, and she uses a symbol of her skin as her protection between her and his advances which shows that she sees Marcos as not only a physical threat, but a threat to her mental state as well. To expand upon, with the use of derogatory terms like “slut”, Marcos tries to make Esther believe that she is nothing special; she is simply his tool that he can control as he pleases since in this time, men can dominate woman with no punishment. This form of oppression is very extreme for Esther, due to the fact that race often leaves mental trauma that adds to her poor mental state of doubt and depression, alongside with emotions of inadequacy. This occurs due men like Marcos not being her ally, rather her oppressor and since men like him surround her constantly, she is never able to grow into the women she is meant to be: independent, strong, and more than one thing. Similarly, another quote that depicts Marcos as a man who degrades Esther is at a party, where Esther describes her first experience with Marcos,
I could tell Marco was a woman-hater, because in spite of all the models and TV starlets in the room that night he paid attention to nobody but me. Not out of kindness or even curiosity, but because I’d happened to be dealt to him, like a playing card in a pack of identical cards (Plath 56).
This quotation shows Esther’s thought process on Marco, and how she can see through his facade. The description of “woman-hater” is one that Esther uses sparingly, only for men like Marco who truly do not care for them as individuals and sees them all as identical. To expand upon, society allows Marcos to view woman simply as objects, not people with emotions and goals like Esther has. While Marco’s does this, he fulfills the description of a typical 1950’s male who sees women as a hinderance or something that needs to be taken care of.  Although Marcos and Buddy are both specific examples of individuals who exhibit patriarchal oppression, but one of the most significant and influential forms is how society actively participates in this oppressive nature as whole that hurts Esther.
The predominately male focused society as a whole oppresses Esther through the limits that women face in search of opportunities in life that causes her to feel insecure about her choices. The society that Esther finds herself in is detrimental to her desires to be many things, in which she explains,
I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet (Plath 63).
Esther explains her dilemma of how she has all of these dreams of what she aspires to be, but for some reason she cannot figure out what she truly wants and questions why she cannot have them all. This issue of not being able to reach her dreams or being scared to commit to one is not her fault; it is society’s way of limiting women from their potential on the basis that women should only have one mission and it should be a simple life. This form of misogyny that Esther goes through surrounds her in all aspects of her life, which makes her feel unsure of her place in society since they are so limited. She wishes and has these goals that she would want to reach, but she knows she cannot since society’s expectations of women are low and kept there because of the men that are dominant. Esther’s problem of wanting to be everything yet not being able to illustrates how society functions on patriarchal oppression. This  does not allow women like her to be successful by their own means, leaving a feeling of dependency, which goes hand in hand with feelings of inadequacy by not being able to do something independently. Secondly, the journal, On the Bell Jar, by Janet McCann, she argues how the 1950’s society that The Bell Jar illustrates hurts women due to the limits that are imbedded deeply in society in which she says,
Only in The Bell Jar however, are societies restrictions and expectations so specifically and clearly laid out – the implicit and explicit demands on women, the influences that are pervasive and invisible, in newspapers and magazines, in advertisements, in the classes that are taught and the ways they are taught, in the career choices offered to women (McCann 31).
McCanns arguments show the readers an in depth view of how society as a whole impacts and mistreats women in every aspect of their life by directing them to what is considered right and wrong. Male oppression is visible through all of this since the men are put on a pedestal in society and are given a lot of the decision making roles since they do not have any restrictions on what they can or cannot be. Women, on the other hand, are expected by society to know their place without explicitly being told. This allows them to have hopes and dreams like Esther, until they grow up and see through their life experiences what is acceptable for a woman, but it leaves a stain of unfulfillment and emptiness since they cannot be what they truly desire to be.  Although the novel depicts some women in leadership roles like Jay Cee, the issue is the ratio of women to men in those positions and the opportunities there are for women to try and be in that position.  With society as a whole along with specific individuals like Buddy and Marco that permit patriarchal oppression in forms that hinders Esther’s growth intellectually, there is only so much that a woman like Esther can do before her mental state is full of inadequate thoughts that leaves her helpless at the hands of men.
Overall, the men in the novel and society as a whole damage Esther’s mental state and life through their oppressive nature. Buddy Willard, although Esther’s “first love”,  makes her feel powerless and small in society, as if she is not allowed to have dreams of success since she is a woman. Marcos dominant and aggressive persona after just one night leaves Esther with the indelible mark that she is nothing important to society; she is only there for his benefit, not her own, which hurt her not only physically, but mentally as well through his derogative speech towards her. These men lead her to her decline due to the effects their sexist and cruel actions that leave her more and more hopeless in herself, in which she starts to distance herself more and more from her family and friends. Society as a whole fuels this mental state by their placement of Esther in a box of what she can and cannot be, yet leave her to dream until she realizes she cannot be what she wants to. All of these people ultimately connect to the view of the 1950’s as a time where men are in charge and women like Esther are lost. Esther Greenwood’s emotions of inadequacy occurs due to the patriarchal oppression that she endured from different people and society as a whole.