How The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath Revolutionized Mental Health

Liliana Sepulveda - October 2nd

The 1963 novel The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath is a widely recognized book for its unhinged storyline and the journey it takes circulating the character Esther Greenwood, who overtime allows a depressive episode consume her completely to a point of staying at a psychiatric ward. The tragic story has impacted society for decades, as it became a prominent piece, touching the topics of manic depression, suicide, self harm, anxiety, and other affects of mental illness. In spite of Esther’s mental battles, she attempts to find her place in the world as a young college girl searching for a comfortable self-identity and independence away from societal expectations. However, what prompts readers to pick this book off the shelves and how it continues being a phenomenon, is the very fact that The Bell Jar reflects the author’s own conflicts with herself and how she found familiarity and cope through Esther.

A big takeaway is the fact that Esther was simultaneously in a psych ward as Sylvia Plath was in a psych ward when she wrote The Bell Jar. Many small details about Esther’s character that appear in the book describe Plath and her experiences such as growing up in Massachusetts, being a writer at a women’s college, receiving a magazine scholarship, and having a widowed mother.  

What makes The Bell Jar inspiring is that through her writing. Sylvia Plath created an image for herself that she sought for as a woman who lived in the 60s, where mental health was often belittled and instead viewed as a sign of weakness, especially through mental health institutions. In terms of suicide and the diagnosis of mental illnesses, they were seen as “mass hysterias” and as a result many people received very poor, under examined practices to “recover”, which Plath heavily vocalized in The Bell Jar and expressed the injustice of it. Through Esther Greenwood, we see the flaws she sees in herself and the invalidity she feels of her own emotions and reactions. Esther creates a false reality and in the midst of it, drives herself to a deeper depressive episode. Further, Esther seeks help from her doctor, where she receives a poor, brutal practice of electroconvulsive therapy with no use of anesthesia in the process. Unfortunately, this was a reflection of a traumatic experience Plath herself had to face during a need for help. 

For a woman in the 50s/60s, Esther and Plath had to find their forms of identity with limited resources and opportunities granted to them and the answer was: writing. Both Plath and Esther found their place in the world through their expression in writing and poetry.

Plath held an entirely new influence on society with The Bell Jar and what it’s like to be a woman who has her own mental battles in an isolated environment. The Bell Jar gives us a minor glimpse of being in the mind of someone with mental illness. It allows us to envision the journey and development Esther experiences without any glamorized narrative and solely just a pure, raw expression of the severity and extremes depression can drive a person to insanity. 

For the time The Bell Jar takes place, it is no wonder that it is still talked about to this day. Sylvia Plath ultimately published a piece that justifies the imperfections of being a person who struggles with depression and showed us that it is very much real and not some disillusioned act or hysteria. The Bell Jar demonstrates how mental illness should be normalized in society and something humans should not feel guilty for. Sylvia Plath will continue being a recognized writer not for how her life ended, but for creating a character and entering the minds of many people like Esther Greenwood who deserve to be validated in a society where unusually high expectations are to constantly be met.