Blog written by 22-year-old me, Tori, a mental health and LGBT activist, BPD fighter, English graduate, Care Worker, poet and writer who happens to love reading, writing, animals and music. My rants about LGBT rights, inequality, mental health stigma, politics, literature and life...
DO NOT READ THIS POST IF YOU HAVE YET TO READ 'THE BELL JAR'
Perhaps the most obscure book I have read.
Focusing around the character Esther Greenwood, a troubled young woman looking for her place in the world, she has acquired a place at a college to do a scholarship away from home, and begins it well, enjoying herself and seeing her almost-boyfriend, however this falls through when she becomes depressed and attempts suicide so therefore is taken away to a mental institute after living at home with her mother for some time.
The ending is ambiguous, as the novel closes on the review of Esther's state of mind and the decision regarding whether she will be released from the hospital.
The book contains themes of virginity, mental illness, depression, suicide, writing as a profession, romance, friendship, family and love. So it covers a lot and lots of people of all walks of life can identify with Esther. It moved me, I cried with Esther, knowing some of her personality and experiences were Plath's too, as this is a semi-autobiographical account of Plath's life. I recommend this book. Highly. Every girl should read it. Every human, actually.
Sylvia, Sylvia, Sylvia. What can I say? Sylvia Plath was an amazing woman and after watching the film 'Sylvia', my admiration of her just grew. I was appalled at the way Ted Hughes treated her: affairs, infidelity and broken promises. She needed love and security. I was bewitched by the film 'Sylvia' and saw it twice in one day. Partly because I love Gwyneth Paltrow but mainly because it's an amazing film portraying an even more amazing woman. Plath was clearly always mentally unstable, from the time she met Hughes to her death in 1963. She told him many a times of her failed suicide attempts: an overdose, attempted drowning. When she discovers Hughes is repeatedly betraying her trust and cheating on her she becomes more and more ill until she cannot cope anymore and on February 11th 1963 she committed suicide by putting her head in the oven. In her life she wrote some outstanding poems, such as Daddy. She also wrote her only novelThe Bell Jar. The book centres around Esther Greenwood, a troubled young lady trying to find her place in the world. The novel was semi-autobiographical and portrayed many events which also paralleled Plath's life. Sylvia Plath was unwell and sadly did not get the help she needed and deserved. Her intense poetry on the theme of death conveys her deteriorating mental stability and suicidal ideation. I don't know what is was about Plath's novel that captured me, left me pining for more of her works. I read The Bell Jar in a matter of days and it stayed with me long after I finished it. I may re-read it, especially after reading an article on one woman's permanent adoration of the novel. Plath had two children. Her daughter, Frieda Hughes is alive today and identifies as a writer and poet, her son, Nicholas Highes was a fisheries biologist known as an expert in stream salmonid ecology, however he hanged himself in 2009 after suffering with depression. Plath will be remembered forever for her talent and beauty inside and out. Her journals are available to read, which gives detailed insight into her emotions and experiences.
