A Woman in A Bell Jar: Fragmented Self and the Performance of Femininity in Slyvia Plath's The Bell Jar

“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. 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.”

Published under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas in 1963, Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar remains an emotionally complex novel that deals with the intense psychological and societal struggles faced by women in the 1950s.  It reveals the pressures women endured during its time of publication and reflects the rigid ideals of mid-20th century America. The 1950s was a decade marked by significant societal transformations in the United States, which was shaped by both post-war and increasingly rigid social structure. It was characterized by cultural conservatism that arose after World War 2. The post-war ideal of the nuclear family, which was the father as the breadwinner and the mother as the housewife, was deeply instilled in the culture and society. Advertisements and media narratives of the time portrayed this ideal as the epitome of femininity. Many advertisements of the time were explicitly giving the message of finding purpose only through their roles as wives and mothers, which they would call ‘true womanhood’. 

Considering historical and cultural context of its time, The Bell Jar captures the intense psychological turmoil of a young woman, Esther Greenwood, who finds herself suffocated under the weight of these rigid societal expectations. Her vivid metaphor of the fig tree encapsulates a dilemma especially faced by the women of the time, with each fig representing a different route and endless possibilities. The paradox of choice, which is the fact that each fig represents a different possible self, becomes Esther’s downfall. The more she hesitates, the more the figs fall away while she remains stuck in indecision and despair.

The novel centers on Esther Greenwood, a young woman with dreams of becoming a writer, who is sent to New York as part of a prestigious internship at a magazine. From the outset, Esther is depicted as caught between competing desires: to fulfil societal expectations of beauty and romance, and to preserve her inner self, which seems increasingly out of place in the world she inhabits. These roles were not only defined by men but were reinforced by women themselves, who internalized the cultural script of what it meant to be a woman. For instance, Esther’s interactions with women like Betsy, her roommate, and Doreen, another intern at the magazine, highlight the tension between conforming to the prescribed roles of femininity. Doreen, on the other hand, is a more liberated figure, but her rebelliousness only seems to serve as a temporary escape from the same pressures. Esther’s descent into mental illness is not a result of some inherent flaw but a consequence of the dissonance between her inner self and the external expectations placed upon her.

However, Esther's sense of suffocation is not just a result of personal indecision, but also of the external pressures placed on her by society. The post-war American ideal of womanhood, as epitomized by the figure of the housewife, was rooted in cultural conservatism and the desire for a return to traditional family structures. The fig tree reflects Esther’s fear of choosing one identity or path at the cost of all the others. She is caught in a crisis of identity, unsure of what she truly wants or who she really is. Throughout the novel, she wrestles with her desire to escape the narrow roles of femininity and motherhood that society imposes on her. In her search for selfhood, Esther attempts to construct an identity, a different persona as when she adopted the name Elly Higginbottom to distance herself from her real identity, which leads to feelings of fragmentation.

Depression sometimes obstructs individuals to make even basic decisions or see clear options in life, and Esther's metaphor captures this experience of emotional and psychological turmoil. Furthermore, the symbol of bell jar in the novel is often associated with isolation and suffocation that symbolizes both the external pressures that Esther faces and her internal psychological state. It is also a metaphor for the world around Esther distant, trapped and out of reach. This disconnection between her internal and external selves is a key aspect of Esther’s mental breakdown. Plath’s novel is rich with symbolic imagery, each piece adding to the emotional and psychological complexity of Esther’s experience. These symbols serve not only to illustrate Esther’s mental illness and struggles with identity but also to comment on the restrictive nature of societal expectations for women during the time. Plath transforms her own psychological breakdown into a metaphor for societal oppression. Esther’s institutionalization and electroshock therapy reflect both mid-century medical practice and gendered control. Psychiatric treatment, more than healing, becomes a medium of control. Moreover, the attitude towards virginity underscore the sexual double standard, with “pureness” is a burden placed only on women, however men like Buddy Willard are free to violate.

The themes explored in The Bell Jar are not confined to the 1950s. Today, as we live in the age of social media, constant performance, and hyper-visibility, many of the pressures that Esther have faced only intensified. Social media platforms, particularly those that focus on appearance and lifestyle, are modern-day manifestations of the same forces that suffocated Esther. The curated and performative nature of these platforms creates new pressures on women, who are expected to present a perfect image of themselves at all times. Constant influx of influencer culture, with its focus on beauty and material wealth creates an environment that mirrors the societal pressures Plath critiqued. Therefore, now, the bell jar is not only a personal prison but very part of the culture that surrounds us in every moment.