Plath's The Bell Jar (Cliffs Notes)

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CliffsNotes on The Bell Jar takes you into the life of Esther Greenwood: she is a college girl, a good student, a talented writer, and a fashion magazine contest winner; she is the well-bred oldest child in a typical family with two children, a clever games player, a semi-liberated budding intellectual, and a confused late adolescent. Also, Esther is a mental patient. Follow the progression of Esther’s life as she struggles to grow up in the early 1950s in an America where women’s roles were rigidly assigned.

Summaries and commentaries will help you understand the social and emotional pressures facing Esther. You’ll also gain insight into the life and background of the author, Syliva Plath. Other features that help you study include

• Character analyses of major players
• An analysis of the individual versus society in The Bell Jar
• An examination of Sylvia Plath’s own tragic history
• Sample essay questions

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Plath was an excellent poet but is known to many for this largely autobiographical novel. The Bell Jar tells the story of a gifted young woman's mental breakdown beginning during a summer internship as a junior editor at a magazine in New York City in the early 1950s. The real Plath committed suicide in 1963 and left behind this scathingly sad, honest and perfectly-written book, which remains one of the best-told tales of a woman's descent into insanity.