A Note on The Bell Jar (1963)

Abstract

Sylvia Plath’s novel The Bell Jar, which first appeared in print fifty years ago, is a thinly veiled depiction of a particular time in the author’s life, the summer of 1953. The protagonist and stand-in for Plath, Esther Greenwood, comes of age on the cusp of societal changes in the role of women in the US. Naming plays a central role in the development of Esther, a more pivotal one than has previously been recognized. Throughout the novel, Esther’s journey toward mental breakdown and inability to find her true identity is paralleled by a failed struggle to accurately name herself.

Keywords:

• The Bell Jar
• Sylvia Plath
• autobiographical novel
• naming
• pseudonym
• identity

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Susan J Behrens

Susan J. Behrens is Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Marymount Manhattan College. She is the co-editor (with Judith A. Parker) of Language in the Real World: An Introduction to Linguistics and author of Grammar: A Pocket Guide.

Correspondence to: Susan J. Behrens, Marymount Manhattan College, 221 E. 71 Street, New York, NY, 10021, USA. Email: [email protected]