Madness and the absent father - Analysis of Esther’s mental illness in 'The Bell Jar'

CONTENTS

Introduction   3

1.  Diagnosis  3

2.  The Turning Point  4

3.  Detrimental Men  6

4.  Invidious Mother and Adjuvant Women  8

5.  Psychoanalytical Approach: Electra Complex  10

  Conclusion  12

  Bibliography  13

Internet  Resources  13

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INTRODUCTION

The following essay deals with the book The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. It will try to show that Esther’s madness is profoundly linked to her social environment. This on the other hand is in several ways deeply connected with Esther’s loss of her father in her childhood. That is, the absence of her father correlates with Esther’s behaviour towards her surroundings and her life attitudes.

To prove that fact this essay will try to work out the turning point in Esther’s life that leads to the final break-out of her illness and her mental spiral down movement that leads her into a psychiatric institution.

1. DIAGNOSIS

Esther suffers from a severe case of depression that might have been caused by a genetic defect; but as opposed to Sylvia Plath, from who is known that in her family were reported cases of depression on her father’s side ¹ , one finds only insufficient hints (that really only serve as foreshadows for the things to happen in the story) that the same is true for Esther, for example her comment about her father’s provenance: “My German-speaking father, dead since I was nine, came from some manic-depressive hamlet in the black heart of Prussia.” ² The reader, who does not know about the book’s autobiographical background and Plath’s medical history, must consequently assume that Esther’s worsening disease is entirely caused by her social environment. This notion is not devious at all.

In Social Origins of Depressions, George W. Brown’s and Tirril Harris’ study of psychiatric disorder in women, it is stated that

¹ Alexander, Paul. Rough Magic. De Capo Press. New York, 1999. P. 135.

² Plath, Sylvia. The Bell Jar. London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1963. P. 34.

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loss and disappointment are the central features of most events bringing about clinical depression. (…) Long-term and not short-term threat is important because it correlates closely with the experience of loss if this is seen to include: (i) separation or the threat of it, such as death of parent (…) 3

Therefore it is perfectly possible that Esther’s depression was at least partially nourished by external circumstances. Schizophrenia on the other hand is not an illness that is “caused by childhood trauma, bad parenting, or poverty” ⁴ , that is, external circumstances. For that reason this essay will treat Esther’s illness purely as depression and not deal with the possibility of schizophrenia that has frequently come up in discussions about the diagnosis of Esther’s state of mind.

2. THE TURNING POINT

There are several clues that indicate the turning point in Esther’s life: the final outbreak of her mental disease.

Esther herself compares her madness with a bell jar that encloses her. Only in the end she feels the bell jar lifting, but still threateningly hovering above her. There is one particular scene in the book that obviously suggests its’ descend:

Then Constantine and the Russian girl interpreter (…) seemed to move off at a distance. I saw their mouths going up and down without a sound, as if they were sitting on the deck of a departing ship, stranding me in the middle of a huge silence. 5

One can virtually imagine the vitreous vessel that has lowered itself and insulates Esther, so that she is not able to hear the outside world anymore.

³ Brown, George W. and Harris, Tirril. Social Origins of Depressions. Tavistock Publications. London, 1978. P.

103.

⁴ Long, Phillip W. “Basic Facts about Schizophrenia.”

⁵ The Bell Jar. P. 78.

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