The Bell Jar

Title: The Bell Jar See all items with this value
Creator: Plath, Sylvia See all items with this value
Date Created: 1963
Relation: "A terrible newspaper headline" / "The Bell Jar"; Becky Turner's Audio Reflection on "A terrible newspaper headline"
Description: The Bell Jar is a semi-autobiographical novel that narrates the decline of a young writer suffering from depression. Plath delves into social expectations of gender roles, mental health, and sexuality in a realist depiction of the 1950s. Plath and her family were concerned about how the personal material in the book would be interpreted by friends of the family, so it was originally published under the pseudonym “Victoria Lucas”; The Bell Jar would not be released under her own name, or in the United States at all, until years after Plath’s death. Although it initially received mixed reviews, the novel has since inspired many feminist, poststructuralist, and psychoanalytical readings. Esther Greenwood, the main character, emulates Plath’s struggles with mental illness, and her suicide attempt parallels Plath’s own attempt on her life at age 20, ten years before she died.

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Title	Class
"A terrible newspaper headline" / "The Bell Jar"	Image
Becky Turner's Audio Reflection on "A terrible newspaper headline"	Sound