Detailansicht
The Significance of Maternal Relationships in Sylvia Plath's Novel 'The Bell Jar'
eBook
ISBN/EAN: 9783638546300
Umbreit-Nr.: 6615054
Sprache:
Englisch
Umfang: 11 S., 0.45 MB
Format in cm:
Einband:
Keine Angabe
Erschienen am 18.09.2006
Auflage: 1/2006
E-Book
Format: PDF
DRM: Nicht vorhanden
- Zusatztext
- Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: A, San Diego State University, course: Modern American Literature and Culture, language: English, abstract: Its quite amazing how Ive gone around for most of my life as in therarefied atmosphere under a bell jar. (Plath, Sylvia: The Bell Jar. New York. Harper Collins Publishers 1996, p. 250) Although uttered by Sylvia Plath, this statement fully applies for the protagonist Esther Greenwoodin Plaths novel The Bell Jar. It exemplifies her feeling of being imprisoned in a world and society she can neither accept nor reject and further reveals the identification of author and protagonist. Both Plath and Esther suffer from living under this sort of glass bell jar which makes it hard for them to breathe and to break free from the regulations of contemporary society. The author Sylvia Plath herself has experienced most of the events in the novel, including psychological disease, depression and suicide attempts. Moreover, most of the characters in The Bell Jar are based on people Plath knew and loved, although she often draws caricatures or uses the device of irony when describing them. Plaths intention was to show how isolated a person feels when he is suffering a breakdown (p.262) but we never completely come to know why this breakdown occurs, which almost leads to her destruction and drives her into madness and the asylum. What we do know, however, is that Esther doubts the traditional way of a womans life in the 1950s which means marrying a respectful man, having children and being an obedient housewife. She can hardly decide which way of life to choose and experiences a strong inner conflict between her wish of leading the life of a poet and that of a loving wife and mother. This conflict leads to a fracture in Esthers innerself, to diminished self-assurance and false made-up selves. Esthers mother, although seemingly playing a passive role in the novel, has a significant influence on her daughters way of thinking, on her doubt of social values and to a certain extent even on her psychological disease which derivesfrom her inner disorder. In the following, I will try to analyze the importance and influence of Esthers relationship to her mother Mrs. Greenwood in the course of the story. In doing so, I will also examine the meaning of maternal bonds in reference to a couple of further female relationships in the novel. Moreover, I will dwell on Esthers doubt and partial rejection of social and traditional values of her time, mostof which are embodied by her mother. [...]
- Kurztext
- Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: A, San Diego State University, course: Modern American Literature and Culture, 1 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Its quite amazing how Ive gone around for most of my life as in therarefied atmosphere under a bell jar. (Plath, ...