The Bell Jar 10

Throughout the novel, Esther had always dreamt of sleeping with a man. Esther had always wanted to sleep with a man but did not want to worry about what could possible come with it such as pregnancy. Finally, the opportunity to have sex arose when she met Irwin. Irwin was a math professor at Harvard. After sleeping with Irwin, Esther was not satisfied. She complained of it hurting reprehensibly. Afterwards, Esther began to bleed a tremendous amount. She showed Joan how much she was bleeding, and Joan immediately sent her to the hospital. The doctors said that it was very unusual to have that much bleeding after her first sexual experience. In conclusion, Esther’s first sexual experience was nowhere near what she had dreamt of.

The Bell Jar 9

In chapter 15, for the first time in the novel, Esther refers to the bell jar by claiming that her life is like a bell jar. By saying this, she means that wherever she goes, she is constantly trapped by the bell jar. A bell jar is used to cover delicate objects, and in this scenario, it is meant to symbolize covering Esther. Even if you move a bell jar, the object inside of it is going to remain enclosed. It is the same way with Esther. The doctors keep moving her from hospital to hospital, but she is still is unable to let out her emotions. Later in the novel, in chapter 19, she refers to a bell jar again, but this time, it is on a more positive note. She says that she feels much better after the shock therapy and is able to lift the bell jar a bit. She is now able to let out her emotions some more and communicate with others more clearly.

The Bell Jar 8

Philomena Guinea suggests that Esther go to a new, different asylum. Guinea had gone to one when she was growing up and thought that Esther should give it a try. Esther and her mother agree, and Guinea flies to Boston to take Esther to the new hospital. Esther’s new doctor is Dr. Nolan, who also happens to be a woman. Esther gets daily injections of insulin and later gets a lobotomy. She becomes happier and moves into a sunnier room. Esther loves her new hospital and does not want to leave. If she had been forced to stay where she was, I think that she would have literally gone insane or gotten so depressed that she would have killed herself.

The Bell Jar 7

Throughout the novel, we have witnessed Esther’s mental sanity go from okay to worse. In chapter 13 and 14, Esther begins to seriously think suicide. The first attempt at suicide in these chapters was when she was at the beach with Jody, Mark, and Cal, and she tried to drown herself. Later, she took her sleeping pills from her mother’s lock box and took fifty of them, which is obviously a very unsafe amount. The next morning, she woke up in the hospital.
It really did not matter whether Esther was seeing Dr. Gordon, receiving shock therapy, or even seeing a different doctor. Esther has suicide on her mind and is very depressed. Esther has reached that all time low where she believes that killing herself is the only solution. Even if she did go to another institution, she would still want to kill herself because she believes that suicide is the only remedy to all of her problems.

The Bell Jar 6

We first meet Dr. Gordon in these two chapters. At first, I think that Esther is a bit anxious, but excited, about seeing Dr. Gordon. She hopes that he can bring her back to her normal self; however, when she first walks into his office, she sees a picture of him with his family. Esther now claimed that she did not like Dr. Gordon because he had an attractive family. Esther goes on to tell him how she has had trouble eating, sleeping, and reading. When she reads, the words jumble up after a short time, so it is difficult for her. After just two sessions with Esther, Dr. Gordon decided that Esther needed shock therapy, and her mother was to bring her to the hospital in Walton.
I think Dr. Gordon is helping Esther, because she clearly has some mental imbalances. The fact that she is considering slitting her wrists or drowning herself marks that Esther needs some kind of help; however, I do not know if Esther necessarily needed shock therapy. I do not know much about it, but I think Esther just needs someone to talk to and maybe some depression medication. I am not sure if shock therapy is right for her because after her sessions, she always feels dreadful and as if it the “end of the world.”

The Bell Jar 5

Doreeen asks Esther to go on a double date with Lenny and a “mystery” person. Esther agrees to it and finds out that she has been set up with a man named Marco. Marco immediately gives Esther a diamond pin and says he will perform something worthy of a diamond. When he is telling her this, Marco grips her arm and leaves her with several bruises. Later, he tosses her drink into some bushes and forces her to dance with him. He then pushes her to the ground and undresses her. At first, Esther lied there motionless. Then, Marco called her a slut, and she begins to fight back. Esther refuses to return the diamond he gave her, and Marco begins to beat her. He smeared his blood all over his face and threatens to break her neck. Esther then returns back to the Amazon and throws away all of her clothes. This is a way for her to get clean, just like how she took a bath earlier in the novel to rid herself from sin. Plus, Marco’s actions influenced her to return to Boston and do something that she wanted with her life like writing a novel or pursuing her education.
The next day, Esther returns to Boston. When she arrives, she found out that she did not get into the writing program that she signed up for. A couple days later, Esther received a letter from Buddy saying that he has fallen in love with a nurse. He also says that if Esther comes to visit him, he may be able to love her again. Esther writes back saying she is engaged and never wants to talk to him again. Esther decides to write a novel, and then later she decides to spend some time in Germany. She is very indecisive at this time and I think this has some relation to what Marco did to her. Esther wants to do activities she enjoys instead of just doing them to do them.

The Bell Jar 4

Esther wants to sleep with Constantin because she wants to get even with Buddy. After Esther and Constantin have dinner one night, Constantin invites Esther back to his apartment to listen to some balalaika music. Esther accepted the invitation, and the two headed back to Constantin’s apartment. Once there, Constantin continuously filled up Esther’s cup with wine, and Esther became really drowsy. A bit later, she decided to call it a night and went to sleep in his bed. Later, she heard Constantin come into the bedroom and lie next to her; however, they did not do anything. This is kind of a strange reaction on Constantin’s end, but it also shows some respect from him as well. You can tell that he likes Esther because he does not want to rush into anything, and he is also willing to drive her home at three in the morning. He also admired little things about Esther like the way her hair looked when she got out of bed.

The Bell Jar 3

Esther really likes Buddy and would always admire him from afar. She would always see him at church when they were both home from college, but they never really talked. One day, Buddy stopped by Esther’s home to say he would like to see her while he was away at college. Later, Buddy invited Esther to the Junior Prom at Yale, and they started dating after that. They were getting along really well until one day, Esther asked if he had ever slept with a woman. Buddy confessed and said that he once slept with a waitress while working for a summer job. Esther was mad and later, after some deliberation, broke it off with Buddy. Right when Esther decided to dump Buddy, Buddy called her to tell her that he had tuberculosis. Esther was pleased to hear this because that meant she would not have to see him as much. Buddy, however, was not happy because he wanted to marry Esther. Esther went back to tell all the seniors that she was living with that Buddy had TB. The seniors then left Esther alone to study because they thought she was just covering her pain of breaking up with Buddy.

The Bell Jar 2

In college, Esther is required to take the typical sciences classes like at most schools. She excelled in botany because she liked cutting leaves up and observing them. She then found out that she had to take Physics. Esther did not like Physics because it dealt more with equations and variables instead of working with tangible objects like plants. Esther’s professor created his own textbook for the class, hoping it would someday be published. 99% of the girls in her Physics class failed it, and Esther was the only student who got a solid A. Esther did not enjoy taking the class and knew that Chemistry would be much worse, so she went to talk to her Class Dean about it. Esther suggested that she still take Chemistry but not receive a grade. She would take the class simply because she “enjoys” it, and it would free up time in her schedule to take a class over Shakespeare. Professors allowed Esther to do this because they thought it signified “intellectual maturity.” Esther may not enjoy Chemistry very much because she is not really into numbers and equations. Because Esther is an English major, she is more interested in poems and stories and other tangible objects. Equations and the periodic table are concepts that are too intricate for Esther.

The Bell Jar 1

“It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenberg’s, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.”

Esther is in a position that most girls would be envious over. She currently resides in New York and is attending college there. She is completing a one-month internship for a fashion magazine as well. Because she is working for the magazine, she gets a ton of great clothes and gets invites to all of the best parties. Aside from all of these great bonuses, Esther is not happy. For some reason, all she can think about is the Rosenberg’s. The Rosenberg’s were Communists that lived in the United States. The reason they were executed was because they took information about the atomic bomb and gave it to the Soviet Union in 1951. All of this just shows that Esther may not be enjoying her time in New York, and it may not be the best fit for her. After Doreen came home drunk and passed out, Esther realized that she was more conservative than Doreen and should be spending more of her time with the more reserved Betsy.

Mona Lisa Smile 2

During the 1950’s, there was a general sense of conformity. All of the women had the general goal of getting married and beginning a family while all of the men had the goal of providing a steady income for his wife and kids. When someone broke out of this conformity, it was frowned upon. During the movie, Betty made a decision that revokes a value from the 1950’s. She divorced her husband because he was cheating on her. This was a decision that most women would have never thought of even making. This revokes the values during the time period because it was different than anyone had ever done before. Women were beginning to come out of their shells and pursue a life for themselves. Divorce was becoming a larger statistic as the decade rolled on. Divorce was originally something that totally contradicted the family values of the 1950’s; however, today, it has become a common occurrence in everyday living.

Mona Lisa Smile 1

The film did a remarkable job of portraying the 1950’s. During this time period, family values were all relatively the same. The goal of most women was to marry young and have a family. They enjoyed cooking, cleaning, and pleasing their husband. The men of this time period were expected to provide the money for the family. Also, the men and women had a strict policy of waiting to have sex until after they were married.
As the 1950’s progressed, values shifted as well. Like Joan in the movie, women wanted to achieve a higher education instead of just becoming the normal housewife. Also, divorce was virtually unheard of during this time; however, more and more people began to get divorced as time grew on. Men and women wanted to break out of the mold that they had built for themselves. Women wanted to pursue a higher education and not have to worry about having dinner on the table at five.