Plot+Syn.+-+Bell+Jar

= Plot Summary =


 * Esther Greenwood is an intern at a magazine company in New York. She won this internship along with eleven other beautiful girls, of which all live together in a hotel for women. Esther's friend, Doreen, is a very beautiful out going girl who Esther, at first, admires for her free spirited personality. Her feelings toward Doreen eventually changes when Doreen shows up at her door drunk, and Esther decides that she no longer wants anything to do with Doreen. She then befriends Betsy, acknowledging that she and Betsy have more in common than she thought. While in New York, the sponsors of their internship wine, dine, and shower the girls in gifts. Esther doesn't feel that she fits into this lifestyle, and eventually becomes confused about her life as well as her future goals. On her last night in New York Esther follows Doreen to a party and almost gets raped by a man named Marco, of which Doreen introduced her to.

Esther refuses to ever get married or even have children. Instead she insists that she will pursue her ambitions as a writer. After finding out that her boyfriend Buddy Willard slept with a waitress, Esther decides that she hates him because he is a hypocrite. She made plans to break up with Buddy, who she was expected to marry, but he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and sent to a sanatorium before she could do so. Esther thinks that the idea of woman staying pure for their husband, while men do whatever they want, is a double standard, and decides that she will sleep with another man in order to get even with Buddy.

When Esther returns to her home in Boston she finds out that she was not accepted for the writing course that she applied to. She ends up canceling all of her scheduled classes for the rest of the summer, and makes plans to write a novel, learn shorthand and start her senior thesis, all of which she decides not to do by the end of the day. Baffled with confusion Esther begins to loose her mind. She is unable to read, write, sleep, and she stops taking baths. Realizing that she has a problem Esther goes to see her family doctor who refers her to Dr. Gordon, a psychiatrist. Dr. Gordon prescribes shock therapy to try and cure Esther, but it only makes matters worst. She then begins her desperate quest to kill herself. **


 * Esther's first tried to hang herself, but the ceiling in her house was too low. So instead she decided to tighten the rope around her neck and pull, but every time she got woozy her hands would weaken and lose their grip on the rope. Her second attempt was equally unsuccessful. While at the beach with friends she tried to drown herself, but every time she dived under the water her body floated back to the surface. Esther's last attempt was almost successful. After her mother left for work, Esther wrote a letter stating that she went for a long walk. She then hides herself in a crawl space in her basement and overdoses on sleeping pills. She blacks out and wakes up in a hospital badly bruised and her head shaven.

After Esther heals she is sent to a psychological ward where she becomes paranoid, she thinks that she sees one of the patients imitating her mother and that the doctors are telling her fake names. She begs her mother to take her out of the ward. Her mother contacts Philomena Guinea, the sponsor of Esther's college scholarship, who went through the same problem as Esther. Philomena Guinea decides to pay for Esther to stay at a private hospital that resembles a country club. While in the hospital Esther grows to trust her new doctor, Dr. Nolan, and becomes friends with a woman names Joan, who she despises but admits that they are very similar. With a combination of talk therapy, insulin shots, and shock therapy Esther eventually gets better. Esther tells Dr. Nolan that she wants the freedom that men have, but she is worried about pregnancy. So Dr. Nolan sent her to see another doctor in order to get a diaphragm.

Since her health has improved, Esther is allowed to leave to hospital from time to time. With her new freedom Esther finally looses her virginity to a man named Irwin, who is a math professor. Afterwards she begins to bleed ferociously, and ends up having to go to the emergency room, with the assistance of Joan. Joan who seemed to be getting better suddenly disappears and is found in a swamp where she hung herself. Esther will get out of the hospital in time to start winter classes at college, but she questions whether the bell jar of her insanity will descend upon her once again in the future. ** **Works Cited** "SparkNotes: The Bell Jar: Plot Overview." //SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides//. Ed. Sparknotes Editors. 2002. Web. 5 Jan. 2010. .

Sylvia., Plath,. //The Bell Jar (P.S.)//. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2005. Print.