The Bell Jar: Life After the Asylum

Esther’s release from the hospital suggests that she is deemed well by her doctors and more importantly that the ECT was successful. Given the striking resemblance the story holds to Plath’s own life,

On an online homepage dedicated to Sylvia Plath, I found many details chronicled about her life in the “Short Biography of Sylvia Plath (1932-1963)”. I discovered many similarities between Plath and Esther such as the fact that, Plath too won a spot as guest editor at a popular young women’s magazine during her early college years. She then made a nearly successful suicide attempt following her stay at Mademoiselle Magazine by swallowing sleeping pills the summer following her junior year. Plath, as well as Esther, lost her father (a college professor and bee expert) at a young age. And finally, Plath received Electroconvulsive Therapy for her depression following her attempted suicide, as did Esther in The Bell Jar. She made what I view as a temporary recovery, returned to college and graduated summa cum laude. Five years later her first book, The Colossus was published. She also married and had two children. In 1963 still haunted by her depression Sylvia Plath succeeds in killing herself. Plath’s novel The Bell Jar could be viewed as an autobiography. Given that, I find myself wondering what happened to our character, Esther Greenwood after her release from the mental hospital. The possibility that she would relapse seems highly likely.

I believe that this possibility further supports my theory that Esther relapsed after her release from the hospital. Like Joan, Esther too must have been faced with feelings of inadequacy and fear. In Esther’s case she was able to put on the façade of being well longer than her friend Joan. The Bell Jar follows the author, Sylvia Plath’s life so closely that she must have later cracked and succeeded in a second suicide attempt. I would love to see a sequel to the story. Obviously this is an impossibility given the fact that Plath committed suicide. However, in order for me to be convinced that Esther does not commit suicide, I want to see part II The Bell Jar: Life after the Asylum. What fig does Esther choose from the under the many branches of her fig tree? Professor, Editor, Wife, no one will ever know. Until Esther Greenwood appears in another story, I will believe that she too committed suicide just ten short years following her electroshock treatment and release from the asylum.

Esther receives electroshock treatment from two different psychiatrists in The Bell Jar. She recalls each experience very differently. I associate her first treatment administered by Doctor Gordon very closely with the atrocious details of the early practices.

Some topics in this essay:
Electroconvulsive Therapy, Mental Health, Dr Nolan, Doctor Gordon, Shock Therapy, Bell Jar, York City, Esther Greenwood, Greist Jefferson, Guide Psychiatry, bell jar, electroconvulsive therapy, brain damage, memory loss, sylvia plath, esther greenwood, suicide attempt, harvard guide psychiatry, plath esther, guide psychiatry, harvard guide, electroconvulsive therapy viewed,