Aurelia Schoeber pursued a dual Master’s degree in both English and German at Boston University. Aurelia had taken a class in German in 1929, and her professor was Otto Emil Plath. They fell in love and married and on October 27, 1932 Sylvia Plath was born. Otto Emil Plath continued to teach both biology and German at Boston University, his academic pursuits succeeded and much of his time was occupied with writing. Otto Plath died

Esther sinks into a depression during the summer of her third year of college. Esther begins an internship at a fashion magazine in Manhattan, but she is uninterested in her work and begins to doubt her own future plans. She also begins to lose interest in her boyfriend, Buddy Willard. Her return to Boston brings about even more disappointment with a rejection letter from Harvard’s summer school writing course. As if this weren’t enough, her and her mother have their continual disagreements. All this negative energy begins to take a toll on Esther and it is clear that she begins to fall into a depressed state.

The title, “Bell Jar”, evokes a negative image. To be placed under a glass enclosure for the sole purpose of being observed and to be separated from the rest of the world constitutes a negative experience in our opinion. The idea of being an observed object shows the feminist position that women are too often considered objects of their men as well as of their culture. Sylvia Plath uses these images, of a woman as a scientific object, to show the dehumanizing position of the observation and confinement women endure. The confinement that is upheld by the Bell Jar and its images of a trapped woman foreshadows the premise of the novel.

These events along with other bibliographical details are paralleled with the events of Esther in the Bell Jar. The Bell jar is based mainly on Plath’s own suicide attempt from the summer of 1953. The novel is representative of the events

Some topics in this essay:
Bell Jar, Dr Gordon, Sylvia Plath, College Plath, Buddy Willard, Sylvia Sylvia, Smith College, Jar Bell, Emil Plath, Minton’s” Plath, bell jar, sylvia plath, suicide attempt, esther begins, smith college, otto emil plath, boston university, character esther, emil plath, esther greenwood, german boston, german boston university,