Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar (entry 3)

            Esther represents a woman oppressed by society in her time. Esther expects more from her life and dreams of the future she wants. However her dream drives her mad because she cannot reach it. In the second half of the book Esther spirals even more until she finally ends up in a facility. Within the facility she recognizes what she must do to be free. Esther then sleeps with Irwin to go against the double standard of purity that society holds. In a personal reaction to this event, I thought Esther had lost it even more but for her it was a release of the hold society has on her. Another example of how the hold is released is the comparison of the symbolism of the Bell Jar (symbolizing her madness) from the beginning of the second half to the end. At first Esther feels as if she “would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in her own sour air” (185). In the end the jar is lifted and the hold is released. However, it still hangs over her waiting to drop at any moment.            

                Esther is a prime example of a woman oppressed by society in her time because of this bell jar that hangs over her. Esther cannot choose her future because of society ad that drives her mad because if she takes her path then she would be a lonely harlot for choosing a career and losing her virginity. Though this view of women needing to have a certain role is not near as strong as it was in the 1950s I believe women still have a double standard with purity and marriage. In the purity sense, men are still seen as those who can do what they want when they please. However, if women were to do so they would be seen in society as harlots. In the aspect of marriage, I feel as if women are still expected to be pure when they are married but the men are not expected to be or that women are more appealing to men if they are pure for marriage. Again, this view is not as strong as it was in the time setting of The Bell Jar but I still believe it exists.  Feminism believes that the sexes should receive equality. However with the views of purity and marriage, both in the Bell Jar and in society today, I believe that it would be hard to fight such beliefs that have been present for so long. Esther tries to fight the beliefs but ends up almost dead, in a facility, and trapped in a bell jar.

Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar (entry 2)

                In the second half of the novel, Esther begins to spiral into a deeper depression when she returns home. She begins to not be able to sleep, eat, read, or write. Her signs of hollowness and beginning of insanity release her to a psychiatrist, Dr. Gordon. However, Dr. Gordon acts as if nothing is wrong with Esther and performs improper shock treatments. After devastating her mother on her depression Esther refused to return. Days following Esther feels the same and realizes she is spiraling down due to not being able to sleep, eat, read, or write. This causes her to try to commit suicide through cutting, hanging, drowning, and her final attempt pills. Esther hides and takes pills and is not found until days later. After which she is sent to a hospital asylum, where she is kicked out. However, the famous novelist Philomena Guinea takes Esther to a private facility after seeing her in the news. Within the private facility many events occur. Esther begins to trust her new psychiatrist Doctor Nolan because she receives injections instead of shock treatments. Joan, a person from her past, even end up coming to the facility as a patient herself. Throughout her stay, Esther begins to improve and is moved to a better house, Belsize. However, Esther then must receive shock treatments but this time they end up working. Following the treatments Esther seems to improve. She finds an opportunity to receive her freedom by going to get birth control. She feels even more free when she loses her virginity to a man she randomly meets, Irwin. She has an incident afterwards and asks for Joan’s help. This event scares Joan and she must return to the asylum along with Esther’s return. After only a day or so of being back, Joan commits suicide by hanging herself in the woods. The suicide of Joan causes Buddy to return and asks if he causes women to go mad because he dated both Joan and Esther. Buddy’s visit causes Esther to realize she will never be married because she has been in an asylum. In the end, Esther enters to be interviewed to be released from the asylum.

Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

    Sylvia Plath illustrates a woman, Esther Greenwood, who is trying to decide her future in New York City with a group of other women who had won the fashion magazine contest. Esther's days are planned out for her but she tries to go away from the norm and plan her own time such as going off with Doreen by the hand of a strange man, Lenny. However, throughout her time Esther begins to spiral into a depression illustrated by comparing herself to other women present, crying for no reason, and focusing on her mistakes. One of the mistakes she focuses on is narrating the time she had with the man she was told to marry, Buddy Willard. She discusses the man she thought him to be, pure, and the man he really was, a hypocrite. While reflecting back, Esther realizes she has never truly been happy since she was nine years old, though she seems to have a moment of happiness with Constantin. From then on she begins to spiral, from avoiding set events to almost letting a man, Marco, take advantage of her and abuse her.

   Though Esther seems to be becoming a bit strange and depressed, I believe there is hope due to the flickers of happiness. Esther seems to have a moment of happiness when spending time with Constantin and if he were to return then her happiness would return with him. However she seems to be broken halfway through the book when she has her encounter with the women hating man, Marco. I am routing for Esther to pull through and find happiness but with what she wants compared to what society wants for her, it seems as if that is a far reach.

   Esther illustrates the views of a feminist. Esther does not believe in marriage the way it is meant to be because she finds it unfair that a man is expected to stay pure but a man did not have to or could even trick their wives as Buddy almost tricked her. Esther also relates to feminism because she wants to be empowered and make her own path. She also does not want to feel forced to serve men which she discusses, "...I hated the idea of serving men in any way. I wanted to dictate my own thrilling letters" (76). In her time women's dreams were to find a husband and be the perfect wife. However, Esther wants to choose her own dream as she states in the quote presented. I see society as a factor in her spiraling depression due to her opposing view of what a woman should want. Everyone is pulling her in one direction but she wishes to go in another. With the restraints of society, she cannot go her own way. I believe Sylvia Plath illustrates the beginning of a feminist. Esther breaks away from the standard because she denies the act of marriage and recognizes the unequal aspects of both marriage and society. Feminist recognize and fight against the inequality of the sexes. However, Esther cannot seem to find the strength to fight and instead spirals into depression.

The Yellow Wallpaper cont.

Response:

In response to The Yellow Wallpaper, I agree with what Gilman argues but only in some cases. I believe that a domestic life and marriage can become oppressing for women and cause depression. However, I only believe so if there is an imbalance in their life as there is in the character’s life. The character’s every move and treatment is dictated by her husband and her duties. She is meant to be happy with her life because that pleases her husband which is her ultimate duty. However, she becomes depressed and entrapped by it as the yellow wallpaper symbolizes. This can be true about an actual domestic life and marriage. If there is an imbalance and there is no freedom then the women becomes entrapped in her own life. However, I do believe in such things as a happy marriage and a happy domestic life but only when chosen. I believe with The Yellow Wallpaper Gilman is expressing that women need to push out from their domestic lives and life as they choose in order to find happiness and a good state of mind, which I agree because women should be seen as independent instead of dependent.

As for the Gilman’s style, I enjoyed the way she presents her argument. I like seeing the story as the character’s journal because it allows an inside look to the character’s state of mind. I also found the symbolism interesting because I felt as if it was a somewhat empowering and surprising ending when the woman tears down the wallpaper to ultimately free herself. It was a creative and attention grabbing way to express her argument. Overall, I enjoyed reading the piece.

Sincerely,

A Girl and Her Heels

The Yellow Wallpaper

Summary and Analysis:

Charlotte Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper illustrates a woman who is overcome with depression. The story is written from the perspective of the woman herself through her journal which she hides from everyone else. Within her journal it is clear that her husband dictates her every move, from when she has company to where she sleeps (the room with the ugly yellow wallpaper), and believes that she only needs rests and a clear head to feel better.  However, within the room with the yellow wallpaper she begins to become obsessed with its hideous color and supposed hidden pattern. Throughout the story, the woman’s depression and loneliness grows which is expressed through her crying at random times and becoming engrossed by the wallpaper. Her high point is when she sees a woman entrapped by the wallpaper. She then plans to and executes ripping off the wallpaper to help the woman escape. In the end, the woman she helped escape was herself.

                Within The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Gilman is expressing her view on domestic life. Gilman argues that women are oppressed and driven mad by having a domestic life.  She executes her argument through multiple strategies. Gilman employs italics, parenthesis, and repetition in order to emphasize her key issues. However, her most important and impactful strategies are allusion and symbolism. Gilman alludes to the works of Mitchell, who believed in extreme therapies such as electroshock for the mental ill, in order to express how he was incorrect. She also alludes to Mitchell to express that it is not the treatment that needs to be changed in the protagonist’s life but her life itself. Also employed in The Yellow Wallpaper, symbolism is seen throughout the piece. The yellow wallpaper itself is a symbolism of the main character’s life. It is ugly and tearing away, such as she is in her mental state, but within it is a pattern she grows to enjoy. However this pattern grows into an obsession where it turns into an entrapment. The pattern becomes a prison for the woman that the protagonist sees inside. In the symbolic point of view, the wallpaper is the main character’s domestic life. She is entrapped by the duties she is meant to abide by for her husband as the woman is entrapped by the wallpaper. However, at the end of the story when she rips the wallpaper down it is symbolic of her gaining her freedom. The main character is ripping the wallpaper off the wall to free the woman inside but is ultimately taking herself out of the control of her domestic life and freeing herself. This is illustrated in the symbolism and the woman exclaiming to her husband, “I’ve got out at last…in spite of you and Jane. And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!” She has gone against her husband and away from her domestic life—the wallpaper.

A Girl and Her Heels

The Great Social Evil

In combination with reading A Vindication of the Right’s of Woman, I also read The Great Social Evil. It is a letter written to the editor of the Times by a prostitute in response to a previous letter to the editor by another prostitute. Within the letter the anonymous writer describes how she was raised compared to how the author of the previous letter was raised as a child. She discusses this in order to illustrate to the editor and the audience how she became to be in the position she is in, a prostitute. The author then uses this information to ask why her and other prostitutes are judged and abused by society for what they do. She explains how she is simply another worker and contributor to society. She also states how prostitutes are made to seem evil and sinful by society but should not be judged because of who they were made to be.

                In reaction to this piece, I found it interesting, entertaining, and enlightening. In this time period prostitutes were of a different kind but they also received cruelties for who they were. I believe it is wrong to judge someone without knowing their story and background, which with this letter the author is defending this claim. Society should not judge those who they do not know. The anonymous author was raised differently than those who judged her. It was as if her path was destined to end the way it did which is why I found the piece interesting. I found the piece entertaining because of the sarcastic remarks made by the prostitute, especially her signature which she began with “I remain your humble servant.” I also found the letter enlightening because it made me think about factors that I have not thought about before such as the story behind clothing. I also believed everyone has a background story that made them who they are but to think that there are many layers behind people and things is something I had never taken into consideration. The Great Social Evil was not simply a letter from a prostitute. It was a letter that entertained with its wit and enlightened with its discourse.

Sincerely,

A Girl and Her Heels

A Vindication Of The Right's Of Woman

Mary Wollstonecraft writes A Vindication Of The Right’s Of Woman in order to illustrate the oppressions women face. It is a reaction to Tom Paine’s Rights of Man. She describes how women are denied privileges that men receive, such as political and domestic privileges, which causes women to learn to fend for themselves through finding a man. Within her essay, she hopes to persuade women to fend for themselves and become creatures who rely on the knowledge and strength of their own bodies and minds instead of that of their men. In her introduction, Wollstonecraft begins to discuss how men are giving their privileges, rights, experiences, etcetera while women are denied these things. Women must flirt and become housewives in order to find security, character, and a life.  Wollstonecraft writes about multiple factors that oppress women such as women being seen as objects, women being denied the same education and experiences of men, and women expecting to only want to find a husband. In other words, women are meant to be taught to be dependent and independence is seen as ugly and a burden. In order to illustrate her point, Wollstonecraft alludes to many other works and even criticizes these works for oppressing women—feminist criticism. Some examples of these works include Hamlet, the works of Milton, Dr. John Gregory, and Rousseau. These works show what Wollstonecraft is trying to explain and refute, such as Dr. Gregory who discusses how women should be educated and Rousseau who writes about what is expected of women and how they should behave. Wollstonecraft criticizes the views of women in these works in order to express to women that they must become independent and illustrate to society that women must be given more privileges. She criticizes the views of women’s dependency illustrated through nature, history, philosophy, and other writers.

                In reaction to A Vindication Of The Right’s Of Woman, I agree with what Wollstonecraft is saying. In her time period, even sometimes in the current time period, women feel as if they need to be dependent on their looks, flattery, and flirtatious behavior in order to achieve their goals in life. In Wollstonecraft’s time that one goal in a women’s life was to find a husband to depend on. All these things were taught to females, beginning at young age. To see how much women have progressed since then but how the views have not is astonishing. I believe in today’s society women are growing more independent but the views of women being dependent have not changed. From my knowledge and experiences in today’s society I believe it is still believed that women are meant to be dependent. Though the view is not as extreme as it was in Wollstonecraft’s time, it is still evident.

                Also, it was interesting to see one of the first pieces of feminist criticism and with my base knowledge of feminist criticism today, it has changed and grown into something much more.

Sincerely,

A Girl and Her Heels