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Date Posted: 19:03:14 06/17/07 Sun
Author: Leonardo
Subject: Task Four

PRODUÇÃO DE TEXTO
ESSAY 4
LEONARDO HENRIQUE DE MORAIS



The Bell Jar: An autobiography?

The American poet Sylvia Plath, has written only one novel, but The Bell Jar, published in early 1963, few time before she committed suicide, has become one of the most important novels of the 20th century. Is that just a novel? No, it isn’t. There are some evidences that allow thinking The Bell Jar is an autobiographical novel, such as the following facts: The personality of Esther, The Bell Jar’s protagonist is quite close to Plath’s one, i.e., some things reported in the novel really happened in Plath’s life; Part of what was omitted in Plath’s Journals is present in the book; and, the book was firstly published by a pseudonym. According to Bennett, The Bell Jar offers an evocation of "the oppressive atmosphere of the 1950s and the soul-destroying effect this atmosphere could have on ambitious, high-minded young women like Plath."
First, the main character in The Bell Jar, Esther Greenwood, may be seen as Plath’s alter ego since both of them share some pretty similar features just like the strong presence of suicidal thoughts, the loss of a father, and, both women were affected by madness. Before achieving her aim, killing herself gassed, Plath had tried to commit suicide twice, and so did Esther Greenwood, who reports in the book her suicidal attempts and her fascination for death, like Plath, who alluded to her first suicidal attempt in the poem “Daddy.” She wrote: “At twenty I tried to die;” Continuing, both Plath and Esther lost their father as a child. This fact affected Plath’s and Esther’s mind since the former and the latter had a very strong relationship with their father; and, not only Plath, but also Esther had to take medicines, and was confined for having mental problems.
Secondly, as Robert Scholes pointed out, "The Bell Jar is a novel about the events of Sylvia Plath's twentieth year...” This is interesting since Plath doesn’t mention these events in her journals. Therefore, it is possible to conclude that the novel functions as an extension of the journals, presenting facts which were omited in them.
Finally, The Bell Jar was in the beginning a pseudonymous book, that is, it was published under the false name of Victoria Lucas. It is as though Plath was afraid of exposing her intimacy with her true name, and opted for publishing it by a pseudonym.
To sum up, The Bell Jar must be seen as an autobiography Plath and her narrator, Esther, share several resemblances like they were the same person. They have similar characteristics; besides, it is as if The Bell Jar was a journal to Esther in which Plath put her thoughts that were not present in the journals. "It's quite amazing how I've gone around for most of my life as in the rarefied atmosphere under a bell jar," states Plath.

Bibliography

PLATH, Sylvia. The Bell Jar. New York: Harper & Row, 1971

BONDS, Diane S. “The Separative Self in Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar.” Women's Studies. 1990, p. 49-64

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