Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

¶ … Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath [...] look more closely at Esther's relationship with her mother in the novel. Esther and her mother have a distorted relationship in "The Bell Jar." Mrs. Greenwood clearly loves her daughter, and works hard to put her through school. However, she is old-fashioned and quick to criticize her daughter, and she seems more concerned about what people will think about Esther's stay in the mental institution than her fragile mental state. Mrs. Greenwood causes some of Esther's problems, but cannot face her own faults and fears.

Esther's mother is more worried about appearances than she is about Esther's cries for help. She sends Esther a newspaper clipping about holding on to her virginity, and instills morals in Esther that are difficult to overthrow. Esther wants to be like many of the other college age girls she meets in New York, but she is too repressed because of her mother's morals. Esther is afraid to strike out on her own and become sexually free and morally aware. She understands there is a double standard between men and women, but does not know what to do to create a better, more fulfilling life for herself, both sexually and mentally. At one point, she says, "ever since I'd learned about the corruption of Buddy Willard, my virginity weighed like a millstone around my neck" (Plath 180). However, her mother's morals are also a millstone around her neck, and add to her feelings of inadequacy, depression, and darkness. She is caught between two worlds - the strict morality of her mother's world, and the freer, more accessible world that waits for her when she graduates from college. She simply does not fit precisely in either world, and this is partly because her mother has made it so difficult for her to explore and discover what is important and valuable about herself. Her mother represents old-fashioned idealism and morality in the novel, but more than that, she represents everything that holds young women back from exploring, discovering, and creating their own unique journeys in life. She represents the double standard of the 1960s and beyond, where women were not supposed to be sexual or sensual, while men were free to "play the field" as Buddy does with the waitress. Sexually free women were labeled sluts, while it was expected of men. She also represents the few choices women had in the workplace. Esther is bright and her internship proves she can do more than type and take shorthand, but even her mother shows little faith in her when she tells her she can always be a secretary if she cannot find work as a poet or writer. There were few choices open to women who wanted a career at the time, and Mrs. Greenwood represents that in her lack of faith and understanding of her daughter's needs. She cannot see her daughter as anything else but ordinary, and so, she unwittingly prepares her for nothing but a sad and ordinary life. Esther sees this, but does not think there is much hope she can break the mold. She thinks to herself, "So I began to think maybe it was true that when you were married and had children it was like being brainwashed, and afterward you went about as numb as a slave in a totalitarian state" (Plath 67). That sums up her mother's life to her, and she does not want the same life for herself.

Another interesting aspect of the novel is Esther's relationship with men, many of whom represent her missing father in one way or another. Her relationship with Constantin and most of the other men in the novel is platonic, and she trusts these men with certain aspects of her personality. She "sleeps" with Constantin, but does not have sex with him, like a father figure. Dr. Gordon is also a man she can look up to like a father, but like most of the men in the novel, he is totally disinterested in Esther herself. All of these men represent her missing father, because her relationship with them is not romantic, and she confides in some of them as she would a father. Even Buddy's father acts as a father figure, and says her would like her for a daughter. They all are men she could see more as a relative than as a romantic interest, and they illustrate how desperately she needs a father in her life to help balance the ways of her mother.