Madness or Femininity – A Woman's Options: A Feminist Analysis of Mental Illness in Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar

Level: Bachelor’s

Madness or Femininity – A Woman's Options

A Feminist Analysis of Mental Illness in Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar

Author: Michaela Cedergren

Supervisor: Dr. Carmen Zamorano Llena Examiner: Dr. Billy Gray

Subject/main field of study: English (literature) Course code: EN2028

Credits: 15 ECTS

Date of examination: 2021-01-14

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Introduction 1

Feminism and Madness 6

Women as the Second Sex: Spiralling Down into Madness 12

Opportunities and Expectations: Limitations of Creativity as a Cause of Mental Illness 15

Women's Mental Health and Treatments in The Bell Jar 20

Conclusion 23

Works Cited 25

Introduction

“I am terrified by this dark thing That sleeps in me;

All day I feel its soft, feathery turnings, its malignity”

(Sylvia Plath, The Collected Poems, 192).

The epigraph to this introduction is from Sylvia Plath's poem “Elm”, written in 1962, which deals with a depression that reflects Plath's own pain and anguish, the same theme that permeates her novel The Bell Jar through the protagonist, Esther Greenwood's mental suffering. The Bell Jar, first published in 1963, which is Plath's first and only published novel, is semi-autobiographical and turned Plath's experiences of breakdown and mental illness and her recovery into fiction. During her teens, Plath had stories and poetry published in national magazines and she won several awards. Her depression led to suicide in 1963, a few weeks after the novel was published. (Britannica). In The Bell Jar, nineteen-year-old Esther is a college student who dreams of becoming a poet and struggles with societal expectations of marriage for women in the 1950s American society. Esther does not want to conform to gender roles that restrict women's freedom since she has more expectations than only becoming a wife and mother. Her first boyfriend Buddy Willard is a Yale medical student who does not support her interest in poetry and believes in the gender roles imposed by society. This makes it difficult for Esther to be with Buddy as he does not understand her desires and dreams.

Esther's mother as well as Buddy's mother have both adapted to the female gender

role in society; they value the domestic life for the female gender instead of career

plans. Esther's many dreams and society's limitations cause her suffering and mental illness.

Regarding society's limitations, stereotypical gender roles and oppression of women are obvious themes in The Bell Jar and women's subordinate gender role in the novel is evident in Mrs Willard's reflections: “What a man is is an arrow into the future and what a woman is is the place the arrow shoots off from” (Plath 75).

Esther does not want to be “the place an arrow shoots off from” but to “shoot off in all directions” herself (75); hence she does not want to live a restricted life due to her gender and refuses to settle for a life as a wife and mother and nothing more.

When it comes to gender roles that restrict women and oblige them to prioritize marriage, in her article “Metaphors of Madness” Stephanie de Villiers argues

“This view of gender roles, shared by the majority of American society in the mid- twentieth century, is an assertion of males as active and progressive, and of women as passive nurturers and caregivers” (4).

The oppression that women are exposed to due to their gender and society's

expectations on them to behave in a feminine way can be connected to madness, as

de Villiers declares ”The concept of madness has generally been linked to women

and defined by men... Behaviour that deviates from the masculine norm is usually

regarded as ‘mad’ behaviour” (2). Since Esther does not conform to the restricted

gender roles that the patriarchal society in The Bell Jar imposes on women, her

behaviour can be regarded as 'mad' and thus it can be considered as “otherness”, a

concept that Michel Foucault uses in his work Madness and Civilization, to

describe people who are alienated from society and its standards. Hence, in The

Bell Jar the label of “otherness” is used to control and oppress women, since they

are considered mad if they do not conform to the values of patriarchy. The struggle

of being a woman and the consequences of not adapting to social norms are dealt

with in the book Sylvia Plath's Fiction: A Critical Study, where Luke Ferretter claims that “To be a woman, in Plath’s culture, was to be on the verge of mental illness, to be mentally healthy was to be ‘feminine’, to act as a woman should”

(130-131). He suggests a connection between femininity and mental illness. Thus, the struggle Esther faces is to navigate in a society which either causes her mental illness as she tries to adapt or labels her as mad if she does not.

Esther struggles with expectations of femininity and the assertion throughout this essay is that this leads to a mental breakdown since it restricts her desire to write poetry. In earlier studies of The Bell Jar, a feminist or a psychoanalytic approach are the most frequent approaches used to analyze the novel. Since patriarchy's impact is of importance for Esther's state of mind, it can be concluded that it is advantageous to analyze the novel with a feminist approach; hence this essay will be a feminist analysis of mental illness in The Bell Jar with a focus on the two options for women in the public sphere, to be feminine or mad, and the limitations of Esther's creativity caused by society's view of femininity.

The view of women as the subordinate sex is evident in the patriarchal

society in The Bell Jar and the restrictions on women is a cause of Esther's mental

health problems. Patriarchy's oppression of women is emphasized by Simone de

Beauvoir in her theoretical work The Second Sex. Further, Betty Friedan highlights

women's limited role in the American patriarchal society in the 1950s in her

feminist work The Feminine Mystique. According to Friedan there was a pressure

on women to be feminine according to the standards set by patriarchy. Another

feminist literary work which emphasizes the values of patriarchal societies is

Sexual/Textual Politics by Toril Moi, who writes that patriarchy marks women as

the weaker sex. Furthermore, in her book Sexual Politics, Kate Millet argues that

society shapes differences between the two sexes by expecting them to behave

according to society's norms and expectations, which are restricted for women.

Since Esther is oppressed by patriarchal values in The Bell Jar, these feminist works can be connected to her struggle with subordination and restrictions of women.

Earlier studies of The Bell Jar have analyzed themes that deal with aspects such as the connection between society's expectations of women and suicide, the formation of female identity in a patriarchal society and how Esther is affected by the patriarchal society and how this can be related to madness. In The Bell Jar Esther struggles with gender restrictions which is a cause of her mental illness which can be claimed to be caused by the pressure of society. This is emphasized by Jonna Vikman in her essay on femininity in The Bell Jar where she claims that in the novel women are portrayed as objects and she means that they are victims of

“the patriarchal societies of the 20

century where gender and norms posited women as inferior”. Thus, she claims that Esther's “state of mind is the product of the pressure set by the surroundings”. (6). Further, in her essay which deals with suicide in The Bell Jar Sandra Meneses argues that society's expectations of women can lead to mental illness: “The representations of women who commit suicide do so often according to the gendered expectations of them in society” (2).

When Esther contemplates marriage to her boyfriend Buddy, she ends up in a state of anxiety, which is confirmed in Frida Möller's essay “Inventing Madness” in the assertion “Esther knows that marrying Buddy will be the end of her independence and that scares her and she feels like she is 'being stuffed further and further into a black airless sack with no way out'” (6). Möller also claims that since Esther refuses to conform to society's view of femininity she is “labelled insane” (29).

Regarding the patriarchal society in The Bell Jar, in her article which examines

oppression through Sylvia Plath's life and stories, Sandra L. Meyer argues ”Sylvia

Plath creates the character of Esther Greenwood as a way to deal with the emotions she wrestled with” and ”Sylvia Plath also knew first hand the suffering of being a woman in a patriarchal society” (1). She also claims that Plath's personal journals and The Bell Jar are similar in that they are concerned with agonised feelings of being born as a woman which entails limited opportunities.

Women's limited opportunities and expectations on women in The Bell Jar are dealt with in the article by de Villiers, where she declares that Esther is “expected to choose between normative ideals of the feminine and her creativity and it is her awareness that these choices are mutually exclusive that drives her to madness”

(9). Esther is limited by the patriarchal society and is expected to be feminine while she wants to be creative and write and this cannot be combined since creativity is not intended for women. These limitations and expectations are the cause of her mental illness. Thus, earlier studies of feminism and madness in The Bell Jar come to the conclusion that patriarchal society's view of femininity is the

cause of Esther's mental illness; it is claimed that Esther's rejection of femininity is

the reason for her madness and this is related to the assertion in this essay. Unlike

earlier studies this essay will claim that her rejection of femininity is not the main

reason for her madness. She wants to do more with life than just being feminine

enough according to the values of patriarchal society and therefore she needs to

reject femininity; hence more important is that she wants to write and to have

freedom to do what she wants with her life and the only way to do that is to be

what society considers as mad. Esther chooses the option of madness as a way of

fulfilling her artistic aspirations. In earlier analyses her madness is viewed as an

uncontrollable consequence of her rejection of femininity, while this essay

contends it is a conscious choice and a path to artistic freedom.

This essay argues that women in the patriarchal society in The Bell Jar are restricted to the option of femininity or the option of madness; hence Esther is interested in writing poetry and since the option of femininity restricts women from being creative, the option of madness is her inevitable choice. A feminist approach will be used to explore how mental illness can be considered to have a connection to society's expectations of women and femininity in the novel.

Feminism and Madness

Regarding patriarchal structures in society, in her feminist work first published in 1985, Moi offers a perspective put forward by Monique Plaza who declares that

The notion of 'Woman' is imbricated in the materiality of existence:

women are enclosed in the family circle and work for free. The patriarchal order is not only ideological, it is not in the simple domain of 'value'; it constitutes a specific, material oppression. To reveal its existence and lay bare its mechanisms, it is necessary to bring down the idea of 'woman', that is, to denounce the fact that the category of sex has invaded gigantic territories of oppressive ends. (147).

Patriarchal societies disadvantage the female sex and it is difficult to break free

from these powerful structures. Further, in her feminist work, published in the

1940s in France, de Beauvoir highlights that women throughout history in

patriarchal societies have been treated as subordinate to men; they have been

viewed as the Other. Her famous statement “One is not born, but rather becomes, a

woman” (293), implies that it is not biology that determines what makes a woman

a woman. It is through her socialization that she learns what is expected of a woman. Regarding patriarchal values, in her feminist work Sexual Politics, published in 1970, Millett declares how patriarchy deprives women of opportunities of knowledge, which subsequently results in women's lack of power and influence in society: “If knowledge is power, power is also knowledge, and a large factor in their subordinate position is the fairly systematic ignorance patriarchy imposes upon women” (42).

When it comes to oppression and women's limited role in a society influenced by patriarchy, this is dealt with in second-wave feminism, the women's movement of the 1960s and '70s in the United States. In her feminist work The Feminine Mystique, published like The Bell Jar in 1963, Betty Friedan points out

that “The Feminine mystique says that the highest value and the only commitment for women is the fulfilment of their own femininity” (28). This means that feminine women should not be interested in having a job, getting an education and they should avoid politics. In the patriarchal society, women are marked as the weaker gender while men are assigned with attributes that indicate strength, which is emphasized by Moi when she writes that “It is, after all, patriarchy, not feminism, that insists on labelling women as emotional, intuitive and imaginative, while jealously converting reason and rationality into an exclusively male preserve” (123). Further, regarding patriarchal values Millett argues that males are encouraged to develop aggressive behaviour and this is celebrated with laudations as ”that guy has balls” and the same process is evident when it comes to females and passivity, which is to be considered as feminine (31).

Subordination and madness in society are dealt with in Civilization and

Madness, published in 1961 and written by the French philosopher and writer

Michel Foucault, who argues that there is no such thing as madness but something

that can be found in every man “since it is man who constitutes madness in the attachment he bears for himself and by the illusions he entertains” (32). The concept of “otherness” is described as people who do not conform to the norms of society; a condition of alienation from society. Foucault gives an example of how

“otherness” has changed throughout history, from the exclusion due to leprosy and later it was instead “deranged minds” who did not conform to society's standards:

“Leprosy disappeared, the leper vanished, or almost, from memory; these structures remained. Often, in these same places, the formulas of exclusion would be repeated, strangely similar two or three centuries later. Poor vagabonds, criminals and 'deranged minds' would take the part played by the leper” (16). The exclusion of “otherness” can be connected to the patriarchal society in The Bell Jar and the subordination of women, and the connection between femininity and

mental illness. Esther refuses to conform to patriarchal values of femininity and patriarchy's exclusion consists of labelling her as mad.

Regarding patriarchal structures of gender, they can be found in the American society of the 1950s and 1960s which was a period of limited opportunities for women who were not satisfied with their lives. Friedan's feminist work deals with the patriarchal American society of the 1950s and it depicts how many of the women during that decade were unhappy with their lives as housewives. Friedan argues that if a woman felt displeased she asked herself

“What kind of a woman was she if she did not feel this mysterious fulfilment

waxing the kitchen floor?” (8). Women were dispatched to domesticity and this

demarcation is questioned by Friedan as she asks “But forbidden to join men in the

world, can women be people?” (34). Further, Friedan describes that in the 1950s,

articles were only printed if they focused on women as housewives or “permitted a

purely feminine identification” (35). A Ladies' Home Journal editor explains that

“'If we get an article about a woman who does anything adventurous, out of the way, something by herself, you know, we figure she must be terribly aggressive, neurotic” (Friedan 36). This can be connected to Foucault and his theory of madness which he means is found in every man “by the illusions he entertains”

(32), since patriarchy's entertained illusion of an adventurous woman is that she must be mad. Women's role in society was narrow and they did not have the same possibilities for development as men, a point which Friedan emphasizes when she writes that

In our culture, the development of women has been blocked at the psychological level with, in many cases, no need recognized higher than the need for love or sexual satisfaction. Even the need for self-respect, for self-esteem, and for the esteem of others – 'the desire for strength, for achievement, for adequacy, for mastery and competence, for confidence in the face of the world, and for independence and freedom' – is not clearly recognized for women. (254).

This strengthens the state of women's narrow reality where the psychological

needs of women were not recognized in the same way as for men. In The Bell Jar

Esther has more desires than simply getting married, she wants independence and

freedom since she dreams of becoming a poet. Women with the ambition to

achieve more than to be a wife and mother were discouraged in patriarchal

societies from pursuing their dreams. This is emphasized by Vikman in her essay

of femininity in The Bell Jar where she writes regarding Esther's desires that “Her

ideals on who she wants to be are not recognized and affirmed by her society,

which pushes her in the direction of a predetermined gender role (27).

Regarding women's psychological needs and the impact of society's limitations on their state of mind, Friedan gives an example of a doctor who decided to investigate the tiredness of women in the 1950s, which made many women visit doctors. He found that his patients were suffering from 'housewife's fatigue' and slept more than necessary for an adult. His conclusion was that the problem could be boredom and for this some doctors prescribed tranquillizers for their patients. ”You wake up in the morning, and you feel as if there's no point in going on another day like this. So you take a tranquillizer because it makes you not care so much that it's pointless.” (19). These are the words of a suburban housewife who clearly needed something more in her life than just the domestic work. Thus, the gender role that society imposed on women affected women in the 1950s and made them tired and bored. When it comes to patriarchal values, Millett deals with examples of the systematized subjugation and exploitation of women throughout history; Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, who had a patriarchal view of society argued that “the woman may be said to be constitutionally unfitted for civilized life and therefore finds it hard to progress”

(Millett 202). This view highlights the subjugation of women and can be connected to Friedan's analysis of bored and tired women, since this example emphasizes the pointlessness in being a woman in a patriarchal society with desires to achieve more than only being limited to domestic work.

The aspect of 'housewife's fatigue' clarifies the impact of the patriarchal

society on women's mental health. Regarding the view on women's sanity,

Ferretter describes that “In order to be considered mentally healthy in the 1950s, a

woman needed wholeheartedly to embrace – or at least to tell her doctors that she

did – the ‘feminine’ role of housewife and mother” (131). A woman needed to be

feminine since it was connected to her mental health and a rejection of society's

values equaled insanity, which can be linked to Foucault's concept of “otherness”

and “deranged minds” who were excluded from society since they did not conform to its standards. The view of “deranged minds” as otherized can be found in The Bell Jar when Buddy visits Esther at the asylum where she has been treated for

mental illness and he says to her: “I wonder who you'll marry now, Esther. Now you've been... here” (254). He cannot understand what she will do with her life after this and he is convinced that no man is interested in marrying a woman who has been in a mental institution, since this indicates that she is mad and women could obviously not be feminine and mad at the same time in the 1950s American patriarchal society. Hence femininity represents the norms of the patriarchal society and madness represents Foucault's consideration of “otherness”, which results in exclusion.

For Esther, the bell jar is a metaphor for madness, which is clarified when she reflects “To the person in the bell jar, blank and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is the bad dream” (Plath 250). When the mental illness captures her mind she feels as if she is inside a jar and her worldview is distorted. Esther is told by Doctor Nolan at the asylum that her time at the institution will brand her in society: “Doctor Nolan had said, quite bluntly, that a lot of people would treat me gingerly, or even avoid me, like a leper with a warning bell” (250). Thus, Esther considers her suffering from mental illness as being trapped in a bell jar due to patriarchy's restrictions and oppression, and even if she manages to recover, she is in a way stuck in the bell jar as a result of patriarchy's condemnation.

It can be concluded that patriarchal structures in the society of The Bell Jar

that force women into a gender role entailing demands of femininity, affect Esther

since she wants to achieve more in life. She becomes mentally ill, which means

that she is stigmatized by society and can no longer be considered feminine. The

patriarchal society has established the pressure on women regarding femininity and decided that if women do not conform they are mad and this is consistent with Foucault's theory where he argues that “it is man who constitutes madness” (32), which can be connected to Esther who does not conform to the patriarchal society's constitution of norms and thus she is stigmatized.

Women as the Second Sex: Spiralling Down into Madness

Women's subordination to men is something that characterizes the patriarchal society in The Bell Jar; consequently women can be referred to as “the second sex”. Patriarchal societies throughout history are described in the feminist work by de Beauvoir who declares that “Those who made and compiled the laws, being men, favoured their own sex” (11) and this is confirmed by this fact: “In no country is her legal status identical to man's, and often it puts her at a considerable disadvantage” (9).

When it comes to disadvantages of being a woman in a patriarchal society, Esther observes women's lack of independence and how they conform to society's gender restrictions regarding marriage when she stays at a hotel with other girls who, just like herself, have won a fashion magazine contest where the prize is the chance of doing an internship at a magazine in New York. She analyzes the other girls and their wealthy parents and concludes that they will go to “posh secretarial schools” and they were “simply hanging around in New York waiting to get married to some career man or other” (Plath 4). Further, regarding marriage, de Beauvoir writes that ”The destiny that society traditionally offers women is marriage” (451) and the girl ”is married” and ”Boys marry, they take a wife”

(454). This statement declares that regarding marriage in patriarchal societies

women's voices are passive; they are expected to adapt to the conditions set by men. This can be connected to Meneses, who confirms women's subordinate gender role in her essay: “The dominant ideology of the time in which Plath lived told a woman that in order to feel complete she needed a man” (14). Thus, women in the 1950s American patriarchal society in The Bell Jar are expected to prioritize marriage and the girls that Esther observes are waiting for their predicted destiny of becoming a mother and housewife, which is a critical picture of society in The Bell Jar.

Regarding marriage in patriarchies, in her feminist work Millett argues that

“Serious education for women is perceived, consciously or unconsciously, as a threat to patriarchal marriage, domestic sentiment, and ultimately to male supremacy – economic, social, and psychological” (128). This statement depicts women's subordinate gender role in the patriarchal society and explains Esther's perception of marriage, which is not appealing due to the limitations marriage entails. Her reflections on what it would mean to get married are described when she goes on a date with a man and they fall asleep together and then Esther tries to imagine their life as married:

It would mean getting up at seven and cooking him eggs and bacon and

toast and coffee and dawdling about in my nightgown and curlers after he'd

left for work to wash up the dirty plates and make the bed, and then when

he came home after a lively, fascinating day he'd expect a big dinner, and

I'd spend the evening washing up even more dirty plates till I fell into bed,

utterly exhausted. (89)

A married life would apparently mean a life of domestic work and standing in the shade of the man. This is strengthened by Millett in her statement of marriage in patriarchies: “Marriage involves an exchange of the female's domestic service and (sexual) consortium in return for financial support” (35).

Mrs Willard is a good example of Esther's apprehension of marriage: “Cook and clean and wash was just what Buddy Willard's mother did from morning till night, and she was the wife of a university professor and had been a private school teacher herself” (Plath 89). Mrs Willard has given up her career for marriage and this is the kind of life that Esther refuses to accept for herself. Mrs Willard's choice to give up her career can be connected to de Beauvoir, who establishes that a woman's “femininity leads her to doubt her professional opportunities” (754), which leaves the woman with only one choice and that is marriage.

Further, Buddy contributes to Esther's pessimism regarding marriage by declaring that after she has children her dreams to write poems will fade: “I began to think maybe it was true that when you were married and had children it was like being brainwashed, and afterwards you went about numb as a slave in some private, totalitarian state” (90). Esther wants freedom and independence in her life and therefore she doubts marriage and she clarifies to Buddy “I'm never going to get married” (98). “You're crazy” and “You'll change your mind” (98) is what he proclaims when he hears this. He does not respect her desire as it contradicts society's standards and this can be connected to de Beauvoir who means that a man

“has far more concrete opportunities to project his freedom in the world; the

inevitable result is that masculine realisations outweigh by far those of women: for

women, it is practically forbidden to do anything” (679). Esther's refusal of

marriage can in a way be considered to be forbidden since it is not in line with the

woman's role in society; women are not supposed to reject marriage, since society

expects marriage to be their main focus. They are supposed to renounce their independence and reject thoughts of a career. Buddy's view of Esther as crazy since she does not want to get married can be connected to Foucault's concept of

“otherness”, since he considers her to be what Foucault calls a “deranged mind”

(16) when she does not conform to patriarchy's restrictions regarding marriage.

Finally, in The Bell Jar, women are viewed as “the second sex” and they are in the eyes of the American patriarchal society of the 1950s obliged to marry.

Esther does not want to conform to society's gender restrictions and since she does not want to get married, Buddy considers her “crazy”. Esther's will is not compatible with the patriarchal values in the society of The Bell Jar, which reduces women to be viewed as “the second sex”. Consequently, restrictions and oppression regarding femininity suffocate Esther's creative plans of writing poetry and this is a major cause of her mental illness.

Opportunities and Expectations: Limitations of Creativity as a Cause of Mental Illness

In her feminist analysis of the social milieu of the 1950s America in which Plath's

novel is also set, Betty Friedan describes how women were taught to be feminine

and act according to the expectations of society: “They were taught to pity the

neurotic, unfeminine, unhappy women who wanted to be poets or physicists or

presidents. They learned that truly feminine women do not want careers, higher

education, political rights.” (5). These expectations are maintained in The Bell Jar

by Esther's mother as she tells Esther that she needs to learn shorthand because

someone who knows shorthand “would be in demand among all the up-and-

coming young men and she would transcribe letter after thrilling letter”. Esther

rebels internally, though not explicitly, against the impositions of the patriarchal order, since she reflects: “I hated the idea of serving men in any way. I wanted to dictate my own thrilling letters.” (Plath 80). Thus, Esther's potential is higher than settling for shorthand; to be content with shorthand would be to accept society's strict injunctions.

Another of society's expectations of women is that when it comes to sexuality women should wait until marriage. These expectations can be linked to patriarchal societies' views on female sexuality, which is described by Millett:

“The large quantity of guilt attached to sexuality in patriarchy is overwhelmingly placed upon the female” (54). Women's sexuality is controlled by guilt and hence in The Bell Jar a Yale student tells Esther that “if he loved anybody he would never go to bed with her. He’d go to a whore if he had to and keep the woman he loved free of all that dirty business” (Plath 84). He thinks that a woman's sexuality is restricted and she needs to stay pure, and the view of purity in a patriarchy is emphasized by Millett: “Woman is still denied sexual freedom and the biological control over her body through the cult of virginity” (54). According to Buddy Willard, a woman must be a virgin when she is going to get married, but when it comes to men it is different and he has already lost his virginity. In the end of the novel Esther has her first sexual experience, with a professor named Irwin, and she describes that she is tired of the double standards of society as well as Buddy:

“Ever since I'd learned about the corruption of Buddy Willard my virginity

weighed like a millstone around my neck... I had been defending it for five years

and I was sick of it.” (240). In the end Esther defies society's expectations when it

comes to female sexuality and chooses to stop defending her virginity; thus she

gets rid of “the millstone”.

Furthermore, an important expectation on women in the patriarchal society is childbirth. When it comes to healthcare in The Bell Jar it is controlled by patriarchy, as Ferreter declares “Plath expresses this feminist critique of the medical institutions with which her characters interact. She is most critical of obstetrics and gynaecology as a patriarchal institution, in which men alienate women from themselves by assuming control, under the beneficent guise of care, of women’s bodies.” (125). A clear example of this is that Buddy goes to medical school and since Esther is curious about the ”hospital sights” she follows Buddy to observe a baby being born. Esther describes the noises of the woman giving birth as ”unhuman” (Plath 69). Buddy tells her that ”the woman was on a drug that would make her forget she'd had any pain and that when she swore and groaned she really didn't know what she was doing because she was in a kind of twilight sleep” (69). This is outrageous for Esther and she thinks that it sounds like ”The sort of drug a man would invent. Here was a woman in terrible pain, obviously feeling every bit of it or she wouldn't groan like that, and she would go straight home and start another baby, because the drug would make her forget how bad the pain had been...” (69). Childbirth and the aspect of “twilight sleep” emphasize men's great influence over women's healthcare. Since femininity is based on marriage and women giving up their careers for their family, childbirth is an important aspect to consider. If women want to be considered feminine and have children they are in the hands of patriarchy during the childbirth.

Expectations to follow the societal norms of femininity can have serious

psychological consequences that can result in decisions with a negative influence

on women's well-being, as Friedan explicates: ”In a New York hospital, a woman

had a nervous breakdown when she found she could not breastfeed her baby. In

other hospitals, women dying of cancer refused a drug which research had proved

might save their lives: its side effects were said to be unfeminine.” (6). In this example women are terrified of being considered unfeminine. Esther is not afraid of disputing society and she tells her psychiatrist Doctor Nolan that she wants the same freedom as men but she feels the threat of pregnancy: “A man doesn't have a worry in the world, while I've got a baby hanging over my head like a big stick, to keep me in line” (Plath 233). While many women follow the norms and do not dispute the role society imposes on women, Esther on the other hand questions and opposes the inequalities and she refuses to conform to society's principles regarding femininity. Consequently, in the end she is instead regarded as unfeminine due to “madness”; she is branded by society due to her institutionalization and this labels her as mad and unfeminine and the root of this is Esther's desire to strive for independence.

Esther knows that there are many opportunities and choices in life and since she wants a life of freedom and independence, this causes a suffocating feeling of indecision. If she makes a choice, she believes this will result in that she must give up on many other choices. She imagines all these choices as a fig-tree with many different branches:

One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig

was a famous poet... and beyond and above these figs were many more figs

I could not quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig-

tree, starving to death, just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of

the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing

one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs

began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground

at my feet. (81).

The fig-tree is symbolic of her opportunities which are part of the cause of her mental illness. The fig-tree has many branches but Esther still needs to choose between femininity or madness since this is what the branches represent. The branch with poetry represents madness according to the patriarchy and the branch with a family represents femininity. This causes frustration for Esther and she feels limited by society's norms. Regarding the patriarchy's standards of femininity, in her work of second-wave feminism, Moi provides a statement: “A woman who refuses to conform can be labelled both unfeminine and unnatural” (65). This can be connected to Esther's frustration when it comes to society's limitations, since the punishment for a woman who wants to write poetry is to be labelled and not accepted by the patriarchal society.

In conclusion, Esther rejects society's expectations of femininity since she fears the “mystique” which is described by Friedan: “The mystique would have women renounce ambition for themselves. Marriage and motherhood is the end;

after that, women are supposed to be ambitious only for their husbands and their children” (289). Esther's ambitions are too high and to be feminine according to society is like a curse for women because they have to give up their own desires.

Friedan depicts it as “In the name of femininity, they have evaded the choices that would have given them a personal purpose, a sense of their own being” (253).

Even though Esther has a hard time to choose a fig from the fig-tree, she cannot

follow the path of femininity because she cannot stand its limitations; however the

fig with “a husband and a happy home and children” is not considered by society

as madness. Nevertheless, if she chooses this fig she is prevented from choosing

the fig which “was a famous poet”. Thus, her options are femininity or madness

and the option of madness does not limit her creativity. The patriarchal society of

The Bell Jar regards creativity for women as madness while limitations on creativity are a cause of Esther's mental illness.

Women's Mental Health and Treatments in The Bell Jar

Esther gets to meet the psychiatrist Doctor Gordon when her state of mind gets worse. There are several factors that contribute to the deterioration of her mental health, such as the rejection of her application for a writing course and her mother's persuasion of the importance of learning shorthand. This causes anxiety for her but Doctor Gordon does not take her anxiety seriously and during their first session he says “Your mother tells me you are upset” (Plath 135) and then

“Suppose you try to tell me what you think is wrong” (137). He makes it sound as nothing is wrong for real, it is only in Esther's thoughts. Regarding Doctor Gordon, de Villiers claims that his treatment of Esther is ”an indication of the general beliefs of patriarchal society – that what is really wrong with her is that she does not conform to societal expectations of young, 'pretty', college girls” (6-7). Thus, Doctor Gordon's disrespectful behaviour towards Esther results in that the meeting does not help to make her feel better.

Since there are no signs of recovery during the next session, Doctor Gordon

decides that she will be treated with electroshock therapy and her reaction after the

first treatment is “I wondered what a terrible thing it was that I had done” (Plath

152). This indicates that she perceives the treatment as a punishment which can be

connected to Ferreter and his example of Elaine Showalter who “writes of British

women’s narratives of hospitalisation in the mid-twentieth century, ‘They

transform the experiences of shock, psychosurgery and chemotherapy into

symbolic episodes of punishment for intellectual ambition, domestic defiance and sexual autonomy’” (136). This information leads to the conclusion that women in the mid-twentieth century who suffered from mental illness also suffered from the oppression of patriarchal society; they felt punished for not being feminine enough. After the electroshock therapy, Esther's state of mind gets worse and she makes several tentative attempts at suicide and then one serious attempt which leads to her being institutionalized.

During Esther's institutionalization her female psychiatrist Doctor Nolan is

like a mother figure for Esther who is fond of her: “I liked Doctor Nolan, I loved

her, I have given her my trust on a platter and told her everything, and she has

promised, faithfully, to warn me ahead of time if ever I had to have another shock

treatment” (Plath 223). Doctor Nolan also hugs her “like a mother” (223) and she

confirms Esther's rejection of the woman's role in society; that a woman needs to

stay pure until marriage. When Esther tells her about an article “about the married

woman lawyer and her Defence of Chastity” that her mother has given to her,

Doctor Nolan's reaction is to dispatch it as “Propaganda!” (234). When it comes to

Doctor Nolan's supportive nature, Möller claims in her essay: “She understands

her anxiety to be trapped in a world dominated by men” (27). Doctor Nolan's

supportive personality is a contrast to Doctor Gordon's disrespectful treatment of

Esther, who feels that Doctor Nolan cares for her and even understands her. When

she needs to have another treatment with electroshock therapy, Doctor Nolan's

support is important for her and she describes afterwards that ”I felt surprisingly at

peace. The bell jar hung, suspended, a few feet above my head”. (227). The

perception of the treatment as punishment is gone since this time it affects her in a

way that eases the bell jar; the mental illness. Further, Doctor Nolan helps Esther

to get contraceptives so that she can be free and independent and Esther declares:

“I was my own woman” (235). Thus, Doctor Nolan is an important part of Esther's recovery from mental illness and she supports Esther in her thoughts regarding society's imposed gender restrictions.

Finally, both of the options for women, to be feminine or mad, lead them to

fall under the controlled structures of patriarchy. It can be concluded that women's

healthcare is controlled by the patriarchy and Doctor Gordon is an example of this

as he represents the values of the patriarchal society and he does not show any

respect for Esther since he does not take her anxiety seriously. Another example of

patriarchy's control over healthcare is electroshock therapy since Esther, and many

other women, perceive it as a punishment. Furthermore, it can also be concluded

that the demands of what is to be considered as femininity are controlled by the

patriarchy. Doctor Gordon's view of Esther's psychological problems is that what

is really wrong with her is that she does not conform to the gender restrictions

imposed by society. Esther perceives her treatment as punishment at first but with

Doctor Nolan's support and understanding she manages to recover from the mental

illness, or at least she manages to feel better. When she leaves the institution she

will not be free from the oppression of the patriarchal society; she must learn to

live in a society permeated by patriarchal values and at the same time defy its

gender restrictions since this is her only chance to get the freedom she needs to

write poetry. She chooses a path which is regarded by society as madness, since

the only other option is femininity and this option presupposes her to stay away

from poetry. If she instead chose the path of femininity she would avoid to be

labelled as mad, but the price would be that she would feel restricted which is a

cause of her mental illness and this would result in her feeling that she actually is

mad. The contraceptives are a sign of her rejection of femininity and of her choice

to be free and independent. In the end of the novel she wonders “How did I know

that someday – at college, in Europe, somewhere, anywhere – the bell jar, with its stifling distortions, wouldn't descend again?” (254). These ambitions and thoughts of what awaits her in the future, to study and travel, expose that she has made a choice to live her life in a way that is considered as madness. Finally, she is free from the bell jar at last but she is uncertain of whether it will remain this way;

hence the restrictions and oppression of patriarchy lurk all around her as dark shadows.

Conclusion

The aim of this thesis has been to examine the patriarchal society in Sylvia Plath's novel The Bell Jar, first published in 1963. The thesis focuses on women's options in the 1950s American society which are limited to two; the path of femininity as articulated in a patriarchal society; or madness, which is a labelling of women who do not conform to the standards in patriarchal societies. This analysis is undertaken from a feminist perspective and it examines the protagonist Esther Greenwood's mental illness and her view of the patriarchal society in The Bell Jar.

This thesis has found that the imposed view of femininity causes mental

illness for Esther, which is in line with earlier studies. This analysis is focused on

how she is restricted to the option of femininity or the option of madness and

unlike earlier studies this thesis has come to the conclusion that the main reason

for her mental illness is that she wants freedom to write poetry and the restrictions

of femininity prevent herself from fulfilling her vocation to write. Esther's

character is asserted to reject society's imposed gender roles that advocate that

what is important for women is to get married and not to have a career. She wants

to become a poet and this makes it difficult for her to conform to society's

standards. Further, Esther experiences the patriarchy's restrictions of women in her relationships as well as in society; she is surrounded by patriarchal values. In the end of the novel she succeeds to get out of the bell jar, but she still must fight for her freedom to write poetry in a society permeated by patriarchal values.

This thesis has come to the conclusion that Esther's rejection of femininity and her interest in writing poetry position her as mad in the patriarchal society of The Bell Jar. Restrictions regarding her vocation to write is the main cause of her

mental illness and due to her insanity and institutionalization she will be

stigmatized by society, which confirms the view of her as mad. The Bell Jar

emphasizes the impact of the patriarchal society in Esther's life and declares the

pressure she feels from society's standards of femininity, which restricts her desire

to write poetry and thus causes her mental illness. She must be feminine in order

not to be considered mad; hence women are stuck with madness or femininity as

their only options. Since the option of femininity restricts her freedom when it

comes to her vocation to write, madness is her inevitable choice.

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