While the circumstances are not quite the same, there is a feeling of malaise in the news and events around us. Esther notes how the news of the Rosenbergs affects her, how their execution occupies her mind. It was an age of uncertainty, somewhat like our post-9/11, War-on-Terror age. The Bell Jar begins with this historical note: “It was queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs … ” It was the age of the Cold War, high suspicion, and the House of UnAmerican Activities. Interestingly, especially in light of the leaks about the NSA surveillance, we find ourselves in an environment too familiar to our protagonist.

Like Esther, I feel the world and its craziness sinking into my bones. In that light, I see much of myself, and friends, in Esther’s struggle to self-hood. As a literature student, and recent grad, I am more interested and captivated by Plath’s portrait of a young woman on the verge of adulthood, who is unsure of her place. Granted, the suicide attempt of Esther takes up a good deal of The Bell Jar, but I do not think that specific element is the defining feature of the novel. The analytic focus of Plath’s work often focuses on the suicidal elements. As a recently graduate with a degree in literature, I enjoy the classics, but I am nevertheless surprised with how Sylvia Plath’s literary stand-in Esther Greenwood survives the test of time. This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of The Bell Jar’s initial publication. Of course, this was completed through her poetry, and her singular novel, The Bell Jar, which due to its roman-a-clef elements was published under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. Perhaps Plath’s greatest legacy is demonstrating courage to discuss her own issues, opening the door for more open dialogue on issues of mental illness. One of the first female poets to engage in the Confessional style of poetry, she revealed to readers, female and male alike, her inner anxieties with frankness. While Plath has been romanticized, to minimize her influence to her final act is not fair. In Annie Hall, the character of Alvy Singer quips, “Sylvia Plath, interesting poetess whose tragic suicide was misinterpreted as romantic by the college girl mentality.”

The bell jar victoria lucas