The Bell Jar (Masterplots, Revised Second Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Sylvia Plath
- First Published: 1963
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Psychological realism
- Time of Work: 1953
- Setting: New York City and New England
- Principal Characters: Esther Greenwood, Doreen, Mrs. Greenwood, Buddy Willard, Doctor Nolan, Joan Gilling
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Autobiographical fiction
- Subjects: 1950’s, New York, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., Self-discovery, United States or Americans, Journalism or journalists, Parents and children, Sex or sexuality, Suicide, Gender roles, Authors or writers, New York City, Poetry or poets, Mental illness, College life, Reality, Women’s issues, Women, Mental institutions, hospitals or asylums, Psychiatry or psychiatrists
- Locales: New York, NY, Boston, MA, New England
The Story:
Esther Greenwood was in New York City the summer that Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were to be executed (1953). Ecstatic over having won a position as guest editor on the college board for a well-known magazine for young women, she was puzzled that she was not having the time of her life.
On the face of it, she had everything going for her. She was attractive, intelligent, and talented. She was a straight-A student. The magazine had arranged concerts, dances, celebrity interviews, fashion shows, and luncheons galore for the twelve college student women who had...
[The entire page is 2491 words long]

