The novel's plot is relatively simple: a young, ambitious, and very talented woman wins a summer internship as a big-time New York magazine. A clinical diagnosis of Esther's mental illness can be made by deeply exploring the literary techniques of the novel. Throughout the novel more is shown than told that is, Plath refrains from divulging information about Esther directly instead, she constructs scenes which transmit the internal character conflicts through symbolism and metaphor. The opening line of the novel: “It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer the electrocuted the Rosenbergs” (Plath, 1) reveals the novel’s essential theme and conflict: that of the individual who stands “outside looking in” with regard to their society: it is a theme of psychological rather than physical exile, though Esther identifies, via the powerful verb “electrocuted,” with the physical suffering of the Rosenbergs who were tried and executed for espionage and treason.īecause the central conflict in “the Bell Jar” is internal, Plath constructs a dynamic and multi-faceted character whose preoccupations range from fashion, to dating, to the themes of great literature and to the essential meanings of life and death.

Instead, her literary interpretation of mental illness functions to expand the clinical understanding of mental disorders by providing cognitive insight into the experienced phenomena of mental illness.

By expressing a personal encounter with metal illness, Plath, through the character of Esther, presents a 'case study' in clinical depression and bipolar disorder without resorting to clinical diagnoses or psychological language or theories.

The bell jar sylvia