The glass of which a bell jar is constructed is thick and suffocating, intending to preserve its ornamental contents but instead traps in it stale air. The thickness of the bell jar glass prevents the prisoner from clearly seeing through distortion. Sylvia Plath writes with extreme conviction, as The Bell Jar is essentially her autobiography. The fitting title symbolizes not only her suffocation and mental illness, but also the internal struggle of Plath’s alter ego and novel protagonist Esther Greenwood. The novel illustrates the theme confinement by highlighting the weaknesses of both Esther and Plath.
Esther’s first statement, “It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs” (1) sets the tone for the novel and establishes her preoccupation with death. She alludes to no remorse at the loss of life but rather concentrates on the wonder of execution. This style allows the reader to see the development of confinement; that is, Esther’s preoccupation with death entraps her within herself.
It is perhaps her over-analysis of situations that causes the manifestations of her psyche; she consistently volleys between multiple possibilities, searching for the most fruitful option. The novel’s theme is consistently shown as a mental battle of Esther versus herself, a direct result of her mental illness.
It is obvious that Esther is at a crossroads and feels torn by life. She best describes her feelings with the following passage: “I saw myself 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 a…
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… her a strong person.
Works Cited and Consulted:
Brennan, Sheila M. “Popular Images of American Women in the 1950’s.” Women’s Rights Law Reporter 14 (1992): 41-67.
Bronfen, Elizabeth. Sylvia Plath. Writers and Their Work. Plymouth, UK: Northcote, 1998.
Evans, Sara M. Role Models of Women in America. New York: Free-Simon, 1989.
Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. Twentieth Anniversary Edition. 1963. New York: Norton, 1983.
Nizer, Louis. The Implosion Conspiracy. New York: Doubelday, 1973.
Plath, Sylvia. The Bell Jar. 1963. London: Faber, 1966.
Radosh, Ronald, and Joyce Milton, eds. The Rosenberg File: A Search for the Truth. 1983. New Haven: Yale UP, 1997.
Stevenson, Anne. Bitter Fame: A Life of Sylvia Plath. London: Viking-Penguin, 1989.
Wagner-Martin, Linda. Sylvia Plath: A Biography. New York: Simon, 1987.
Metaphysical Conceit in the Poetry of John Donne
Metaphysical Conceit in the Poetry of John Donne
Many of John Donne’s poems contain metaphysical conceits and intellectual reasoning to build a deeper understanding of the speaker’s emotional state. A metaphysical conceit can be defined as an extended, unconventional metaphor between objects that appear to be unrelated. Donne is exceptionally good at creating unusual unions between different elements in order to illustrate his point and form a persuasive argument in his poems.
By using metaphysical conceits in “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning,” Donne attempts to convince his love (presumably his wife) that parting is a positive experience which should not be looked upon with sadness. In the first stanza, Donne compares the speaker’s departure to the mild death of virtuous men who pass on so peacefully that their loved ones find it difficult to detect the exact moment of their death. Their separation must be a calm transition like this form of death which Donne describes. The poet writes, “let us melt, and make no noise”(line 5). Cavanaugh explains that the word “melt” refers to a change in physical state and says that “the bond of the lovers will dissolve quietly like the soul of a dying man separating from his body”(par. 5). I do not entirely agree with Cavanaugh’s idea that the lovers’ bond will dissolve, but I do agree that there is a change in physical state. The bond will still be present, only altered because of the absence of a physical presence.
The next conceit that is used by Donne is based on the Ptolemaic view of the universe as being divided into moving spheres. This obsolete fact would only be known by individuals who were well educated, as Donne obviously was. Donne’s allusion to the studies…
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…Donne, it can be seen that although every poem is unique, there are specific elements that are common in all of them.
Works Cited
Abrams, M.H., ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York: W.W. Norton