The Bell Jar
Sylvia Plath

This engaging summary presents an analysis of The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, a semi-autobiographical novel which follows Esther Greenwood, a young woman who is undertaking an internship in New York when her mental health begins to decline, leading to stays in a series of psychiatric institutions. The novel is semi-autobiographical: Plath's own struggles with depression are well-documented, and she underwent electroconvulsive therapy as part of her "treatment". The Bell Jar is widely admired for its unsparing depiction of the paranoia, stifling conformism and gender inequality that characterised America during the 1950s, and its popularity has not waned in the decades since it was first published. Sylvia Plath was an American novelist and poet. Her best-known works are The Bell Jar and the poetry collection Ariel, which was published posthumously in 1965 (Plath committed suicide in 1963).