What is it like to be in a place so dark that you see no possibility of escape? 'The Bell Jar' by Sylvia Plath is a semi-autographical novel published in 1963 just before her death by suicide. It tells the tale of *Esther Greenwood (aka Sylvia) and her struggles with mental health that eventually lead to her being institutionalised. Exposed in this book are how depression was treated before the time of readily available antidepressants as well as how expectations (both externally from society and internally from ourselves) can damage us and lead to a breakdown.
I summarised the book as follows. "There's no way around it, this is a depressing book. It details the descent of a typical happy young girls into hopelessness and madness. It's an expose of what a truly dark place looks/feels like but is certainly not pleasant to read about. What makes this story so sad is that it almost seems like Sylvia wrote this book as a form of self-therapy, a light at the end of the tunnel, which unfortunately she never got to see."
As always, I hope you have a fantastic day wherever you are in the world. Kyrin out!
Timeline:
(0:00) - Intro & Synopsis
(2:44) - Depression: Trapped under the bell jar
(4:48) - Expectations: The belief of what 'should' happen
(7:10) - Personal Observations
(9:29) - Summary
*P.S. Just realised the main character is Esther Greenwood not Esthel Rosenberg (confused her name with a real life person mentioned in the book).
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