Novel Notebook: The Bell Jar
1.Setting/Matter: The Bell Jar is set in June 1953 to January 1954. During this time, Mccarthy is conducting the Red Scare and The Rosenbergs are executed. While looking into this section I realized that the Rosenberg execution was mentioned about five times throughout the book. This led me to ask myself the question; how is the Rosenberg execution utilized in the Bell Jar? Sylvia Plath uses the Rosenberg execution to do two things, to characterise Esther Greenwood and to provide historical context for the story. The Rosenberg execution is first mentioned in the first paragraph in the story when we are being told when and where Esther was. “It was a queer sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs. (Plath 1)” This gives us a good idea of when the story is taking place and sets the tone of the book and shows us that Esther Greenwood will not be a very positive narrator. The Rosenberg execution is used to characterise Esther when we are told that she is sympathetic towards the Rosenbergs unlike many people of the decade like, for example,…show more content… A bell jar is a symbol for her depression. She feels as though she is trapped under it unable to breathe just like a rose underneath it. I assumed that either she means that she is trapped inside her own head and she does not feel like she is able to bring her ideas to life or achieve her goals or that she feels as though her depression is suffocating her, but after finding out that a bell jar is a glass tin that is used to display things in a vacuum and keep them from change I think that she means that her depression is keeping her from growing and moving on along with her peers. My theory is supported by the quote, “I felt very still and very empty, the way the eye of a tornado must feel, moving dully along in the middle of the surrounding hullabaloo”(3). What does a bell jar signify in the book The Bell
