Plath's "The Bell Jar" and Second-Wave Feminism Analytical Essay by Top Papers

The paper discusses how "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath is one of the more provocative feminist tracts of the 1960s because it poignantly and powerfully captures the angst of an early second-wave feminist, Esther Greenwood, as she grapples with making it in a tough man's world - all the while tormented by what society expects from her as a woman. This paper explores how the title suggests the profound sense of imprisonment and entrapment that Esther experiences in 1950s New York; the paper also notes that, whilst it is easy to blame Esther's problems on "the patriarchy," it is only appropriate to note that Esther is a woman who is emotionally frail and perhaps not up to the challenges confronting her in a tough profession marked by professional greed, politicking and hyper-competition. In any case, the paper asserts that even if one concedes that Esther's setbacks are not entirely the fault of others, there is little question that she finds herself in a world wherein women are defined by their biological capacity to have children; they are deemed ill-suited for anything else.