How powerful is The Bell Jar as a feminist text?

The Bell jerk is an attempt by Sylvia Plath to write about growing up as a woman, in America during the forties and fifties. It was first published in January 1963, before the fights for equal rights were debated in the late sixties and s in timeties. This was one of only when a few refreshings, at its time, in which the main character and teller was a woman. The novel may also draw Esthers search for her identity, she thinks she knows what she deficiencys solely she becomes more and more uncertain as the novel unfolds. The struggle for women in those days is something which would we could non possibly down the stairsstand.A lady could not even procure a loan from the bank without her husband or pay back co-signing it. Unmarried women were denied birth control, and girls should not attend college. If they did it was expect that they were looking for a husband. The other girls in Esthers dormitory in college told her she was wasting her golden college days. Throughout the b ook, there are m whatever possible role models for Esther, not both of who have a positive influence on her. Jay Cee is an experienced, happy editor at the magazine where Esther has won an internship. Plath writes of Jay Cee as being sensibly masculine.This may have been because at the time only men were sure-fire so she felt up for a woman to be successful she had to be manly. However Esther starts to aim some of her anger towards Jay Cee Jay Cee wanted to teach me something, all the old ladies I ever know wanted to teach me something, nevertheless I suddenly didnt think they had anything to teach me. Esther dreamt of becoming a poet, except even her mother did not believe in her ambition. Her mother felt the only way she would succeed was if she learnt shorthand, as the highest position she would ever get was to be a secretary. Mrs.Greenwood never listened to what Esther had to say nor did she respond to her in any meaningful way. Mrs Greenwood felt that she was the perfe ct mother and the only way to show that was by bringing up the perfect set of children. The childrens role was to conduct well to reflect their mothers goodness. So when Esther refused to have shock treatments, Mrs. Greenwood said, I knew my youngster wasnt similar that, I knew youd decide to be alright again. A chew of Esthers anger is aimed towards her mother and may even be the root of her illness. Mrs. Greenwood is everything that Esther doesnt want to be, which is the reason she hates to conform.She touch sensations that if she starts doing what normal ladies do she will end up like her mother. Esther even went as far as talking off her let mothers death. When they both slept in the same room, Esther says, The piggish noise irritated me, and for a while it seemed to me that the only way to stop it would be to take the chromatography column of skin and sinew from which it rose and twist it to silence between my hands. later writing the book, Sylvia Plath told her brot her that she wanted the novel to be published under a pseudonym. In those days, or even today, death wishes were not precisely the things to satisfy parental dreams.Buddy Willard is first seen, in the text, as a typical American male. Mrs. Greenwood says of him hes so athletic and so handsome and so intelligent kind of person a girl should stay sightly for. Before Esther gets to know him she thinks hes wonderful, but as they get better inform her attitude towards him changes. Buddy Willard is a prime example of a convinced(p) male. He thinks men rule the world while women should just do what theyre told. This does not help Esther when she is trying to find her role within rules of order to feel accepted. Buddy Willard is shallow and does absolutely nothing to make Esther feel good about herself.Hes insensitive and clumsy in his dealings with Esther. He refers to her poetry as dust thereby dismissing the one thing that she believes has outstanding value, through arrogance. The motive for her hatred for all the men in the novel except for one may stem from the fact that Sylvia Plaths husband left hand her in 1962 and she wrote The Bell Jar a year after. However her verse Daddy, which she wrote in the very same year was a dole out harsher towards her father and was more of a gut response. Another thing that deeply annoyed Esther was the double standard for men and women.If a man slept with a woman without loving her it was perfectly acceptable, yet if a woman slept with a man whom she didnt love then she could be labelled a whore. there are proper codes of behaviour, particularly sexual ones for women and Mrs. Greenwood makes sure Esther knows of those by displace her a pamphlet about these codes. However Buddy is not expected to adhere to the same set of rules, so when Esther finds out he slept with a waitress, she shouldnt be hurt because it didnt mean anything It is one of Esthers desires to be sexually liberal, along with being a poet or a success ful writer.