Anomie in the Bell Jar
Literature Review
Durkheim’s Study of Suicide and The Bell Jar
Throughout The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath is suicidal. Emile Durkheim insists that while the root of suicide may be psychological, the decision to act on suicide is social (Khan and Dash 277). In his research, Durkheim has outlined four different categories of suicide. They are egotistic, altruistic, and anomic. In egotistic suicide, the individual does not feel like an adequate member of society and therefore they feel as if they are completely isolated by the world. In The Bell Jar, we see Esther’s anguished isolation. In fact, the book’s title actually stems from Sylvia Plath’s isolation. The people who are in the metaphorical bell jar are in a glass jar separate from everyone else. They can look out the jar, but they cannot be reached. Durkheim believed that egotistic suicide was also brought on by lack of familial and social support. Esther lost her father at a young age and her mother has high expectations. This is very similar to real life Sylvia Plath.
Another type of suicide that Durkheim discusses is anomic. Anomic suicide is directly linked to the term anomie. Anomie is a lack of stability caused by a breakdown of values or ideas (Elwell). In a state of anomie, common values and ideas are lost. People are struggling to develop new ideas to replace the old ones. (Elwell). Esther feels a sense of anomie, because she does not identify with the patriarchal society she lives in. Almost all of the girls that are Esther’s age discuss marriage and how they dream of it. Esther rejects the institution of marriage and children. Instead, she wants to follow her own dreams of writing and being independent.
The final category of suicide that Durkheim discusses is fatalistic suicide. Fatalistic suicide is characterized by experiencing oppression due to an extreme set of rules. (Dohrwend)
Importance of Sociology of Literature
Sociology of literature is a relatively new subfield of sociology. Lewis Coser believed that literature is a discourse on morality, and it provides new evidence of social phenomena (Carter and Carter 388). He believed so much in the power of sociology of literature that in 1972, he published the first anthology of it (Carter and Carter 388). Coser believed that even though literature is fictional, the values and ideas of the characters revealed information about the general society. (Carter and Carter 389.) In fact, The Bell Jar reveals a lot about the 1950s patriarchal society. Literature in general reveals a lot about the political situation going on at the time.
There really is not much previous literature on the sociology of The Bell Jar. There were a few items on suicide and The Bell Jar in the MLA Association’s International Bibliography. There were only nine, and none of them had anything to do with sociology. My research is going to be new and innovative in the field. I also am going to use more sociologists’ theorists than just Durkheim. I plan to potentially use Coser’s anthology of Sociology of Literature or use a more modern version.
In the book The Art of Dying: Suicide in the Works of Sylvia Plath and Kate Chopin, Deborah Gentry discusses how literary representations of suicide vary by theirGender (Gentry). Feminine representations of suicide are viewed as being related tomental illness, while masculine suicide is heroic. Deborah Gentry also argues thatSylvia Plath’s suicide was an extension of her work. Interestingly enough,Gentry argues with many different literary critics and claims that Sylvia Plath’s work isnot inherently feminist. She also believes that Sylvia Plath’s suicide was not a result ofthe patriarchal society of the 1950s. Gentry believed that the main character of The Bell Jar, received her identity from other people. She could not construct her own identity, because she is constantly living under the expectations of her mother. Although Deborah Gentry believed that the suicide was not a result of the patriarchy, she does believe that Esther Greenwood does experience oppression. She is oppressed by her boyfriend Buddy.
On the other hand, Elaine Martin argues that madness has everything to do with the patriarchy. She believes that we are all socialized by the patriarchy and that is what makes so many women sick. Esther Greenwood is not socialized directly by the patriarchy, but her mother reflects the patriarchy’s wishes. Instead of women coming together to fight the patriarchy, many women act as if they are enforcers of the patriarchy.
Works Cited
Abrutyn, Seth, and Anna S. Mueller. “The Socioemotional Foundations of Suicide: A
Microsociological View of Durkheim’s Suicide.” Sociological Theory 32.4 (2014):
327-51. Web. 2 Nov. 2015.
Carter, Michael J., and Steven Carter. “How Themes in Literature Can Inform
Sociological Theory, Research, and Teaching.” American Sociologist 45.4
(2014): 388-411. Web. 1 Oct. 2015.
<http://download.springer.com.proxy.ulib.uits.iu.edu/static/pdf/821/art%253A10.1
007%252Fs12108-014-9221 1.pdf?originUrl=http%3A%2F%2Flink.springer.com%2Farticle%2F10.1007%2Fs 12108-014-9221-1&token2=exp>.
Dohrenwend, Bruce P. “Egoism, Altruism, Anomie, and Fatalism: A Conceptual Analysis
of Durkheim’s Types.” American Sociological Review 24.4 (1959): 466-73.
JSTOR. Web. 2 Nov. 2015.
<http://www.jstor.org/stable/2089533?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents>.
Elwell, Frank W. “Durkheim on Anomie.” Rogers State University. N.p., 2003. Web. 1
Oct. 2015.
<http://www.faculty.rsu.edu/users/f/felwell/www/Theorists/Essays/Durkheim1.htm >.
Goode, William J. “A Theory of Role Strain.” American Sociological Review 25.4 (1960):
483-96. JSTOR. Web. 2 Nov. 2015.
<http://www.jstor.org/stable/2092933?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents>.
Khan, Akhtar J., and Bibhudutt Dash. “A Sociological Approach to Death Wish in The
Bell Jar.” Plath Profiles (2003): 277-86. Web. 24 Sept. 2015.
<http://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/plath/article/viewFile/4294/3928>.
Martin, Elaine. “Mothers, Madness, and the Middle Class in The Bell Jar and Les Mots
pour le dire.” Vol. 189. Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Tom Burns and
Jeffrey W. Hunter. N.p.: n.p., 2004. 24-47. Web. 2 Nov. 2015.
Plummer, Ken. “Labeling Theory.” San Jose State University. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Nov.
2015.<http://www.sjsu.edu/people/james.lee/courses/soci152/s1/ajreading10labe
ling.pdf>.
“The Presentation of Self (Goffman’s Dramaturgical Model).” California State University
. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Nov. 2015.
Anomie in the Bell Jar
The Bell Jar can be examined through a sociological perspective to provide more insight and a better understanding of the literature. The sociology of literature can be useful in understanding society. Literature is a reflection of society and it is a great way to study society. Since The Bell Jar is thought of to be based roughly on Sylvia Plath’s life, it can also be helpful in the study of her life.
Esther Greenwood is the heroine of the novel and the novel documents her struggle with mental illness. She is diagnosed with depression and is suicidal throughout the book. There are many possible reasons why Esther is depressed and suicidal and this paper will consider many of them.
There are early signs of Esther’s depression in the novel. Esther does not feel as if she “fits” in to the world. Durkheim believed that suicide was directly connected to the social life of an individual. One sociological theory believes that social comparison is a factor in Esther’s depression. Social comparison is the act of comparing oneself to others and viewing yourself as inferior to others. Esther often compares herself to other people. She primarily compares herself to the other girls that are interning for the magazine in New York. She compares herself to Jaycee, her female psychiatrist, her peers at the magazine, and the college girls. When Esther compares herself to these women, she always finds out that she does seem to fit in with their group. What we know from sociological theory is that a person who feels connected with society has a much lower rate of suicide (Khan and Dash). She also always finds herself lacking one of the qualities of the girls in some way. For instance, Jaycee takes special interest in Esther and recommends that she takes courses in French and German. Because Esther does not have time to do this, she believes that she can never be as successful as Jaycee.
It is insinuated that the other girls that are at the magazine come from wealthy backgrounds, and they do not take writing as seriously as Esther. People tend to relate more toward people that are within their socioeconomic class and that are generally like them. This is why Esther does not really interact with many of the girls at the magazine. Esther’s own mother does not seem to fully believe in Esther’s dream to be a writer, because she believes in traditional roles and thinks Esther should eventually settle down and have a family. Her mother encourages her to learn short-hand, so in the future she can become a secretary. A secretary is considered to be a pink collar job or a job that is usually dominated by women: it earns lower pay than other jobs and carries low prestige. Esther has much larger dreams than writing notes for a man; she wishes to be the one who is deciding what to write.
In the novel, Joan may function as Esther’s double because Esther cannot help but to compare herself to her old high school friend. The main difference between the two is tragedy; Joan successfully commits suicide, which is all the more unfortunate in that – Joan seems to be inspired by Esther’s psychological turmoil. Joan’s first suicide attempt happens after she reads about Esther in the newspaper: all along Joan harbors an unhealthy fascination with Esther, a fascination that could be interpreted as a crush, and so Joan is greatly influenced by Esther. Because it seems that Joan may identify as a lesbian. Lesbianism was definitely not accepted during the 1950s in the United States. For her part, Esther is shocked to find her friend in a “lesbian embrace” and she is completely repulsed by it, so much so that – Esther even asks Dr. Nolan why a woman would want to be with another woman. And yet Esther and Joan have something in common: Joan may feel like she, like Esther, is living in a bell jar, although Joan’s reason for feeling so is a result of living in a heteronormative society. The social comparison that Esther engages in with Joan actually helps Esther to recover after Joan’s death. At Joan’s funeral, Esther says “I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am.” Esther reaffirms that she is alive and resilient: she believes that she can move on from everything that has happened.
Esther has grown prone to depression, because of the extreme stress environment she inhabits. Her father died at an early age. She is a perfectionist that constantly strives to meet her goals, even when her goals seem out of reach. The final straw that sends Esther over the edge is when she is rejected from a Harvard writing course taught by a famous writer. She had counted on not being stuck in the suburbs during the summer.
Esther’s suicide attempts are not about trying to kill herself. Instead, she wants to kill something else: “It was as if what I wanted to kill wasn’t in that skin or the thin blue pulse that jumped under my thumb, but somewhere else, deeper, more secret, and a whole lot harder to get at.” Esther wants to kill society’s expectations, so that she can be who she really is. Esther also wants to kill her depression and she does not know how to find the root of either problem.
The bell jar itself provides figurative commentary about Esther Greenwood’s depression. A bell jar is used often as a metaphor for someone that is cut off from the outside world. In many ways, Esther Greenwood is cut off from the world around her: “To the person in the bell jar, blank and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is a bad dream.” The bell jar underscores Esther’s depression. Mental illness can easily be something that separates one from the world; readers see that Esther feels as if she is trapped inside her own mind, with escape seemingly impossible. From the outside of the bell jar, Esther’s life appears to be perfect, but appearances are deceiving. Esther feels as if she is expected to be happy, because of all of her achievements, and yet, she does not feel happy at all. The achievements she has striven for are no longer seen as important rewards to her. They are now her source of self-doubt. She feels as if she is not good enough to win all of these awards: “The trouble was I had been inadequate all along, I simply hadn’t thought about it. Esther’s turmoil is internal, and readers learn that – the bell jar is essentially an anomic place. By definition, anomie means a lack of stability caused by a breakdown of values or ideas (Elwell).
Esther does not identify at all with the patriarchal society that she lives in. She does not believe in the patriarchal norms, so she must go on a quest to find her own norms to follow. Esther is ambitious and wants more from her life than to just be a house wife. One example of Esther opposing the patriarchy was when she discussed the pain killers given to pregnant women. “I thought it sounded just like the sort of drug a man would invent.” Esther thought it was a drug that a man would invent, because it would cause women to forget the pain of child birth and continue having more children. Another difference in values occurs when Esther calls Buddy Willard a hypocrite for expecting her to stay a virgin until they are married, even though he is not a virgin. Esther also believes for the longest time that Buddy Willard was the perfect boyfriend. She is crushed when she finds out that he is a hypocrite and not a virgin anymore.Esther equates happiness with perfection. She also equates happiness with meeting society’s expectations, even though she does not wish to meet society’s expectations. She wishes for more than what society expects of her. Esther wishes for her own life that is governed solely by her.
Esther is not sure of her place in society. She has a deep admiration for her boss Jaycee, but she does not know if she wants to model her life on a career woman. At the same time, Esther feels pressured to come to a decision about her life fast. Esther uses the analogy of a fig tree. On each fig, there is a different future. In one of the futures, she is a happy wife with children and on another fig she is a successful editor. Esther cannot decide which fig to choose and before she even decides all of the figs die. Esther has trouble deciding which fig to choose, because if she chooses one then she loses the possibilities of all the other figs. She cannot be sure which fig is the right life for her. Esther does not just have one primary aim for her life. She wants to be everything, which is impossible. While the fig tree has a long list of figs, the two main figs that Esther has to choose between are a housewife or a career woman. Esther does not believe the two should be mutually exclusive for women. Men can have a family and a career. Esther “hates the idea of serving men in any way.” But at the same time, Esther wishes to find a man that fits in with her possible goals.
Besides a difference in values, Esther does not have many deep social connections. She has friends, but she always seems to keep them at a distance. Esther was in search of becoming her own person. She did not want to be a cookie-cutter female, but she wanted to be a true trailblazer. In order to find her own identity, she tests out different identities. She tries to relate every person she meets to her. Doreen is rebellious and capricious. Esther tests out this identity, but she knows it is not at all who she really is. As previously mentioned, Esther has high respect for Jaycee, but she does not believe that she can achieve all that Jaycee has. Esther finds herself most similar to Betsy than any of the other girls at the magazine, due to Betsy’s moral compass. In addition to trying out acquaintances’ personalities, Esther invents her own personalities. She created a pseudonym for herself named Elly and a character in a novel she attempts to write named Elaine.
Elly is a confident and independent girl. When Esther pretends to be Elly, she feels like she can act however she wants to act without worrying about anything. Esther uses Elly to forget about her past. She does not like to think about her problems and Elly provides a way of hiding from her problems. Esther even seriously considers moving to Chicago and changing her name to Elly. The anonymity that she desires shows how ashamed of herself she is.
Esther’s character Elaine is much more like the real Esther. Esther even admits that she is Elaine disguise. Esther gives up on the novel, because she believes that she does not have enough life experience to write it. In a sentence about Elaine, she compares her to a doll. This further shows how Esther feels about her own life: like a doll, she feels out of control. At one point Esther thinks, “only I wasn’t steering anything, not even myself.” Moreover, the doll comparison works with respect to Esther’s fragility. She is not physically fragile, but Esther is psychologically fragile. Another reason why Esther can be seen as a doll is the way the patriarchy views her. A doll is a possession and many of the women in the novel are seen as objects to the men in the novel. For example, Buddy views Esther as a sex object. He believes that her worth is judged by her virginity status. Buddy believes men can have all the sex they want, but women have to wait for marriage or it will depreciate their worth. Doreen is also viewed as a sex object by Lenny.
There are times in the novel when Esther does not even appear to recognize herself. This shows how Esther feels like her depression has become her identity. According to Esther, “I felt myself melting into the shadows like the negative of a person I’d never seen before in my life.” This also shows how Esther has not established a true and concrete identity for herself. She has a fragmented identity made up of pieces of almost everyone she knows. Esther’s lack of recognition with her own reflection is also how she is trying to disconnect herself from her illness.
Esther is so desperate to be free from her suicidal thoughts that she even looks toward religion as a way to cure her depression: “I knew that Catholics thought killing yourself was an awful sin. But perhaps if this was so, they might have a good way to persuade me out of it.” Many Catholics believe suicide is the rejection of the gift of life from god. Esther states that she does not have a particular religious affiliation, and people lacking a religion or inactive in their religion have a higher suicide rate than their counterparts (Bertolote 2002). One of the main reasons for this is that religion places a person in a group and the group can support each other throughout times in need. Religion can also help people learn coping methods for stressful situations. On the other hand, religion can also be harmful to someone with depression. Some churches may further ostracize and isolate those with a mental illness. A religion might also be against treatment that would help.
Throughout a lot of the novel, Esther feels as if she is invisible. Doreen and Lenny deliberately ignore her at one point and she silently sneaks away.
Many theorists believe that Esther’s madness is caused by the patriarchy. This interpretation could possibly be true. There are several scenes in which the patriarchy is trying to use social control on Esther. One scene is when Dr. Gordon administers shock treatment to her. She later finds out that he did not even do the shock treatment correctly. Dr. Gordon does not try to even sympathize with Esther’s struggles. He believes that shock therapy is the cure. She feels like the Rosenbergs when she is shocked with the treatment and wonders what crime she has done to deserve the treatment. Dr. Gordon’s administration of shock treatment causes more pain in Esther than anything she has ever experienced. And yet, for Dr. Gordon the shock treatments amounts to nothing more than flipping a switch. would instantly make her subservient. Another perspective of the electric shock treatment is that Sylvia Plath wrote about this experience in order to raise awareness for how badly the mentally ill are treated. After her experience with shock treatment, Esther believes that mental illness is something that needs to be hidden.
The electric shock treatment that is administered by Dr. Nolan contrasts strikingly with Dr. Gordon’s electric shock therapy. Dr. Nolan prefers the use of “talking therapy” in conjunction with electric shock therapy. She is compassionate towards her patients and makes sure Esther is actually ready before starting electric shock therapy. The shock therapy does not cause Esther pain, but it appears to be helpful in her recovery. More than likely, it is the “talking therapy” that is most helpful. It is also administered very carefully, whereas Dr. Gordon appeared to administer it recklessly. Dr. Nolan also encourages Esther to be her own person and not to follow society’s expectations. She reassures Esther that is normal for girls her age to be sexually active. Dr. Nolan helps Esther to realize that she can be an agent of change in her own life.
Esther realizes she has not been the only one struggling with society’s expectations. Esther finds out it is a problem that almost everyone has to deal with. Even though, Esther recovered she still feels the domineering presence of the bell jar. She knows that one day she will have to face the bell jar again. Esther fears the next time the bell jar descends, she will lose herself completely. She does not believe she can handle another experience with the bell jar.
Mental illness is often thought of as a female issue. Women do actually have lower serotonin levels than men, which could contribute to depression at a higher rate. (Nishizawa). Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that is related to mood. Females also are more prone to hormonal changes (Nishizawa). This does not mean mental illness is necessarily a female issue, because women actually speak up more about mental illness than men do. People view mental health with a gendered lens. Women are seen as more emotional and they are seen as more competent at dealing with their emotions. Men stereotypically act out their emotions in physical ways such as alcohol or drug abuse or violence. Esther sees a strong parallel between the women at the mental hospital and the women at the college dormitories. She believes that the only difference with them is how society sorts them. The mentally ill are sorted as deviant by default.
The dramaturgy theory Irving Goffman is best known for also can enlighten the discussion. In this theory, the world is literally a stage and we are all actors. There are two areas in this theory. There is backstage and on stage. All social interactions are made on stage for an audience. We perform differently for different audiences. Esther behaves significantly different around Doreen than she does Betsy for example. One of the biggest examples of this was when Esther convinces a professor to let her take chemistry as pass or fail. Esther successfully makes everyone believe that she is not depressed until she does not make a writing course. The way Esther can successfully make the audience believe in her front stage performance is another way that she becomes further isolated by everyone.
Many conflict theorists would most likely believe that Esther’s social class probably has something to do with her depression. Unlike many of the girls that she goes to school with, Esther is a scholarship girl. She always feels as if this sets her apart from her classmates and friends.
Emile Durkheim has outlined four different types of suicide. Of these different types of suicide, the two that fit Esther the most are anomic suicide and egotistic suicide. Egotistic suicide happens to people which do not feel strong support from society. These people feel as if they are detached from society. Esther’s bell jar metaphor shows how detached from society she is. A person that wishes to commit egoist suicide also does not really have any goals that they can commit to. Anomic suicide often takes place during times of great change or when one does not agree with how society operates.
A sociological perspective can provide new insights into existing literature. Social comparison theory, anomie, conflict theory, and the dramaturgy theory have shown new points of view in The Bell Jar.
Works Cited
Bertolote, Jose M., and Alexandra Fleischmann. “A Global Perspective in the
Epidemiology of Suicide. Suicidologi 7.2 (2002). Web 28 Feb. 2016.
Nishizawa, S., et al. “Differences Between Males and Females in Rates of Serotonin
Synthesis in Human Brain.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 94. 10 (1997): 5308-5313.
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