Comparison Of Identity In The Bell Jar Selected Poems English Literature Essay

Sylvia Plath is primarily known for her poetry and her semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar, written under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. Both her poetry in Sylvia Plath Selected Poems and her novel The Bell Jar underline many key issues within Plath’s own life, and both emphasize many different themes. One of the key and strongest themes running throughout both of these texts is the theme of identity. Through Plath’s confessional poetry style and her semi-autobiographical novel the reader is able to pick up on Plath’s own struggles regarding identity, linking back to her battles with mental illness. Many of the key ideas addressed in The Bell Jar are also picked upon within some of her poems. The novel is, as bitter and remorseless as her last poems written before her suicide on 11th February 1963. The novel ‘The Bell Jar’ was originally published in 1963 under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas, only to be published in Plath’s name in 1971, years after her death; ‘Sylvia Plath Selected Poems’ was published in 1985, after being put together by her former husband Ted Hughes.

Here Esther is parodying herself, thinking that she is something different from what she actually is, thus distorting reality. She is also making fun of herself through her appearance, through harsh misinterpretations. She does this through the use of a mirror, by seeing something that isn’t really there- changing reality into her own view of the distorted image, further showing her inability to comprehend her own features and identity. Plath uses colloquial language throughout the novel, which is apparent through the use of words such as ‘a big, smudgy eyes’, the use of informal language is also apparent in some of her poetry. She also refers to herself in the first person a lot, through the use of the word ‘I’ and ‘myself’ (herself in the novel is the protagonist Esther Greenwood). The same idea can be seen through Plath’s poem ‘Mirror’ written in 1961. Even though this poem was written in 1961, 2 years before her death, Plath’s deterioration is apparent to the reader. In this poem, Plath focuses on the mirror and the idea behind it, depicting what its purpose is and what it sees;

“I am sliver and exact. I have no preconceptions.

Whatever I see I swallow immediately, just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.”

Here, Plath is saying that the mirror reflects reality, this contrasts with the ideas put forth in ‘The Bell Jar, as within the novel Esther doesn’t see what is exactly in the mirror, she perceives herself differently to how others see her, unlike the mirror in the poem, which has ‘no preconceptions’, it says how it shows things for how they are, doesn’t change reality in any way in the first stanza. Although the tone changes in the second stanza, as it can be linked to Esther in the novel, as it is about the woman and what she perceives;

“Now I am a lake.”

The image of the lake can be interpreted as the idea of water, this idea can be linked the theme of distorted images as water moves and distorts the actual image concealed underneath. This poem shows how bad Plath’s state of mind was, as does the portrayal of Esther within the novel. The language in the poem differs from that of the novel, as it is less informal than that of Esther Greenwood, it has a more serious tone, once again could be linked to the unstable state of Plath herself. The tone of the poem changes from stanza one to stanza two, the first being more positive than the latter; the change occurs when the identity changes from that of the mirror to that of the woman. From these two sections of both the novel and the poem ‘Mirror’ we can see that the idea of faces and perception is important when considering the idea of identity within the two. Esther’s obsession with her own appearance is also shadowed later on in the novel when she says “the face in the mirror looked like a sick Indian”, thus showing her constant distortion.

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Another identity issue addressed within both the novel and selected poems is the idea of womanhood within identity. Within ‘The Bell Jar’ Esther separates herself from everybody else through the idea of women’s’ right’s. She doesn’t want to conform to the rest of society by following the traditional social rules that were in place at the time; for example, marriage and children. She also wishes to lose her virginity due to the fact that promiscuity in men is acceptable but in women is frowned upon;

“and maybe gone out and slept with somebody myself just to even things up,

and then thought no more about it.

Within the novel Esther talks bluntly about sex, she doesn’t talk about it romantically; it appears to her to be merely an act that must be carried out in order to be a woman, and to get back at Buddy Willard. Here the use of the words ‘slept with somebody’ reimburses the idea of a lax attitude towards sex, and the casualness about it. Esther keeps up this pretence throughout the course of the novel keeping the same rigidity in views. She also presents this idea in a violent way, using violent images to portray the ideas of sex. Her rejection and failure to conform with societies ideals shows the harsh, bitter and unforgiving world that torments her mind. The violent imagery connected with sex is apparent in chapter 9 during Esther’s encounter with Marco;

“The ground soared and stuck me with a soft shock. Mud

Squirmed through my fingers. Marco waited until I half rose.

Then he put both his hands on my shoulders and flung me back.”

Throughout this encounter of the novel lots of bloody and violent images are used to portray the possibility of a sexual encounter. The use of the word ‘squirmed’ gives the impression of uncomfortable and indecent behaviour; also that Esther isn’t enjoying the experience. This can be linked to one of Plath’s poems ‘Maudlin’. This poem emphasises how the woman is anxious about her sexuality, as it is about a young virgin. The poem uses lots of imagery to portray painful images of sex, and womanhood. The poem uses alliteration to incorporate these images together, by using phrases such as ‘mud mattressed’, by using these as starting words for a poem, the reader already feels uncomfortable as the words themselves are unflattering and dirty;

“But at the price of a pin-stitched skin

Fish-tailed girls purchase each white leg.”

This section of the poem could be linked to the idea of the little mermaid, and the fact that everything hurts, as she paid for her legs with pain, the word ‘pin-stitched’ emphasises this. The idea being that you tolerate pain for no purpose, therefore linking negativity with the idea of womanhood and sexuality; the main in this instance being menstruation and childbirth. Even the title of the poem links to sadness as maudlin means to be upset or sad, thus further linking the idea of womanhood to pain and suffering, the words ‘purchase each white leg’ indicate the pain in menstruation and childbirth within this poem.