Esther vs. Joan
The Bell Jar, a novel by Sylvia Plath, is mainly focused on the main character, Esther's battle with mental health. As the novel progresses, we see Esther's mental state worsen and she starts to spiral. She even goes as far as attempting suicide in a few different ways. Joan, another patient at the psychiatric hospital, and an old friend of Esther's, also faces similar struggles but has a tragic fate. Their different experiences highlight how mental illness affects people in different ways and their stories emphasize the novel’s themes of identity, societal pressure, and survival.
Esther’s mental health decline happens gradually. She starts as an ambitious and intelligent young woman, but the pressure to succeed and conform to traditional gender roles makes her feel lost. Her depression is marked by feelings of emptiness, lack of motivation, and suicidal thoughts. She struggles with knowing what she wants to do with her life and this causes her stress. When she is sent to a psychiatric hospital, she is skeptical of the treatments. She doesn't trust her first doctor, Dr. Gordan, due to his lack of relatability to Esther. However, her second doctor, a woman named Dr. Nolan, is able to connect more with Esther and the treatment ends up working better. This shows the importance of finding a professional that understands your issues. Though her recovery is uncertain, she reaches a point where she is willing to try moving forward.
Joan’s struggles take a different path. She first appears in the novel when Esther sees a newspaper article about her disappearance from college. Later, they meet again at the hospital, where Joan seems more socially engaged than Esther. Unlike Esther, who isolates herself, Joan interacts with other patients and experiments with different identities. However, she still seems unsure of who she truly is. Additionally, Joan also struggles with pressure from society and knowing where she belongs. This is the main factor that makes Joan and Esther so similar.
One key difference between them is how they cope. Esther resists societal expectations and, despite her despair, wants to regain control over her life. Joan, on the other hand, struggles to find stability. Her relationship with Esther suggests that she admires her independence but does not know how to find her own. In the end, Joan takes her own life, while Esther takes steps toward recovery.
Hi Chizara! Your post does a great job of articulating the comparison between Joan and Esther. It's difficult not to compare these two characters as they are in similar circumstances but end up with completely different fates by the end of the novel. Good work highlighting the reasons this might be. I think it's true that people cope with mental illness in different ways. I'm not sure how much Joan's death was based on real life, but I wonder if Plath included this detail to make it clear to us that she very easily could have ended up the same way. Anyways, great post!
ReplyDeleteI feel like Esther's one-sided rivalry with Joan was a result of her bell jar warping her view on her relationships with people. I also wonder if it was driven a little bit by Esther's longtime pressure to be the best, and anyone like Joan who seemed to be recovering quicker than Esther would have caused Esther to feel even more stuck and lost. I like how you point out Esther and Joan's motivation and coping mechanisms, because although Esther wanted to recover, Joan was struggling a lot to stay afloat.
ReplyDeleteHi Chizara, your comparison of Joan and Esther is fascinating, especially with Esther's continued distaste for the way that society treats women. Esther's competitive spirit with Joan was driven from their recoveries. Joan's personality was much more extroverted than Esther's, and her ability to make connections is where I think Esther evnied her the most. Joan's ability to be more socially functional than Esther is where Esther began to warp her view of Joan, ignorant to the fact that Joan was struggling so much that she ended up taking her own life weeks later. Great post!
ReplyDeleteThere are indeed a number of uncanny parallels between Joan and Esther's stories, and Esther is aware of--and apparently irked by--these parallels throughout. At one point Esther/Plath admits that she sometimes thinks she "made Joan up," and I admit that I sometimes am inclined to think so, too--she serves such a "literary" role in this novel (as a kind of "double," who mirrors Esther's experience and ironically reflects it back on her), she doesn't seem quite "real." It's the kind of element an author would invent, in order to illuminate something about her protagonist.
ReplyDeleteIt is important to be clear, though, that it is not *Esther* who reads about Joan in the newspaper--Joan has read about Esther's ordeal, and in a disturbing turn of events, she seems to actively imitate Esther, following her example. Joan ("breathlessly," of course) tells Esther all about how she's been following her story, and following in her footsteps, when she first arrives at the hospital. Esther, of course, reacts negatively to this "fan" of her suicide attempt, and she portrays Joan as a "wannabe" and imitator of her throughout the later chapters. She's also a former girlfriend of Buddy Willard, which only increases the connections and parallels. But Esther isn't at all flattered by her imitator or "fan"--she really resents the way that Joan seems to take away from the personal and distinctive nature of Esther's own struggles, as if her own story means "less" if there's this OTHER Esther-like figure going through the same things.
Hi Chizara, you did a very good job showing how Esther and Joan's mental health struggles are similar but also different. I liked how you explained Esther’s slow decline and how the pressure to succeed and fit into society makes her feel lost. Your point about Esther’s struggle to find the right doctor and how important that connection is in her recovery really stood out. I found the comparison between her and Joan is interesting, especially how Joan tries to fit in with others but still seems unsure of herself, and I also chose to write my blog about that dynamic. You made it clear how both characters are affected by pressure and identity, but in their own ways.
ReplyDeleteHello Chizara! Esther and Joan's different approaches to their recovery were definitely quite polarizing, and you did a really good job at summing that up! I was honestly a bit surprised when Joan had taken her life, especially since on the outside, she seemed like she was on a good path. Her struggle to find independence in the way Esther did definitely held her back, and I wonder if she would've decided against ending her life otherwise. Great blog!
ReplyDeleteHey Chizara, I enjoyed how you highlighted the contrast between Esther and Joan, especially in how they cope with their mental health struggles. Your point about how Esther's connection with Dr. Nolan shows the importance of finding someone who truly understands you was insightful.
ReplyDeleteHi Chizara! I like how you brought up Joan and compared her and Esther's journeys. It's especially interesting how their depression is shown differently to the reader, to the point that it comes as a bit of a surprise to the reader when she commits suicide. I think that this is meant to show that you can't ever really know the extent of what someone is going through from the outside, which is why Joan's was more unexpected than Esther's. Nice blog!
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