"The Bell Jar"

The “Bell Jar” was another novel I enjoyed reading during this semester. Esther Greenwood is definitely a memorable character who gets captured in the throes of depression. She also has issues with her identity which are causing her grief. With the help of some foils we are able to see exactly what she doesn’t want to be, but figuring out who she wants to be becomes difficult.

Dodo represents everything that Esther is trying to be free from. Dodo is the typical religious woman who lives in the suburbs. She has a large family and is a stay at home mom and this is exactly what Esther is completely against. She doesn’t want to be controlled by a husband or children; she wants to be able to be free and do as she pleases. At one point Esther actually gets enraged by Dodo for the simple fact that she is walking her children by Esther’s house. I would like to think she got angry because Esther is still confused at what she wants, whereas Dodo isn’t and she is flaunting her life choice for all to see. So it is easy to understand why Dodo was added as a character; she is a foil for Esther in the sense that Dodo represents everything Esther doesn’t care for. It also shows us that she still doesn’t know where she fits in. Another foil for Esther would be Doreen.

Doreen is the rebellious city girl who Esther attaches to right away. Doreen is different from other people Esther knows. She is opinionated, independent, rash, and sexy (according to Esther), unlike Esther herself who is “gawky” and “morbid”. Esther wants to be able to let loose like Doreen and live life the way she wants, instead of the way that society wants her to. It’s as if Esther wants Doreen to teach her how to be like her, or that Esther thinks Doreen’s personality will rub off on her. Thankfully Esther comes to her sense though and decides she doesn’t want to be like Doreen at all. If she became to be like Doreen I feel that her depression would have been worse and it probably would have included substantial alcohol abuse. Instead, Esther wanted to be like Jay Cee.



Jay Cee is the editor of the “Ladies’ Day” magazine that Esther is interning for. Jay Cee is the professional woman who Esther would like to become. She is in a position of power and authority, which wasn’t the social norm back then. She also shows Esther that you don’t have to look good to be able to get ahead in life. Jay Cee “had brains, so her plug-ugly looks didn’t seem to matter”. This all made Esther feel like she could succeed with what she wants to do.

I could keep going and explaining all the foils for Esther and what they say about her, but you’d probably get bored sooner or later. Also there are so many characters that act as foils for this one confused young woman and so little time to discuss them properly. I’ll end this off by saying that Esther never really figured out who she was going to be, due to the ambiguity of the end we can only hope that she was released from the asylum and started off fresh!