Femininity in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar.

Abstract

This paper analyzes Sylvia Plath's novel The Bell Jar from a gender perspective, focusing on how the notion of femininity is constructed in this writing. For this purpose, different topics addressed in the novel such as sexuality, gender inequalities, marriage and motherhood are explored from a gender perspective. We also explore which are the signifiers that appear linked to femininity in the novel. We hypothesize that Esther's depression is related to the role that was assigned to women at that time and that Esther did not want to subsume herself to it. The analysis of the novel uses contributions from authors such as Simone de Beauvoir and Betty Friedan, which serve to study The Bell Jar from a feminist perspective. One of the conclusions reached in this article is that Esther's problem is not femininity itself but the mandates linked to it. Esther's drama is that the normative feminine destiny, which involves getting married and having children, is completely incompatible with her dream of being a poet. Using Beauvoir's concepts, we could say that for the protagonist to choose to marry and have children would imply sacrificing her possibility of transcendence and resigning herself to immanence. Finally, the article hopes to contribute to the recognition of Plath as an author who spoke of what was happening to the women of her time from a feminist perspective.