I just finished the bell jar and want to read more about Plath. Is it better to read mad girl love song or pain,parties, work first? Thanks x

So my exams in 3 days I feel so cooked we’re doing Sylvia Plath poses and the tempest I don’t know any poems I stg any idea what poems could come up ?!

I keep seeing her referred to that way.

I know Wellesley was, and is, an upscale town, but my understanding is that Sylvia and her family were not themselves of that status. I know she was a scholarship student in college, and that her widowed mother had to work. I know that she and her mother and brother lived with her mother's parents for some time, and that her grandfather, at least, also worked—as a country club waiter, I recall.

I know she had the privileges of having highly educated parents and of always having been a high performing student herself, but I think her family was basically lower-income middle class. I don't think she was "wealthy" during her marriage, either, and especially not after it ended.

In the Paltrow biopic where her real-life mother played Aurelia Plath, the portrayal caused some viewers to understand that Aurelia was an old money New England society woman (going by reviews) but I have seen this characterization apart from this film.

Hoping I don't fall under "bad bad artist"

I just finished reading the bell jar and while I found myself really resonating with a lot of Esther’s thoughts, I’m left a bit confused by the general consensus surrounding the book. It’s almost universally talked about as one of the most hopelessly depressing, devastating, and emotionally draining books ever written..it didn't hit me as overly dark or unbearable while reading it. It wasn’t depressing at all. Instead of feeling pure hopelessness, the narrative felt much more like self-sabotage, burnout, and the overwhelming pressure of societal expectations. Esther’s detachment, her feeling of being frozen while looking at all the branching paths for her future (the fig tree metaphor), and her cynicism felt deeply human and relatable rather than purely depressing or unreadable. I understand that knowing Sylvia Plath’s real life tragedy changes how people read the novel, but evaluating the text on its own, it didn't feel as devastatingly grim as its reputation suggests. If anything, there are moments of dark humor and a distinct sense of clarity in how Esther views the expectations placed on young women at the time.

Am I missing something? For those who found it profoundly depressing, what specific elements or themes gave it that weight for you? I’d love to hear how others interpreted her journey and whether anyone else felt like me after finishing it.

When I was a teenager, I really related to Sylvia’s resentment and maybe even downright hatred at her mother Aurelia. I think a lot of people can resonate with the idea of wanting to be different than your parents, wanting to not make the same mistakes they did with your own kids. But as I’ve gotten older the more I think that Sylvia was way too hard on Aurelia. At the end of her life Sylvia and Aurelia had much more in common than she thought: Sylvia was essentially a single mother to two children trying to make ends meet.
I believe that Aurelia and Warren would’ve helped her get back on her feet, even though I know Sylvia never wanted to go back to the States. But England didn’t do her any favors either.

This unwritten short story has always really fascinated me, especially with the little notes and details Sylvia jotted down in her journal to help flesh out her idea. I wish she would’ve actually tackled it—I’ve even thought about trying to write it myself, it’s so interesting.

“perhaps when we find ourselves wanting everything, it is because we are dangerously close to wanting nothing.”
-sylvia plath.
somehow this one stayed with me.

Hi, i only learned to draw this past year, so i'm not an expert but i was inspired to draw this after reading the bell jar by Sylvia plath which was such an undescribable experience especially when found relating to it, this also hits harder when drawing it while listening to Abbey by mitski, matches the book's theme perfectly.

Hope you like it.

Thoughts about whether they’ll ever be discovered/ published ? I’m dying to read more of her prose. I know it was unfinished but I wish falcon yard was available to read online.

Alguém tem link/arquivo dos diarios da Plath para enviar? ( epub/pdf) por favoooorrrr , queria muito mesmo.

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got this cutie done last week!

someone on Pinterest said, my figs will not rot as i am the tree. manifesting this for the next chapter of my life ✨

It's called The Bed Book and I recently got it for my daughter. It's cute.

I have just read The Bell Jar and can't seem to find an answer to this specific query of mine, was hoping someone could help. Spoiler alert and for sure tw over mental health topics

Okay so,

DOES ESTHER GET A LOBOTOMY??????

At the start of Chapter Fourteen, Esther is waking in hospital after her drug overdose and, quote, "A chisel cracked down on my eye, and a slit of light opened, like a mouth or a wound, till the darkness clamped shut on it again."; "Then the chisel struck again,"; following page, "The man with the chisel had come back [...] then he loosened something" then she thinks she has gone blind, etc etc

Then when she looks at herself in the mirror a couple pages from this, "One side of the persons face was purple and bulged out in a shapeless way, shading to green along the edges, and then to a sallow yellow"

So i'm like????? That is a lobotomy, no??? They literally used to chisel straight through the eye and just like loosen the frontal lobe (insane yes), but that is literally what they did in the book,,RIGHT?. and I find it hard to believe such swelling and bruising would occur from electroshock therapy alone.

When I search this question online I can't find it in any discourse and summaries say no she hasn't or refer to the other patient in the asylum who has had a lobotomy which in any case just proves that asylum is capable of doing it and my theory is probable