The Bell Jar
Suffocating glass container
The Bell Jar is a 1963 novel by Sylvia Plath, her only novel, published under a pseudonym shortly before her suicide.
It follows a young woman's mental breakdown and recovery, drawing heavily on Plath's own experiences with depression and psychiatric treatment.
The title's image—a bell jar trapping stale air—has become a widely used metaphor for suffocating depression or feeling cut off from the world: She described her anxiety as living under a bell jar.
- depressionProlonged low state
- suffocationFatal lack of air
- mental illnessDisorder affecting cognition or mood
- mental breakdownAcute psychological crisis
- inner turmoilPsychological distress within oneself
Sylvia Plath · asylum · electroshock · fig tree · Esther · 1950s · New York · guest editor · poetry · suicide · glass · trapped · under glass · isolation · madness · breakdown · feminism · specimen
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- Novelsnovel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Frankenstein, Pride and Prejudice, The Great Gatsby
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- Classic BooksPride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Moby Dick, Moby-Dick, Great Expectations
- School ClassicsTo Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, Lord of the Flies, Romeo and Juliet, The Scarlet Letter
- American LiteratureThe Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Scarlet Letter, Moby-Dick, Moby Dick
The Bell Jarjoy
Intense positive emotion
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bell, jar, bells, jars, belled, jarred, jarring, bellman, bellboy