“That’s one of the reasons I never wanted to get married. The last thing I wanted was infinite security and to be the place an arrow shoots off from. I wanted change and excitement and to shoot off in all directions myself, like the colored arrows from a Fourth of July rocket.”
1) The Bell Jar
2) Sylvia Plath
3) Esther
4) This passage is showing us that Ester did not find the idea of marriage comforting at all. She just wanted an exciting life and didn’t see it with anyone. I actually don’t think that she ever liked the idea of marriage throughout the novel. I feel like everyone around her made her feel that marriage was always like this. Of course it was during a different time period, but I still don’t think that every guy would have been the same. I felt like Esther felt like she was forced to get married one day and for that reason did not enjoy the idea.
5) I think that this text is showing us that Esther doesn’t like anything that she is supposed to do I the future. I think she just wants to live her life with no rules. Women in that point in time were supposed to get married and I honestly think that thinking about anything that she was “supposed” to do stressed her out. I think they included this in the texts because usually a girl from that time would be very excited about being a future wife. I think this passage was showing us that Esther is not like the rest.
6) The fact that Esther is stressed out about being forced to do things because of society’s expectations reminds me of the main character from The Yellow Wallpaper because they both seem so scared about the future. I feel like they are scared about nothing because they don’t have to do anything that they don’t want to do, but they don’t know this. The main character in The Yellow Wallpaper always thought she was being watched, when she wasn’t. I just think they go together because they are both just being paranoid.
