Kevin Mendoza

Professor Rosen

Women Writers

May 2014

Project #2 part 1

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath has had its cover page, illustrated in various forms over time.  These various illustrations of the Bell Jar have depicted different messages or ideas expressed through the novel. There are versions that are similar due to their expression of the character, Esther Greenwood, and different by which one shows the struggle of having to choose between marriage or a career and the other exemplifying innocence and purity. Esther goes through various dilemmas where she even has shock therapy, is almost raped, loses her virginity. There is the notion that Esther is constantly being trapped by her own mind and indecisiveness. The covers that best fit this analogy is the first Heinemann edition published January 14, 1963 under the pseudonym, Victoria Lucas and the other version was published by Harper Perennial modern classics (2005).

In the first original version cover, the book has a very metaphorical approach that goes with the idea of Esther having a hard time deciding whether to become a woman that tends housewife duties or pursuing her career in writing. The cover has that 1960’s vintage look to it that allows me to have a nostalgic feel for the image. The cover has a light grayish background that allows the shadow woman to standout. The shadowed woman has no visible face, but you can make an inference that the shadowed woman is Esther, and is in ponderous posture where she having her conflicting thoughts. The woman has her hand clenched that gives the notion of her thinking. “So I began to think maybe it was true that when you were married and had children it was like being brainwashed, and afterward you went about as numb as a slave in a totalitarian state.” this quote exemplifies the constant battle between choosing to be the wife that fulfills every household role. Then there is a giant glass bell jar that the woman is in while sitting in the chair. The Bell jar has its representation of the Esther being trapped within her own mind so it is impossible for her to make a decision in following the norm implemented by her mother, Buddy’s mom who  is suggestive of her to settle with Buddy or choosing a career path , which this conflict is challenging her sanity.  A quote that fits the description of the woman in the giant bell jar is stated, “The bell jar hung, suspended, a few feet above my head.” I think that this quote is very helpful in proving that the woman in the giant bell jar is Esther as well as “Wherever I sat-on the deck of a ship or at a street café in Paris or Bangkok-I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air”. The Bell jar represents Esther’s clouded mind and the hand gesture of the hand holding the woman’s face, shows frustration. “To the person in the bell jar, blank and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is the bad dream”; the shadowed woman in the bell jar has is trapped, like if she were in a bad dream. Esther, from the Bell Jar, is trapped why the madness instilled upon her by her mental problems. All her troubles are heightened to a pinnacle point, when she is trying countless times to commit suicide.   This cover illustration strongly brings out theses analogies of Esther’s overall position in the novel for readers to view.  Towards the end of the text, Esther has finally overcome the burden of being indecisive, and states, “How did I know that someday-college, in Europe, somewhere, anywhere-the bell jar, with its stifling distortion, wouldn’t descend again?”  This quote is very significant to the idea of the illustration of the cover, because Esther understands that the bell jar, symbolism for madness and being trapped, might come back one day to haunt her.

The cover version of the Harper Perennial modern classics 2005 version has very controversial image of only half a woman’s body being shown. The image only shows the woman from below the waist further down. The background of the cover is a blue and grayish color, while the dress the woman has on, has a much darker color to it that allows the it to stand out from the rest of the cover. In this image, the title is on the lower right hand corner so the image of the woman is the center of attention.  This version seems to explore the themes of purity and innocence. Esther throughout the novel is not sure about purity and marriage and how she should go about it. She has encounters with this idea express by Sylvia Plath when she is almost raped by the Spanish man, when she finds out that her college boyfriend is not a virgin like her, and the time when she finally loses her virginity to the man. The image allows one mind to wonder further by the long dress and showing of her legs from the knee down. One conclusion that the cover can give is the fact that is it takes place in the 1950’s, and woman are suppose to be pure when they get married. Women at this time had to be very reserved and exploiting her sexuality was a taboo. Perhaps it is because of the theme of purity is shown in the cover. The author Sylvia Plath states the way woman are suppose to portray themselves when she stated in the article, “The main point of the article [“In Defense of Chastity”] was that a man’s world is different from a woman’s world and a man’s emotions are different from a woman’s emotions and only marriage can bring the two worlds and the two different sets of emotions together properly […] This woman lawyer said the best men wanted to be pure for their wives, and even if they weren’t pure, they wanted to be the ones to teach their wives about sex.” The cover of the woman is well represented by this quote, because it relates to the fact that a woman is suppose to a virgin, also known as being pure, before getting married to a man. Even wouldn’t matter if the man is not, a virgin Esther, the main character, gets upset when she finds out that her boyfriend, buddy, is not a virgin. The reserved woman in the cover is also how Esther overcomes her losing virginity so she breaks out of the norm of having to be constricted by marriage. The cover of the woman with the long dress shows innocence and how it was almost taking savagely in bell jar, by Marco, when he tries to rape Esther. A quote that depicts this scene and explains it stated, “I began to see why woman-haters could make such fools of women. Woman-haters were like gods: invulnerable and chock-full of power” The cover exemplifies both the theme of purity and innocence, and how Esther deals with how to live her life and break out of the norm of having to assimilate to society.

Both covers have dabbled into different themes of the text, “The Bell Jar.”  The cover that best fit for the story itself is the first original cover from the 1963 publication. When you read the title, “The bell Jar”, you want the cover or the illustration to give an idea as to what the text, might be about. The giant bell jar, gives with the shadowed woman give insight to the reader and the metaphorical message of being trapped. With the cover of the woman’s half body, with the long dress and legs showing below the knee does not flow with the title. This cover plays out more of a complex idea, where deciphering what the meaning of the woman’s half body only being shown and legs  have  correlation with the title, “The Bell Jar”.

Ultimately the illustrators of both covers had different ideas that they developed these unique covers. One has shows the obvious meaning of bell jar and how important of a symbol it will play out. The other uses a different method that might throw you off with a woman’s half body with a long dress. Esther is experiencing all these ideas that the covers envelop, like feeling trapped, indecisiveness, dealing with the understanding of her purity and innocence.

The Bell Jar

 Part

 2

An image that I believe that would best fit a cover for Sylvia Plath’s book, the “The Bell Jar”. This image is a woman crouched inside a giant jar. The giant jar is on a dark gray surface and the background shows is a light gray. The color, gray sets a depressive move. The woman inside the actual jar is wearing black and is so crunched over that her knee. The jar is not spacious and has a lid on it. The woman is trapped and looks depressed on how her back is hunched over as well, like if she is helpless in getting out.  It is not a Bell jar, what metaphorically, it shows how Esther from” The Bell Jar” , was trapped in an imaginary bell jar that was really her mind and the troubles of marriage or seeking a independence by having a career.

This cover fits the story, The Bell Jar, because this image shows the theme of Esther’s mind being a trap. She becomes mentally unstable that sends to a psychiatric center. She struggles by trying to find herself in society she has to make the choice of either being successful in a career or being married and be taking care of a family. A quote that is

“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story.  From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked.  One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn’t quite make out.  I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose.  I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”

This quote represents how Esther is unclear what choice she is supposes to make because she wants independence or be happily married. So this is why an image like this, would fit with the story and the idea of conflicting choices.

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