The female character I’m going to go with from The Bell Jar is Doreen. Doreen is societies idea of the perfect woman, shes blonde, blue eyed, perfect slim body, and just plain girly but as an adult. I see Doreen as one of those girls you would have wanted to be in high school, the popular girl. She’s not the boring type who just wants to sit around and do nothing, she wants to be out there, enjoying life. Her looks are her top priority, she has to look good in everything she puts on, you have to be able to notice her. I believe her primary job is to make sure she looks good, making sure to keep up with all the rules there are for being a woman. Such as not eating too much, wearing lots of make-up, wearing tight dresses and etc. Doreen is definitely someone who values her reputation and is mostly interested in looking good, and enjoying life with whatever man that’s looking to do the same.

Esther is very envious of Doreen as she says in the text, “I guess one of my troubles was Doreen.” (Plath 4) Esther sees Doreen and wishes that could be her, the beautiful one, the one that gets all the handsome guys like Lenny, just the perfect woman that she is. At the same time Esther is very annoyed with Doreen, being around Doreen makes it hard for her to be herself. When they are at the bar with Lenny and his so called friend Frankie, and shes orders a vodka straight up while Doreen order a “old-fashioned”, the waiter gives her a very odd look because it isn’t a girly drink like Doreen’s. I feel as if she has to pretend to be someone else when shes with Doreen just to fit in. If Doreen was a true friend to Esther she wouldn’t make it so hard for her and then basically throw it in her face, and that’s why they eventually being to drift apart.

In my opinion I don’t feel that Doreen represents a positive role model for women.She makes it seem like woman must be perfect and must have all the feminine qualities society sets out for them. A woman shouldn’t have to work hard to be beautiful and limit the things they want to do,or be someone other than who they are to fit in with society. Esther doesn’t dress to impress like Doreen she wears what makes her comfortable, what she feels she looks beautiful in. Like when they were going out Esther wore a dress that wasn’t even as expensive as I’m pretty sure Doreen’s own was as she wore a “white lace dress” (Plath 6) that hugged her body and showed off her curves.”This dress was cut so queerly I couldn’t wear any sort of a bra under it, but that didn’t matter much as I was skinny as boy, and I liked feeling almost naked on the hot summer nights.” (Plath 6).Most females like Doreen wouldn’t dare not wear a bra because then her boobs wont pop out the way she would want. Doreen just does too much.

The character I chose to write about was Jay Cee. Jay Cee was the boss of Esther and the other girls down at ladies day. Esther described her as being “ugly as sin”. Jay Cee was clearly not as fashionable as the other girls. This didn’t really matter since Jay Cee was very smart. Jay Cee seems to be very caring and has her own way of doing things. An example is when she called Esther into her office and was questioning her about future plans. It’s obvious that she only wants the best for Esther and wants to see her accel. Though she may come off as unkind in her attempts to show this. Being someone who was smart it’s clear to see that Jay Cee valued intelligence in others. She did know many famous poets. Esther said that she really likes Jay Cee. She thinks that Jay Cee only wants to teach her a thing or two. In my eyes Jay Cee seems to be the perfect role model for a girl. She has the intelligence and seems to be very successful at what she does. It was her knowledge that got her this far in life. I think that all the girls should strive to be like Jay Cee, though they should definitely add their own flair to it. The path that Jay Cee took may not be for everyone, but you can not argue with her results. I believe that it is women like Jay Cee that do very well in the world we live in today.

One of the other female characters in the novel that is not Esther is her “friend” Doreen. The reason why I put quotation marks around that word is I not so sure if they are really true friends. In the book “The Bell Jar”, she is a character that is introduced as this attractive 10 out 10 female that can make any guy fall for her with a glance. She is from a society girls’ college down south and is described to me as someone who is only interests in her appearance and having a good time with whoever is available at the moment. She values going out and and turning up. During my reading we see that she hooks up with this guy that she just met named Lenny and one moment they are all over each other kissing and taking a long drink and the next we see her hanging on to his left earlobe with her teeth.The way Esther see Doreen can be viewed as someone who has the best friend who everyone loves and every time they walk in a room everyone turns to catch a glimpse while she is just the sidekick to her hero. During the reading so far the represent of the positive role of a woman, a negative role, or something else shows me that Doreen is a negative role. The reason being is that she hooks up with people she has know for less then a day and comes home a mess just shows me that she is unfit to lead the next generation. I understand that she is young and she should go and have fun but there’s a limit to that and she went over it. She is a character that doesn’t care about her job at the magazine like Esther and being on time she is one that goes to out and parties with strangers. She is full of confidence and doesn’t have her mind set on a real goal at the moment she is living for the moment and that is fine.

Esther introduces Doreen as one of her “troubles” (Plath 4) in the very beginning of the book. Doreen is  the definition of perfect beauty, according to society of course. She “… had bright white hair standing out in a cotton candy fluff round her head and blue eyes like transparent agate marbles…”( Plath 4). She is different from the rest of the girls, she is a distraction for Esther. She wears silk robes and is very outgoing, likes to smoke and seems to be very experienced with men and life generally; enough to make sarcastic comments about almost everyone she’d meet. There is no description of what her career is or what she is working on but she definitely seems to be interested in fashion mostly. When they had the shoot for the magazine, her object for describing her career was a sari, ” to show she wanted to be a social worker in India (she didn’t really, she told me she only wanted to get her hands on a Sari).” (Plath 101).

A woman like Doreen would still be considered promiscuous, even in now days because we still live in an era where society plays a big role.  A woman is still expected to be modest and pure and Doreen is the complete opposite. She is an interesting character though, she doesn’t care about the magazine or handing in the drafts like Esther or going to the parties with all the girls but rather go out on her own and get drunk with a random man. She also doesn’t seem lost or confused like Esther, even though she does’t have her mind set on becoming a writer or a poet; she still seems confident and that makes her an interesting character in this book.

     In the “Bell Jar” by Sylvia Plath which is about a young woman and her struggles in New York City, starting her career but faces traditions and options that may not be ideal for her. The main character Esther is becoming a women in the mid 20th Century, she has many women in her life who show her all her options on who she can become. One being her boss at the magazine that she works at, Jay Cee. Jay Cee is viewed as this woman who is all work and has no mind for her appearance. For example “She looked terrible ,but wise”(pg 36). She is known to be very wise and strict to a fair extent. She is the best at what she does but isn’t expected to be seen as beautiful. Jay Cee’s characteristics being smart, kind, strict, fair, professional and moral, she values professionalism. Esther views her as her ‘best choices possible future role model, especially in a world where women with great careers will lose all that after marriage. I personally view her as starting point, women can be both beautiful and about their careers. It also not fair to judge appearances and to be so vain in a time about women’s fight for equality. For women to have a great example like Jay Cee in a moment when even the company is being controversial, such as presenting material items that are all for appearance to women who need different resources to start the careers they wish to proceed.

The female character I will describe is (Doreen). The opinion I have formed so far from my reading regarding her characteristics go as follows: she is a very sexy sultry woman. I also view her as socialite since initially her background being educated as a society girl. Doreen’s values aren’t traditional because she doesn’t seem to be focusing on a husband and children, like women of that era were.

For example, her interests at the time reflect on her appearance, partying, drinking, and looking for attractive men. Esther’s prospective on Doreen can be viewed as envious and admiring all at the same time. Because Doreen is viewed as a worldly woman the kind that most men find intriguing , and Esther is more of plain jane who finds more solace in reading then concentrating on her appearance.

I don’t consider Doreen as negative or positive role model for women at this time because she hasn’t found her course for her future endeavors, such as, goals and aspirations. She is very self absorbed according to Esther: “I’d never known a girl like Doreen before. Doreen came from a society girls college down South and had white hair standing out like cotton candy fluff. She is fashion conscious. It suggested a whole life of marvelous, elaborate decadence that attracted me like a magnet.”

Doreen values are different from the other girls, she comes across as promiscuous and eager to explore her sexuality.  Where the other girls are more concerned with their virtue and how they’re perceived by society.

Jay Cee is a crucial character in the book, The Bell Jar. Jay Cee is the editor of the Ladies Day magazine and she is also Esther’s boss. Primarily, she acts as the role model for Esther. Esther idolizes Jay Cee due to the fact that Jay Cee is a career oriented and ambitious woman. While most other women at the magazine concern themselves with their physical appearance, Jay Cee is the opposite. Jay Cee isn’t very beautiful and has lack of fashion but carries self-confidence. Jay Cee is married to a man although she represents a self sustaining woman.Jay Cee and Esther share a common quality, they both greatly value their intelligence. As much as Esther looks up to Jay Cee, Jay Cee has also taken a liking to Esther and wishes to help Esther succeed. Jay Cee can read a couple of languages and advises Esther that learning new languages would be beneficial to her career development.“You ought to read French and German,” Jay Cee said mercilessly, “and probably several other languages as well, Spanish and Italian–better still, Russian. Hundreds of girls flood into New York every June thinking they’ll be editors. You need to offer something more than the run-of-the-mill person. You better learn some languages” (Plath33). Jay Cee is well respected by Esther. In my opinion, Jay Cee represents the type of woman that works hard and earns her success by herself. So its easy to see why Esther would aspire to be like Jay Cee. Most young woman are stereo typically expected to get married to a successful man and become a housewife but Jay Cee defies those expectations. Jay Cee represents a positive role model because she breaks away from what a woman should be. For Esther, Jay Cee is positive role model because of her marital status and her success

Mrs. Willard is the “ideal and proper” woman by the mid-20^th century description of what a woman is. She is a housewife of a university professor and her sole purpose is to take care of her husband, son and house. Mrs. Willard does not mind being a wife who cooks breakfast and dinner for her husband and also cleans dishes and the house. She likes those things so much that she would take the time to braid a rug out of strips of wool from her husband’s old suits that in a few days would be so dirty that no one would be able to differentiate it from other rugs. Mrs. Willard was not always a housewife. Matter of fact, before her marriage to her husband, Mrs. Willard had a career as a teacher in a private school; however she soon left that career to be a housewife (Plath ). She is very traditional when it comes to male and female roles in society. On page 71 of The Bell Jar, Esther mentioned Mrs. Willard’s view when it comes to male and female virginity and how she stared hard at her on one visit  to see whether she was a virgin or not.

As I mention before Mrs. Willard is the “proper” femininity but Esther does not respect her for it. She does not value marriage like Mrs. Willard does because Esther says: “So I began to think maybe it was true that when you were married and had children it was like being brainwashed” on page 85 of The Bell Jar. What she means is that all the wives do is cleaning, cooking and staying home, they forget about the life they had before marriage. She thinks it is “a dreary and wasted life for a girl with fifteen years of straight A’s” meaning  is it is a waste of time to have gone to school and university then spend the rest of life cleaning and cooking, therefore wasting  time doing nothing worthwhile.

I can understand where Esther is coming from about her statements of marriage because back in the days that was the norm but today it is totally different; people have  a choice mostly whether they get married or not. However, I disagree with Esther about family life being a waste of time because caring and nurturing a family is not an easy task; a woman does a lot to take care of a family.

Plath , Sylvia. “The Bell Jar.” London: Harper Perennial, 1963. 71, 84-85.

Jay Cee is the editor of “Ladies’ day Magazine,” she is also the boss of Esther. Jay Cee is a married women who wears suits, hats, and thick eyeglasses. She tries to make herself more appealing with feminine like pastel colors. Many people would say she is smart and excellent with her management skills, however, strict. In the book “The Bell Jar” Doreen, who is Esthers’ roommate, stated, “Jay Cee’s ugly as sin, I bet that old husband of hers turns out all the lights before he gets near her or he’d puke otherwise.” (Pdf. Pg. 5) However, Esther viewed her differently. In the book she replies back to Doreens’ thoughts by stating, “She wasn’t one of the fashion magazine gushers with fake eyelashes and giddy jewelry. Jay Cee had brains, so her plug-ugly looks didn’t seem to matter.”(Pdf. Pg. 5) In the book you can tell Jay Cee takes her job very seriously. When Esther was falling behind she brought her into her office and made sure to get her back on track. Jay Cee gives her some advice and suggest that Esther should study languages as a key to becoming successful in the business of editing magazines or any other work in publishing. This shows me that Jay Cee can also be somewhat caring and want what’s best for the girls; at one point in the story Esther even compares her to her very own mother. My view on Jay Cee is that she is a wonderful role model for females. Being that the story took place in the 1950’s I know how hard it must have been for women to actually succeed and step out the “housewife” zone.  I wouldn’t mind having someone like Jay Cee around who is a successful business/career women.