The Bell Jar Won't Shatter in Our Lifetimes

 While reading The Bell Jar, something that kept popping into my mind was glass. I would try to bring it up in class discussions, but I didn’t fully understand the meaning behind it. Originally, I was focused on the idea that glass can be fragile, and that if it shatters (which could be a representation of Esther attempting suicide) while it could break Esther free, it could prove to be fatal



But honestly, after trying to think through my thoughts about the importance of glass in the story, my original idea about Esther breaking the glass seems like the exact opposite of Plath’s intention of incorporating the glass of the bell jar. Maybe the glass is never meant to break. Maybe not breaking is another angle of looking at Esther’s depression in the book, where Plath is not letting Esther reach a breaking point. Maybe the glass throughout the story is rising from the ground with Esther stuck in it. We as readers seem to be waiting for this glass to drop and shatter on the ground, symbolizing freedom, but the plot, which represents Esther’s depression,  intentionally will not allow it.


An aspect of the glass other than fragility that drew my attention was its transparency. Glass usually doesn’t mask any imperfections, which could be Esther’s actual problem. She sees society, the progress and joy they create clearly. Life isn’t stopping while she is stuck in the bell jar. But the jar won’t allow her to leave her mark, or collaborate with others to potentially innovate or create something interesting. The jar isn’t blinding her, but dramatically limits all her other senses. This also connects to her depression, as it’s not like the world ceases to exist, but that it’s moving on without you, and no matter how hard you try, an invisible barrier that one can’t break through or cross seems to always stop you from catching up. This constriction slowly becomes suffocation, which Esther sums up by saying "wherever I sat – on the deck of a ship or a street café in Paris or Bangkok – I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air” (Plath 185). Esther is always surrounded by glass, yet no one seems to notice, or care enough to look for it.


- Sri

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