Fictionalizing Self: Reading Plath's The Bell Jar as an Autobiography

Abstract

This research paper explores the process of fictionalizing self in Plath's The Bell Jar. It intends to fulfill its aim by applying insights from Linda Anderson's concept of Autobiography. The novel examines the protagonist Esther's quest for identity, to be herself rather than what society expects her to be. But Esther feels that she is a prisoner to domestic responsibilities and fears losing herself. Consequently, she even attempts suicide with a hope to escape from that 'state of imprisonment'. The tittle The Bell Jar itself is symbolic in the sense that it evokes the notion of trap. That is why, Esther is struggling for identity and attempting to learn and discover philosophy of life and art of living as the author Plath herself did. Plath, as does Esther in the novel, struggled in the world and rejected of the conformist ideas for a female in the 1950s. The novel can be read as an autobiography gives the reader the reflection of the author‘s own life as Plath fought with her own clinical depression and mental breakdown. The novel gives the biographical descriptions of Plath‘s life, gives an weird feeling to the readers that whatever thought, emotions and feeling Plath speaks through Esther are actually of her own. In short, the protagonist's descent into mental illness parallels Plath's own experiences of life. This research does not read The Bell Jar simply as a fiction, but as the author's biography as well. Moreover, Plath has written it blending factual and fictional incidents, making the novel a fictionalized autobiography.