Essays
Insanity or Individuality: The Pursuit for Freedom in a Controlling World
Individual freedom is the essence of what makes us unique. Unfortunately, freedom isn't free; it is constrained by social norms that act as invisible cages. Today there are expectations that must be met everyday, but during the 1950s these norms were especially restrictive, specifically for young women. Expectations of marriage, child birth, domesticity plagued every woman at the time making it close to impossible to stray from the path. Any attempts to deviate would be met with complete ostracization - the equivalent of social suicide. In Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, Esther's repeated efforts to exert her autonomy through fasting, sexual freedom, and attempted suicides reveal her fruitless struggle for independence in a restrictive society, illustrating how a unilateral pursuit of agency can lead to a fragile sense of control that ultimately results in psychological turmoil.
After the traumatizing food poisoning incident at the sponsored Ladies' Day banquet, we see one of the first indications of Esther's mental degradation through her refusal to act. The individual fully controls the act of eating, but after falling ill to food poisoning, an incident out of Esther's power, Esther is stripped of any stability. As a result, Esther resorts to inaction, refusing to sleep and read and eat. To her "everything people did seemed so silly" because to Esther every action seems forced onto her (Plath 129). Thus, Esther attempts to exert her autonomy by refusing to consume any food; however, Esther's refusal to eat is considered abnormal leading to forced treatment with Doctor Gordon and electro shock therapy, highlighting the paradox of seeking independence in a system that punishes nonconformity. As a result, Esther becomes increasingly more distraught, grasping at more desperate measures to reclaim any sense of agency, in turn, creating a perpetual feedback loop.
We can see the feedback loop amplified by Esther's various romantic endeavors throughout the novel. Her relationship with Buddy Willard embodies the oppressive double standards of 1950s gender roles. While men like Buddy are allowed sexual experience without judgment, women are expected to remain pure, demonstrating a clear lack of freedom over one's own body. Esther feels disillusioned when she learns of Buddy's past sexual encounter, thinking, "I couldn't stand … Buddy pretending … he was so pure … when he [was] having an affair," revealing her frustration with the double standards and constraints imposed by a hypocritical society (Plath 71). In response, Esther seeks to assert control over her sexuality, not by repressing it, but by trying to engage with it on her own terms. Esther's claim that her "virginity weighed like a millstone around [her] neck" reveals that her relationship with Irwin is not driven by passion, but by a calculated attempt to reclaim agency and relieve the pressure placed on her (Plath 228). However, just like with her fasting, this attempt at escape backfires. The experience leaves her emotionally detached and physically harmed, culminating in a hospital visit after four failed phone calls. Once again, her pursuit of freedom results in increased vulnerability and harm, reinforcing the paradox that the more Esther fights for agency, the more she is stripped of it. This pattern escalates into her most desperate act - attempted suicide.
Esther's suicide attempts represent her most extreme effort to reclaim herself in a world that constantly undermines her autonomy. As her grip on her identity weakens under the weight of social expectations, institutional pressure, and internal conflict, death begins to seem like the only realm where she can escape. After an attempted overdose on sleeping pills, Esther describes the experience as "one sweeping tide," until she is suddenly saved by "hands wrapp[ing] round [her] limbs like mummy hands," demonstrating how even her attempts at death are thwarted by external forces (Plath 169-170). Suicide, in this context, becomes not just an escape from suffering, but a deliberate rejection of a life governed by others. The aftermath of her attempt does not offer freedom, but further entrenches Esther "in a special ward" where she complains about eating "beans and beans," highlighting yet another form of institutional control (Plath 181). Thus, her most dramatic assertion of autonomy ultimately results in the complete lack of it, revealing the tragic irony at the heart of her struggle. Every step she takes to seize independence only entangles her more deeply in the system she is trying to escape.
In short, Plath utilizes Esther's journey through a psychological crisis to explore the tension between individual autonomy and societal restriction. Whether through fasting, sexual rebellion, or suicide, Esther's efforts to claim her own life are consistently undermined by a world that punishes deviation and pathologizes dissent. Esther's pursuit of autonomy becomes a haunting illustration of how the desire for freedom, in the absence of social support, can only lead to collapse.