The Bell Jar - Feminist ThoughtThe Bell Jar This autobiographical novel by Sylvia Plath follows the story of Esther Greenwood, a third-year student who spends her summer in a ladies fashion magazine. in Manhattan. But despite her high expectations, Esther misses her job and becomes uncertain about her own future. She even becomes estranged from her traditionally-minded boyfriend, Buddy Willard, a medical student later diagnosed with tuberculosis. Returning to her native New England suburbs, Esther discovers that she has not been selected for a fiction course at Harvard Summer School and subsequently begins to sink into depression. Esther finds herself unable to concentrate and carry out her daily tasks. She therefore decides to follow a few sessions with Dr. Gordon, a psychiatrist, and even undergoes electroshock treatments. As depression sets in, Esther becomes obsessed with suicide and attempts suicide by crawling into the cellar where she then ingested a bottle of sleeping pills. Esther's attempt fails and she is taken to a city hospital, then to a private psychiatric establishment thanks to the intervention of a benefactor. As Esther begins to recover, she develops a close relationship with her psychiatrist, Dr. Nolan, and eventually leaves the hospital as a changed woman. This transformation, this spiritual reevaluation or this moral reconciliation is exactly the kind of happy ending described by Fay Weldon. In The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath ends the book with the scene of Esther going to meet the doctors of the mental evaluation committee. She stands outside the room with Dr. Nolan, observing the people around her and making observations about herself: "Don't be afraid," Dr. Nolan had said. But despite Doctor Nolan's assurances, I was scared to death. , I thought, to be a ritual for being born twice patched, retreaded and road approved, I was trying to think of a suitable ritual when Doctor Nolan appeared out of nowhere and touched my shoulder. Very good, Esther. I got up and followed her to the door... and guided by them (the doctors), as if by a magic thread, I entered the room. (p. 199) This particular assessment is important to the rest of the work because Esther is going through a drastic change in order to get to where she is now. At the beginning of the novel, Esther is considered very intelligent, but she faces the woman's dilemma: choosing between career and family and the ambivalence of remaining a virgin...