| How to Read Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar
In Jessica Zhan Mei Yu's novel But the Girl, the main character and first-person narrator is writing her PhD thesis on the work of Sylvia Plath. Plath is an iconic writer whose poetry is considered canonical by many but who is also sometimes dismissed as being a mere preoccupation for disillusioned teenage girls and young women. It seems reasonable to dismiss this societal view itself as sexism; Yu addresses the phenomenon in her novel and a recent interview. Still, it's undeniable that Plath has been and remains something of a rock star, susceptible to romanticization. The narrator says, "I loved Sylvia Plath because she always seemed sad and everyone loved her anyway, they even idealised her sadness as if it was a special type of happiness." While Plath's poems, particularly the collection Ariel, have been a starting point for many, her autobiographical novel The Bell Jar, which takes on a young woman's descent into mental illness, is the work that has given fans a feeling of having a window into her inner world.
The novel has long been viewed largely in the context of Plath's life, death, and struggles with mental illness. In more recent decades, it has also been read as a criticism of the times — both in view of the state of mental health treatment and the societal treatment of women. However, a stark contrast exists in how the woes of a relatively privileged white woman are treated versus how other social erasures and inequalities play out. ... continued
Article by Elisabeth Cook | 
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