Spiritual Crisis In Svlvia Plath’s The Hell Jar

Sylvia Plath, one of the most talented Confessional poets of America in thetwentieth century, enjoys a high reputation in the American literary world and aunique position in the history of American literary. Her brilliant works have beenattracting increasing attention from critics. The Bell Jar, which explores a collegegirl student’s spiritual confusion and mental breakdown under the great pressure ofsocial conventions, acclaimed as “the first feminine novel in a Salinger mood”.Undoubtedly, Plath’s remarkable talent for poetry endows her only novel withremarkable poetic glamour. Reviews of the novel mainly focus on such themes asdeath and rebirth, initiation and feminism while few critics have attached enoughimportance to the theme of female’s spiritual crisis. The thesis studies female’sspiritual crisis in The Bell Jar and attempts to explore American women’s mentalstates in the mid-twentieth century from the following aspects: the formation ofEsther’s spiritual crisis, the motivating forces behind her spiritual crisis and herattempts made to walk out of it. Through analyzing the typical female image, theconfusion and struggles she experiences in her life journey, the thesis also discussesthe conflicts women have to face and the way they choose to solve them in theirquest for survival and spiritual growth in a male-dominated society.Besides Introduction and Conclusion, the thesis consists of three chapters.Chapter One demonstrates the formation of Esther’s spiritual crisis. Chapter Twoanalyzes the motivating forces behind Esther’s spiritual crisis in terms of the socialenvironment, the family environment, lack of female peers as well as herperfectionist attitude. Chapter Three discusses the constant efforts she makes to walkout of it, including her suicidal attempt, her deceptive madness, her deconstruction ofmaternal mythology and her subversion of traditional views on chastity. Conclusionrelates the main point of the thesis and points out that Esther’s individual spiritualcrisis serves as an epitome of women’s bitter struggles for their destiny against the oppressions in the patriarchal society and their fights for equal rights with men andtheir own value.