Esther in the novel constantly uses the term ‘bell jar’ as a metaphor to reveal her feeling of confinement and entrapment. The title of the book, “The Bell Jar”, denotes the suffocation of the protagonist because she constantly feels caged inside an airless bell jar and gripped by insanity and depression, which disables her from connecting with the world around. The book describes the mental breakdown of the protagonist and her eventual recovery towards the end of the novel. Plath has poured her own life experiences and the protagonist in the novel has been inspired by Plath’s character. The book revolves around the story of a young woman, Esther Greenwood who is highly ambitious since childhood and who wants to become a poet. It was published in January 1963, one month before she died because of suicide (asphyxiation), for the first time under the pen name, "Victoria Lucas” and then later it was published again posthumously in 1966 under the author’s real name. The Bell Jar is a semi-autobiographical novel written by American poet, novelist, and short-story writer Sylvia Plath, in which names of the characters and places have been altered.
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