Talk:The Bell Jar

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This article was the subject of an educational assignment that ended on 2 April 2012. Further details are available here.

Untitled[edit]

-I've seen the Bell Jar also in the series Sabrina, the teenage witch. Could anyone add this?XKemical 17:39, 28 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

-Can someone add Showbread's song "The Bell Jar" to References?

The references would be ubiquitous, if we are to go down this road. Just last night I saw the character Meg reading a copy on 'Family Guy'. Khirad 07:14, 14 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

- Can someone add Savoy's track "Girl One" from the 2004 album 'Savoy' on which Lauren Savoy sings "I'm fine. Honestly. Ever read the bell jar?" —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.0.223.244 (talk) 02:26, 3 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Corrections Needed[edit]

the references do not appear to be functioning, there is an error at the bottom of the page that reads: "Cite error: <ref> tags exist, but no <references/> tag was found" whoever knows how to fix that, should. Also, there is a reference in the film adaptation section about a movie coming out in late 2008, which has come and gone, and there's no update on the current status on the film. can someone research that? --168.122.7.153 (talk) 13:22, 4 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Major Themes[edit]

Fair enough on the Feminist focus. Of course the gender related subject matter was subversive and poignant; that is not lost on me. Might I say though, that I, as a man, viscerally related to everything "chemical" she was going through? Just saying, as much as it was a landmark in Feminist prose, it was also way, way ahead of its time in addressing mental illness (which is also a civil rights issue affecting both women and men). I know that this may be a trite reading of the book, but Esther's Bell Jar was mine, as a man, as well. As such, though painfully obvious, I found it odd for mental illness to be conspicuously left out of the "Major Themes" section (the 'Growth Through Pain and Rebirth', as a motif is a good start; but as Plath wrote, "How did I know that someday—at college, in Europe, somewhere, anywhere—the bell jar, with its stifling distortions, wouldn't descend again?"). Could someone smarter than I perhaps add just a little on its impact, if any, on exposing and confronting the taboos and stigmas surrounding mental illnesses; whilst keeping the rest as is? Khirad 07:14, 14 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I just finished reading this book again and although this isn't a bad article if we remove the part about silly references in movies etc. I would like some sources for the selection of major themes. In particular I'm concerned about the point also raised above. EconomicsGuy (talk) 16:19, 8 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I just added a section on mental health as a theme in the bell jar and what some of the implications of that were. I used several scholarly sources. I thought this an important section to add because mental health is a vital theme in the novel and a way to understand how The Bell Jar is somewhat autobiographical of Plath's life. Kennedysundberg (talk) 18:31, 4 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Questions[edit]

Here's a question for Winthrop Ma, historians. Slyvia mentions laying on a beach and looking at Lynn (P 234) From the best I can tell she was on or near Short beach. Does anyone have a better idea? —Preceding unsigned comment added by MECAVTP (talk • contribs) 03:48, 28 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Titles in other languages[edit]

I would love to see a section containing the list of titles in which the book was published in other other languages —Preceding unsigned comment added by 190.245.172.21 (talk) 15:37, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Signpost?[edit]

Could someone explain the verb "to signpost" to me? I wrote a bit about Joanne Greenberg's encounter with one of Plath's ex-friends who said she'd been portrayed in The Bell Jar along with many of Plath's other friends from the magazine editorial contest and the mental hospital, some of whom were pretty annoyed with her. It actually broke up somebody's marriage. As a reference, I linked to the prx.org website which contains an mp3 sound file of Greenberg's interview. The link was removed and the summary said something about "the link does not signpost to the interview". What should I do? I mean, the interview is there, all a person has to do is listen to it. --Bluejay Young (talk) 10:02, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

References from other media[edit]

I suggest we cut the 'References from other media' section. Every famous artist has hundreds of people who are inspired by their work. The list is not comprehensive or notable. WP:TRIV says "Trivia sections should be avoided." Thanks Spanglej (talk) 04:34, 27 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Movie-specific details: relevancy?[edit]

I removed a few lines regarding a lawsuit over plot points in the movie version (that aren't present in the novel). Spanglej has reverted them, saying "pertains to the filming of the book". Is there a policy on relevancy that applies here? — Preceding unsigned comment added by NeoAdamite (talk • contribs) 16:39, 26 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Educational assignment edits[edit]

I removed a section from the 'Themes' section as the opinions of one author are forwarded as the cut and dried truth of the matter. This section is interpretative, if ref'd:

Men in the novel make the women feel like there are no uses for their talents, which are not traditional female talents like cooking, cleaning, and writing in shorthand. The Bell Jar also confronts the issue of having a mentor or a person to emulate. Throughout the course of the novel, Esther is searching for a role model. The problem with this is that all the characters “represent someone in caricature” who she was acquainted with. These people are all doubles of a little part of her personality. For example, the character Joan is said to be the lesbian part of Esther, lesbian meaning “challenging patriarchal society rather than actual sexuality”. Upon examining all possible role models, she realizes that they have some flaw. She struggles to find her ideal woman to emanate the whole novel.

In text from an article/book about Plath, it needs to obvious if the words are the critic's or Plath's.

The level of fiction over the story of Plath’s own life is so thin that her mother fought its publication in the United States since, according to her mother, “[p]ractically every character represents someone- often in caricature - whom Sylvia loved.”

This is synthesis. The story maybe autobiographical and Plath's mother may wanted to block publication, but it doesn't follow that one caused the other. Again, this is positing an opinion as a fact. Wikipedia seeks to present a neutral point of view, not just putting one perspective. Span (talk) 22:33, 30 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

A newer adaptation?[edit]

I saw a YouTube video dated in 2008 which had people Plath knew personally having a celebration of her 75th birthday, and in the crowd actress Julia Stiles asked a question, but when it showed her description it said she was to be the star of a new adaptation of The Bell Jar. Can anyone source this? --Matt723star (talk) 02:26, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Meaning of the Title[edit]

The bell jar referred to in the title is a jar that is made to perserve a dead baby for examination by medical students. Buddy Willard takes Esther to where he studies cadavers, and she discovers the dead babies kept inside of bell jars. Throughout the novel, Esther often compares herself to one of these babies, and her emotions form the bell jar that imprisons her in her own "sour air."

Source - The Bell Jar - Harper Perennial Modern Classics, page 237 (beginning of Chapter 20), page 63 (beginning of Chapter 6).

Theboombody (talk) 01:26, 2 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

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