Confusion And Resistance

As one of the most important representatives of American confessional poets,Sylvia Plath won the Pulitzer Prize for Collected poems in1982. The themes of herworks are mostly derived from her personal experiences and history, reflecting herinner desires, despair and loneliness. The Bell Jar, which is basically deemed as aBildungsroman, is modeled on Plath’s own life experiences, depicting a promisingyoung girl Esther’s spiritual pursuit full of confusion and resistance on her journey oflife.The Bildungsroman is a kind of novels which refers to the development of ayouth into maturity or the struggle of adolescents for the identity and a position insociety. It centers on a central character’s narration about his or her maturationprocess for self-fulfillment which The Bell Jar has reflected well. Based on therelevant studies, this thesis attempts to explore absence of initiation guiders that resultin Esther’s confusion and rebellion on her special journey of life by Bildungsromantheory. So the traits of Bildungsroman in The Bell Jar can be presented in this way.The thesis is composed of five chapters.Chapter one introduces Sylvia Plath and the novel briefly, the situation of currentstudies on The Bell Jar at home and abroad, as well as the significance and themethodology of the thesis, while chapter two is the theoretical framework ofBildungsroman, concentrating on three parts of Bildungsroman, including its originand development of the term; definition and features; and the reason of The Bell Jaras a typical American Bildungsroman.Chapter three mainly expounds basic structural pattern of Bildungsroman in TheBell Jar on the basis of the relevant Bildungsroman theory, which contains protagonistleaving home, falling into perplexity and heroine’s destruction or epiphany. On theroad of questing self-realization, Esther fights hard to remain herself and sticks to thatindependent spirit.Chapter four focuses on the heroine Esther’s and other minor characters’ growthprocess into maturity in the absence of initiation guiders in the light of the theory ofBildungsroman’s protagonist. One includes guider absence in her life and career; the other consists of the unfavorable social environment and the lack of role models in theuniversity. These adverse elements have exerted negative influence upon Esther andother minor characters’ psychological development. Thus the heroine Esther falls intobarriers and confusion for establishing her identities.Chapter five illustrates the themes of the novel, that is, Esther’s identityperplexity and rebellion on her journey of life in accordance with the theory ofBildungsroman’s theme. In America, for a woman in the1950s, her identity primarilywas established by relationship to a man. The social role for Esther can only be “anangel in the house”, or “a condemned career woman”, while the sexual role judgmentfor her can only be either a “virgin” or a “whore”. Esther never makes compromisesto this unfair society, but rebels against these conventions by speech and action.The conclusion part summarizes The Bell Jar’s structure, characters and themesfrom the perspective of the Bildungsroman theory and so the traits of Bildungsromanin The Bell Jar are fully analyzed. Combined with Plath’s personal experiences, thisthesis aims to understand Esther’s mental breakdown and appeals to social concernabout the psychological development for intellectual young women. Meanwhile, itattaches much effect on the contemporary women for the consciousness of their ownvalue as well.