In Chapter 4 she refers to some beans that she used to believe “if I could get some of them and keep them for myself I would be all powerful”. This shows how the narrator viewed herself as a person without power, reflecting her isolation during her youth, and her reaction to the unsuitable religious and gender roles pressed upon her. These factors also contribute to her deciding that when she has a child, she “will never teach it any words.” an indication that she believes the sophistication of others who have mastered language and society have “turned [them] against their gods”. When the narrator does show that her actions are controlled by ‘gods’, she describes them “demanding, absolute, they want all.” Mirroring her early depictions of her peers as “a machine...takes a little of you at a time, it leaves the shell.” Her gods command her every move, insisting “the food in the cabin is forbidden” and “I’m not allowed to go back in that cage, wooden rectangle.” These rules seem to prohibit anything in connection with her life back out of Quebec, as she rejects that life as she feels she is rejected from that society. Although the rules of the ‘gods’ are in fact put in place by the character herself, it could still be argued that as she believes she is in the control of others, as she is inadvertently taking control, unlike Esther who consistently designs her own way through her obstacles.
As a result of this, the two protagonists of the novels appear to perceive their importance as individuals very differently; again this shows how one character takes her life into her own hands, whereas the other feels a lack of security in who she is. The narrator in Surfacing finds she is unable to connect with her peers to the point where she regresses to a state of animalistic behaviour, whereas Esther repeatedly sees herself as above other people, throughout her illness. An example of this would be her spell in Belsize, where she strikes up a relationship with her doctor, Doctor Nolan, in who she appears to trust. However, despite the fact she herself is deceptive, and doesn’t mind lying, she is appalled when she feels Dr Nolan has betrayed her, which she describes as “bare faced treachery”, when she discovers she is to have ECT. She goes as far as to comment “I liked Dr Nolan, I loved her, I had given her my trust on a platter and told her everything”, yet she had earlier taken a packet of the Doctors matches, and decided that if she asked for them back, she would “say I’d thought they were made of candy and had eaten them.” This shows how Esther views herself as above her own standards; the rules she imposes on others don’t apply to her, and mirrors how she disassociates herself from everyone else. Her entire concept of living in a bell jar is one of the focal points of the novel, and is wholly linked with her illness, for she uses the metaphor of existence in a bell jar to illustrate her state of mind, while at the same time providing a clear message of how she feels separated from society. At the other end of the spectrum, we have Surfacing’s unnamed protagonist, who from the beginning portrays her feelings of detachment from her peers- “either the three of them are in the wrong place, or I am.” Although she doesn’t hold her peers in particularly high regard, she does not see them as her equals, as shown by her referring to David as “an imposter, a pastiche, layers of political handbills” with distain, viewing him as indecisive and fake. Not only this but Anna’s obsession with make-up, and her fear of being seen without it is a stark contrast to the narrators reversal to her basic form.
The ‘madness’ of both characters is most simply depicted through their feelings of confinement, for the two of them both seem to be separated from the social order of their group. Firstly, Plath’s novel is permeated by a feeling of imprisonment, in particular represented as the bell jar that forms the title of the book. The bell jar itself represents Esther’s suffocation, for the jar is supposed to preserve its ornamental content but instead traps them in stale air. In one instance, Esther sees herself as “sitting in the crotch of this fig-tree, starving to death, just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose”. She doesn’t believe she excels at anything in particular, which makes it difficult for her to make a decision, clearly depicted by the scene in Jay Cee’s office where all the girls are to “be photographed with props to show what [they] wanted to be.” In this, Esther see’s how “Betsy held an ear of corn to show she wanted to be a farmer’s wife, and Hilda held the bald faceless head of a hatmaker’s dummy to show how she wanted to design hats, and Doreen held a gold embroidered sari to show she wanted to be a social worker in India.” Esther’s indecision over her future is shown when she retells “When they asked me what I wanted to be I said I didn’t know.” The contrast between Esther and her peers illustrates how she feels disassociated from them, the disappoint from this is one contribution to her decent into madness, as shown by her reaction to not making a Harvard writing course- “All through June the writing course had stretched before me like a bright, safe bridge over the dull gulf of the summer. Now I saw it totter and dissolve, and a body in a white blouse and green skirt plummet into the gap.” This quote mirrors Esther’s journey, and the ‘body’ quite clearly represents herself as hurtling into the unknown without direction. Even the place where Esther is found after her suicide attempt represents a sense of confinement, as Esther is literally holed up in her basement, “crouched at the mouth of the darkness, like a troll” illustrating how she views herself not as a talented young woman with her whole life in front of her, but as a hermit, doomed to live alone and repulsive. However, this proves to be the only instance where Esther is physically trapped, the other instances in which this theme appears are allegorical, signifying that her sense of confinement is largely mental, and Plath plays on this repeatedly throughout the novel to depict her characters madness. Atwood, on the other hand, shows confinement to be more of a separation from the rest of community than confinement. Right from the beginning, the narrator is revealed to be an English speaker in Quebec, which at the time which the novel was set, was aspiring to become an independent French-speaking nation. “My family was, by reputation, peculiar as well as anglais” shows how the narrator regards that to be English is on par with being peculiar, and therefore sets her apart from the rest of the community. She narrates a scene in a shop where she tries to buy hamburgers, and finds herself mocked by the locals- “Avez-vous du viande hâche?’ I ask her, blushing because of my accent” clearly shows how uncomfortable she is in the situation, and it imitates later passages in the novel where she feels her language lets her down- “Again the strangling feeling, paralysis of the throat”. This whole theme demonstrates how the narrator feels no place anywhere, and a reason why she reverts to animalistic behaviour, for in her mind, it simplifies everything. She states that “the trouble that some people have being German, I thought, I have being human.”** The narrator is shown to be so disconnected from her peers throughout the novel, that she repeatedly equates human interaction with that of animals. A clear example of this is when she overhears David and Anna having sex in the next room, and compares the final noise to be “not a word but pure pain, clear as water, an animal’s at the moment where the trap closes.” The protagonist herself does not associate sex with the same pleasure that her peers do, describing pleasure itself as “redundant, the animals don’t have pleasure.” -another instance of where she likens herself to animals instead of conforming to the behaviour which she feels is expected of her.
The madness portrayed in both novels could be argued, for instance in ‘The Bell Jar’ it is sometimes suggestive that Esther considers herself to be unbalanced because she feels it is an accepted situation for a young woman, particularly one as talented and sensitive as herself, to go through. This is particularly amplified by the fact she attends the same hospital as her patron did when she suffered a breakdown.*quote*. However, this has two sides, for the novel is famously semi-autobiographical, and Sylvia Plath herself was depressed, eventually killing herself, therefore the descriptions of how Esther feels during her breakdown are first-hand from Plath herself. In turn, looking at ‘Surfacing’ the main character seeks no attention for herself; in fact she hides from her friends, not completely because she considers them ‘bad’. Yet her spell of insanity lasts only for a few days, and when it is over she seems to revert completely to her old self, with no recovery period. Therefore it could be argued that the narrator wasn’t in fact mad, but was simply reacting to the stress she felt from the rest of the group, coupled with the discovery of her father’s body. Another factor to this is the reliability of the narrators, for Esther is precise in her narrative; she is able to recollect her entire drama coherently, integrating passages of past experiences fluently. The memories she brings up are relevant, and are all remembered in the same tone, whereas the protagonist in ‘Surfacing’
For both novels, madness is a central theme which defines both the direction and tone of the novels. In Sylvia Plath’s ‘The Bell Jar’, madness is illustrated most strongly through Esther’s perception of herself- she seems to create an idea of what she is so easily, yet simultaneously struggling with choosing a future for herself. The simple fact that Esther is a young woman with very little life experience means that the novel develops into an alternate coming of age story, which simply heightens the expectation that it is likely to contain angst and personal complications. In contrast to this, ‘Surfacing’ is introduced as a search for a missing father; the initial focus is not on the protagonists state of mind, more the relationship between her and Joe, and her memories of home. Therefore the issue of madness is conveyed as more deviant than it is depicted in Esther’s situation. However, whereas ‘Surfacing’ provides a more substantial meaning for the mental deterioration of its main character in her father’s death, in ‘The Bell Jar’ there seems little reason for Esther’s depression.
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