Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath - Book Report/Review Example

After this incident, she returns home. She discusses her boyfriend Buddy, a medical student, at great length and questions whether he is the right type of person to marry. The novel seems to characterize him as well-put-together, but perhaps not the right fit for Esther. She soon learns that she got rejected from a writing class and has to spend the summer at home. During this time her nihilistic thoughts continue and her condition drastically deteriorates. At this point, she gets electric shock therapy and it’s one of the most shocking parts of the book.

Later she attempts to slit her wrists but is unsuccessful. She is similarly unsuccessful in hanging herself, but eventually overdoses on pills and is set to an asylum. At the asylum, she befriends a woman named Joan, who makes sexual advances to her, and later hangs herself. They give Esther insulin and electroshock therapy at the asylum and her mood gradually improve. They begin to let her go out, and she meets a man named Irwin and loses her virginity. The experience is painful and she has to go to the emergency room.

Eventually, Esther regains her health and apparently her sanity and prepares to go back to college. However, looming over her head, and the conclusion of the novel is the chance that she has another emotional breakdown. The novel concludes at this point.