How Esther Greenwood sees Society.
How Esther Greenwood sees Society
While reading the book "The Bell Jar." We have followed it through the perspective of Esther Greenwood, A 19-20 year old women going through depression when coming back from her trip too New York. I think that one of the main causes of her deteriorating mental scape is because of how society was in the mid 19th century. While we have therapy and other ways to help we our mental health. Those things weren't as prominent while Esther was around. And during the that time period, it was men over women. There are some men in the 21st century who believe they are over women. But, like I said it was more normalized in the 19th Century. Esther Greenwood sees this flaw in Society, while everyone thinks it normal. In this blog post I am going to go through some examples on how Esther sees society.
My first example is going to be Buddy Willard. While I am an avid Buddy Willard supporter, He still has a lot of flaws. Esther in the story calls him a hypocrite because of the affair he had with a waitress. When reading this story I first thought that was kind off the wrong word. First Buddy told the truth when Esther asked. Second, they had the affair before Buddy dated Esther. I realized that she wasn't calling Buddy a hypocrite, She was called society a hypocrite. Since society saw Buddy as the pure soul who is going to become a doctor. How come the pure soul can have an affair, but when a women does it they get ridiculed. Because of this difference between men and women, Esther calls Buddy a hypocrite. Another example I want to bring is when Buddy was proposing to Esther. Most people would expect the one who is proposing to say "will you marry me?" but instead Buddy say "Will be my Mrs. Buddy Willard." Now this made Esther probably more mad and it is understandable. Buddy is basically saying, will you get rid of all of your identity as Esther and just be the wife of Buddy. No wonder that threw Esther off, I would be too if someone told me to get rid of my identity.
For my next example, I am going to talk about Doctor Gordon. While I talking about him I am also going to include Doctor Nolan as well. Since she was the better doctor in Esthers case. When Esther first goes into Doctor Gordon's room there is one major that turns her off. It was a photo of him and his family. While that might not turn off most people, it turned off Esther. The reason being she saw the wife in that picture and saw that as her future. It reminds her of Buddy and her becoming Mrs. Buddy Willard. Another thing that Doctor Gordon doesn't do and what Doctor Nolan does do is try to understand Esther. I think Doctor Gordon was also view Esther like how society would view her. This was at a time were mental health wasn't that big of a deal. I think that Doctor Nolan did a better job at trying to have a relationship with Esther. For example when Esther says she hates her mom. Instead of Doctor Nolan getting mad a Esther or judging her. She builds on that and grows a deeper relationship with her.
To conclude, I think that "The Bell Jar" shows how much society was different in the mid 19th century and how it was hard for people to help others with the same kind of mental problems that Esther had. As well as Society caused some of those mental problems. Like Before New York, Esther was pretty positive and she had a suitcase full of dresses that she was going to wear. Then after New York, she came back with no dresses and looking like she got into a fight (which she did). Overall, this was an amazing book I would give more examples but I have already yapped to much. Oh, one more thing (be a Buddy supporter).
Hi Amari, I feel like you thoroughly explained your thought process and I feel that you effectively spread the peaches of this analysis. I myself never looked at the way you describe Esther not directly criticizing Buddy, calling him a hypocrite but instead calling society hypocritical due to allowing men to get away with doing things like adultery, but for women it is considered a crime despite them supposedly having equal rights. But I guess it reflects the long-standing perception of women which could be traced to the beginning of time, especially during the era of royalty where princesses would lose their identities and most solely be regarded as the "wife of the king" and the "mother of the prince". Great job!
ReplyDeletePeople make this mistake all the time, so don't feel bad, but Esther is living in the *twentieth century* (i.e. the years beginning with 19--), no the nineteenth. If she were living in the nineteenth century, that would be before the advent of modern psychology and Freudian psychoanalysis, which might seem like a good thing in some ways, but which would surely be even WORSE in terms of the anguish Esther would have to endure. Things are moderately more civilized in terms of psychiatric care in the 20th century, but there are still a range of dystopian features to these clinics and their treatment programs (most notably the electroshock, especially when it is *not done correctly*!).
ReplyDeleteDr. Gordon and Dr. Nolan are both *modern* psychiatrists, and even Gordon is applying cutting-edge technology to try to help Esther--he just isn't as skilled or experienced as Nolan, AND he has this tendency to ignore Esther's individuality and dismiss her experience. I would say that Nolan pursues "treatment" in even MORE modern and unconventional directions when she virtually "prescribes" birth control as part of Esther's psychiatric recovery.
And while I hesitate to come out as "pro-Buddy," I do feel some sympathy for the poor lug, especially when we see him humbled at the end of the novel. I align with your reading, seeing him more as an unwitting reflection of societal biases rather than a perpetrator of inequality himself. He benefits from the sexual double standard, and that's not cool, but he's not the one who *invented* it--he's just doing what society encourages and enables him to do. Even his mother, the paradigm of "purity culture" in this novel, is apparently totally okay with his "affair" with the waitress.
I can see a lot of parallels between Esther and Holden especially with they way they view society and their strong dislike for it. I agree that Esther notices the flaws in scoiety that everyone else seems to accept, which makes her feel isolated and frustrated. I also agree with your point about the double standard between men and women, especially in the example with Buddy Willard. Society stills sees him as respectable even after the affair, while Esther feels judged more harshly. The difference between Dr. Gordon and Dr. Nolan is important as well, because they way both of them treat Esther in very different ways and Dr. Nolan's treatment is way more effective. I don't know if I can be a Buddy Willard supporter but at the end of the novel I do feel some sympathy for him.
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