Sylvia Plaths the Bell Jar as Disability Narrative

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the implications of disability theory for Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, a novel which has traditionally been read from a feminist perspective. Drawing on the work of many scholars in contemporary disability theory, including Rosemarie Garland Thomson, Arthur W. Frank, and G. Thomas Couser, this study seeks to examine the parallels between the experiences and struggles of the novel's protagonist Esther Greenwood and those commonly described in disability narratives. Although The Bell Jar is not typically read from through the critical lens of disability theory, such a reading offers a new perspective on the protagonist's depression and nervous breakdown, suggesting that Esther's mental distress should be understood not just as a response to patriarchal oppression but as an additional stigmatizing experience, one that compounds and intensifies her struggles and experiences as a woman. Such a reading also demonstrates many overlaps between experiences of femaleness and experiences of disability. However, these parallels are not absolute; to lump all women in the category of "disabled" is to ignore the unique concerns and experiences of disabled women, who face compounded oppressions, of both a patriarchal society and an ableist society. Thus, to say that Esther is "disabled" by patriarchal oppressions ignores the ways in which her experience of mental distress is also a stigmatizing and disabling experience.