Sylvia Plath once wrote, “I felt very still and empty, the way the eye of a tornado must feel, moving dully along in the middle of the surrounding hullabaloo” – and anyone who has experienced depression understood. Plath’s work, specifically the “The Bell Jar,” shows mental illness in a raw and deeply honest way, so much so that it continues to impact readers today.
Plath’s life was just as complex and emotional as the characters she wrote. She was a brilliant student and poet, who, unfortunately, dealt with depression from an early age. One of her most loved semi-autobiographical pieces, “The Bell Jar,” which was published shortly before her suicide, took a look into the world of a young girl trying to figure herself out while being weighed down with depression.
The protagonist, Esther Greenwood, shows the readers a mind that feels completely detached from the world. Plath is able to so effortlessly convey the numbness and confusion that often plagues an individual struggling with their mental health. It’s not outright, however. It’s quiet. Devastatingly minute. Esther’s downfall isn’t dramatic (as most literature tends to do with mental struggles) but chillingly stiff, as it reflects on the horror of losing purpose.
What made Plath such an icon in the literary world, however, was not just her talent – it was her honesty. The stigma around mental health in the 1960s, especially for women, was suffocating and lonely. Plath’s book, which talks about the pressures of women to just smile (and get shock therapy and take drugs), challenged this head on. Her willingness to explore her struggles in such an honest and unfiltered way made her not just a great writer – but a revolutionary one.
Plath’s writing has had a profound long term impact. She was one of the first writers to portray mental illness not as a moral failing, but a deeply rooted condition. This has allowed writers, and readers, for decades to talk more openly about a once deeply stigmatized issue. Today, in a society that gives more attention to mental health, her work continues to be cited for those struggling. What she wrote wasn’t only beautiful – it was important.
