Personal Ambition And Self Respect By Mary Jane Ward s...

Personal Ambition and Self-Respect in The Bell Jar Inspired by Mary Jane Ward’s The Snake Pit, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath was released in 1963 and discusses a great deal of how difficult it was to be a woman in the 1960s. The 1960s was a struggling time for women; society set standards that women felt obligated to follow. Society told women that their only jobs were to get married, have children, and become homemakers, and if a woman did not fall under all of these categories, she was considered a social outcast. The main character, Esther Greenwood, fears that she will not make a good wife because she could not cook, she stood too tall, and danced poorly. Women also had many restrictions on what they could do. For example, they could not serve on a jury, get an Ivy League education, and they did not experience equality in the work place. Society expected women to follow these standards perfectly, without fault. How were women to live by all of these standards and still thi nk of themselves as strong and independent? Alas, because society focused so much on what women should do, that they did not appreciate some of the other things that some women could do. Intelligence, determination, and understanding were not considered impressive or useful to women in this time. The character Esther Greenwood in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar reflects the struggle to maintain self-respect and personal motivation in a society that demands perfection. Sylvia Plath starts off The Bell Jar