Plath reading One good paragraph

Andrew Biersack
10/28/08
Robinson
Plath reading one paragraph

In this section, chapters nineteen and twenty of Sylvia Plath’s novel Bell Jar, the reader is precariously dropped into the rather unusual life of one Esther, a resident of an eastern seaboard asylum. Esther recounts her series of unfortunate luck concerning her life while attempting to leave the asylum and get her life back on track. On one of her visits to town she meets a man named Irwin, a young well to do professor with plenty of luck with the local women, and after some wining and dining she resolves to bed Irwin. As Esther loses her virginity her usual bleeding gives way to hemorrhaging, but fearing rejection she keeps quiet about the severity of her situation and asks to be taken to Nurse Kennedy’s flat where her asylum companion Joan was currently residing. There she collapses and is tended to and returned to the asylum. Her terrible luck continues when she is awoken, finding herself in the asylum, and being told that her caretaker, Joan, has committed suicide. Concurrently, Esther is awaiting her final interview to determine whether she will be released and allowed to return to college, fulfilling her dream of returning to normal life and the support of her mother. Feeling guilty and questioning if he is the cause of the women’s misfortunes, Irwin visits Esther in the asylum and bluntly asks is his dating of Joan and later Esther was the cause for their misfortunes. Esther assures him he is not, asks him to cover her bill at the asylum and promptly dismisses Irwin forever. Esther attends the funeral of her friend Joan and is taken in by the scenery of the place she is committed to leaving and finds the courage to face the interview with the panel of doctors. Though the events are rather horrible and startling, Esther faces them rather unchanging throughout these chapters with a confidence from within. Esther perseveres through these trials and we are unaware whether or not she release is granted but are left with the feeling that regardless, Esther will be fine all the same.