In 1963, Sylvia Plath, who is mostly celebrated for her works of poetry, published her only novel "The Bell Jar". Plath’s novel is usually regarded as a semi-autobiographical novel that chronicles a young woman’s fall into depression and her recovery journey. This term paper investigates how the novel can be analyzed as a feminist text that critiques the conservative gender expectations of American women in the 1950s. Therefore, this analysis compares the traditional gender roles of the 1950s with the novel’s construction of society and establishes a relationship between the oppressive social dynamics and the protagonist’s mental illness.
Contents
1 Introduction
2 Female Gender Expectations in the American 1950s
3 The Bell Jar as a Feminist Novel
3.1 Criticism of the Oppressive Patriarchal Binaries
3.2 Relating the Protagonist’s Identity Crisis to the Social Constraints
3.3 Language as a Tool of Resistance
4 Conclusion
Bibliography
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