The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath’s novel The Bell Jar is a much-analysed and much-quoted cult classic of the 20th century. In part, the story, inspired by her own life, exposes with brutal honesty the stages of becoming a woman. Yet, it is also a rendering of the transitional period from adolescence to adulthood that is filled with insecurity, an expression of inner fears and a search for self-identity of elemental power.