The novel has been translated into nearly a dozen languages. The novel was published under Plath's name for the first time in 1967 and was not published in the United States until 1971, in accordance with the wishes of both Plath's husband, Ted Hughes, and her mother. Plath died by suicide a month after its first United Kingdom publication. The book is often regarded as a roman à clef because the protagonist's descent into mental illness parallels Plath's own experiences with what may have been clinical depression or bipolar II disorder. Originally published under the pseudonym "Victoria Lucas" in 1963, the novel is semi-autobiographical with the names of places and people changed. Likewise, Esther often perceives lifeless objects as sentient beings, as when, lying beside Constantin, she sees his wristwatch as a green eye on the bed.The Bell Jar is the only novel written by the American writer and poet Sylvia Plath.
As it compares human body parts and human consciousness to everything from goose eggs to nooses, the novel’s language subtly complicates and questions stable understandings of ‘body’ and ‘mind.’ Esther’s perspective also frequently perceives parts of the human body as inanimate objects until she realizes they are feeling flesh, as when she comes round after fainting from food poisoning and sees a vague heap of cornflowers before realizing the heap is her own arm. The figurative language she uses is incredibly rich and original and feels simultaneously apt and bizarre. Plath’s prose style underscores the fundamental division between mind and body through its prodigious use of metaphor and estranging descriptions. Flashing back to her day on a ski slope near Buddy’s sanatorium, Esther remembers being exhilarated by the experience of hurtling downhill towards the sun, as if she could transcend her flesh and become “thin and essential as the blade of a knife.” In the first chapter of The Bell Jar, before Esther becomes depressed, she has a dissociative experience of not recognizing her reflection in the Amazon’s mirrored elevator door. Mind and body are always divided, as evidenced by Esther’s experiences at novel’s start and her memories of herself before her illness. It is not caused by mental illness-mental illness simply expands it. However, although Esther’s illness widens the gap between body and mind, that gap in fact exists throughout the novel. She keeps track of the body’s “tricks” to stay alive and is determined to “ambush” her body “with whatever sense I had left, or it would trap me in its stupid cage.” After her suicide attempt, Esther has trouble even recognizing her body, thinking her mirror reflection is a picture of someone else and watching her usually skinny body grow fat with insulin injections. At first, she simply refuses to wash it, but eventually she tries to be rid of it altogether by plotting her own suicide. Over time, Esther’s body becomes her antagonist. She frequently catches her body making sounds or engaging in actions that she was not aware of having decided to do, as when she can’t control her facial expression for the picture in Jay Cee’s office, or when she discovers herself sobbing at her father’s grave. As her illness amplifies, Esther loses control over her body, becoming unable to sleep, read, eat, or write in her own handwriting. This exploration unfolds most visibly in the development of Esther’s mental illness, which she experiences as an estrangement of her mind from her body. At its essence, The Bell Jar is an exploration of the divide between mind and body.
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