"I was my own woman" - Breakdown and Recovery in Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar and Margaret Atwood's The Edible Woman
(2013) ENGK01 20131English Studies
- Abstract (Swedish)
- During the 1950’s and 1960’s an unexplainable phenomenon arose amongst middle class
women in North America. Women in the suburbs experienced a feeling of emptiness even
though they believed they had everything they could ever ask for in life. This phenomenon is
covered by Betty Friedan in The Feminine Mystique (1963) where she discusses the identity
crisis and loss of self that many women experienced during this time. In Sylvia Plath’ The
Bell Jar (1963) and Margaret Atwood’s The Edible Woman (1969), the two characters Esther
Greenwood and Marian MacAlpin are faced with the housewife ideal of the 1950’s and
1960’s. The characters follow a similar plot pattern in which they descend into a dark place
and rise out of it in the end;... (More) - During the 1950’s and 1960’s an unexplainable phenomenon arose amongst middle class
women in North America. Women in the suburbs experienced a feeling of emptiness even
though they believed they had everything they could ever ask for in life. This phenomenon is
covered by Betty Friedan in The Feminine Mystique (1963) where she discusses the identity
crisis and loss of self that many women experienced during this time. In Sylvia Plath’ The
Bell Jar (1963) and Margaret Atwood’s The Edible Woman (1969), the two characters Esther
Greenwood and Marian MacAlpin are faced with the housewife ideal of the 1950’s and
1960’s. The characters follow a similar plot pattern in which they descend into a dark place
and rise out of it in the end; Esther falling into depression and Marian to developing an eating
disorder. Both characters also express feelings of objectification as Esther feels trapped in a
bell jar and Marian relates to food being produced and consumed. This essay examines the
characters breakdowns in terms of the starting point, the crisis and the resolution. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/3938749
- author
- Kitanoska, Karolina
- supervisor
-
- Anna Lindhé LU
- organization
- course
- ENGK01 20131
- year
- 2013
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- women’s role in the 1950’s and 1960’s, Individuality, identity crisis, housewife ideal, depression, eating disorder, objectification
- language
- English
- id
- 3938749
- date added to LUP
- 2013-08-06 11:27:42
- date last changed
- 2013-08-06 11:27:42
@misc{3938749, abstract = {{During the 1950’s and 1960’s an unexplainable phenomenon arose amongst middle class women in North America. Women in the suburbs experienced a feeling of emptiness even though they believed they had everything they could ever ask for in life. This phenomenon is covered by Betty Friedan in The Feminine Mystique (1963) where she discusses the identity crisis and loss of self that many women experienced during this time. In Sylvia Plath’ The Bell Jar (1963) and Margaret Atwood’s The Edible Woman (1969), the two characters Esther Greenwood and Marian MacAlpin are faced with the housewife ideal of the 1950’s and 1960’s. The characters follow a similar plot pattern in which they descend into a dark place and rise out of it in the end; Esther falling into depression and Marian to developing an eating disorder. Both characters also express feelings of objectification as Esther feels trapped in a bell jar and Marian relates to food being produced and consumed. This essay examines the characters breakdowns in terms of the starting point, the crisis and the resolution.}}, author = {{Kitanoska, Karolina}}, language = {{eng}}, note = {{Student Paper}}, title = {{"I was my own woman" - Breakdown and Recovery in Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar and Margaret Atwood's The Edible Woman}}, year = {{2013}}, }