The Bell Jar

Silke Gapsis
Mrs. Robinson
Analytic & Persuasive Writing
October 29, 2008

Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar

Vogler’s skeletal construction common to all stories, which can be found in his book The Writer’s Journey, can easily be seen in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. Throughout chapters nineteen and twenty, one can see different stages of the journey. What is so interesting is that the main character, Esther, has several journeys happening simultaneously. The first journey is Esther’s relationship with Joan. Joan is, in a sense, Esther’s Mentor and Ally. The two have gone through similar experiences; Joan just seems to be one step ahead of Esther (they both dated Buddy, they both went to the asylum, and Joan left the asylum which is what Esther had hopes of doing). As Esther’s Mentor, what happened to Joan could serve as foreshadowing for Esther’s future. However, it could also show Esther what not to do. The second journey is Esther’s journey through the Asylum and her hope to return to college. Throughout the reading one can see glimpses of Joan’s past, her Ordinary World. Her Call to Adventure was whatever event that transpired that caused her to enter the Asylum. Her hopes of returning to college and having a normal future shows her desire to return to her Ordinary World, which could only happen after she has recovered (the process of recovery would require Esther to be tested and to approach her Inner Most Cave). The third is her relationship with Irwin, which also brings into play her relationship with Buddy. For Esther, Irwin was both an Ally and a Trickster. His life did not really change after his sexual encounter with Esther, but her life did. She wanted to change, lose her virginity, because of “the corruption of Buddy Willard,” and that change caused her to go to the hospital. Buddy Willard seemed to be an Enemy of sorts, even though he was kind to Esther, because he, potentially, was the cause of her going to the Asylum and was the reason why she wanted to lose her virginity (which ended up in Esther getting hurt). Throughout those three instances parts of Vogler’s journey can be seen. What is so interesting about Plath’s use of the journey is that it is more realistic. Her approach does not follow the framework exactly, but rather reorders the journey and the appearance of archetypes to a more believable form; how they would appear in real life.


Plath, Sylvia. The Bell Jar. HarperCollins, 1963. 183 – 200.