Analysis Of The Bell Jar A Streetcar Named Desire ...

Compare and contrast the imagery of death and decay in the opening sections of ‘The Bell Jar’, ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ and ‘Hamlet’. Sylvia Plath’s 1963 novel ‘The Bell Jar’, Tennessee Williams’ 1947 play ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ and William Shakespeare’s 1603 play ‘Hamlet’, share many similarities, albeit there are also differences, in the way in which the themes of death and decay are presented. Sylvia Plath’s poor mental health, which subsequently lead to her suicide on February 11th 1963, may be seen to be reflected in her novel, ‘The Bell Jar’. Death may be deemed to have a lack of meaning throughout her novel due to the casual manner in which the protagonist and narrator, Esther Greenwood, deals with death. Esther’s father passed away when she was nine years old, and she feels that his death marked the point at which she changed, resulting in her mental health becoming unstable. However, along with her mother, she ‘had never cried for [her] father’s death’ (p.159). This clearly demonstrates how Esther deals with death; it is a necessary part of life, and to Esther, as aforementioned, her mental health has caused her to view death as more desirable than ‘sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in [her] own sour air’ (p. 178). Moreover, Esther’s numerous attempts at s uicide remind the reader that Esther believes the only ‘way out’ is death. For example, in Chapter Thirteen, Esther asks her friend Cal, how he would kill