Earlier in her life Plath remarked that..." it's quite amazing how I've gone around in my life as in a rarified atmosphere of a bell jar" . She "wrote" this book over a period of 10-12 years, trying to autobiographically describe the confinements and restrictions of gaining success. The bell jar was, metaphorically, the apprentice work one (she) had to go through in order to free oneself(her) from the past. In short, the price you pay to do want you want.
2006-12-18 10:47:22
·
answer #1
·
answered by Wego The Dog 5
·
4⤊
0⤋
Didn't you ever see a bell jar in your secondary school science classes?
See this site for more notes about the book:
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/belljar/
The bell jar is an inverted glass jar, generally used to display an object of scientific curiosity, contain a certain kind of gas, or maintain a vacuum. For Esther, the bell jar symbolizes madness. When gripped by insanity, she feels as if she is inside an airless jar that distorts her perspective on the world and prevents her from connecting with the people around her. At the end of the novel, the bell jar has lifted, but she can sense that it still hovers over her, waiting to drop at any moment.
2006-12-18 10:49:15
·
answer #2
·
answered by Anonymous
·
0⤊
0⤋
A bell jar is a piece of laboratory glassware in the shape of a bell.
[edit] Experiments using a bell jar
It can be sealed, which allows it to be used in a classroom science experiment involving an alarm clock and a vacuum pump. The air is pumped out of the sealed bell jar, and the noise of the alarm clock fades, thus demonstrating that the propagation of sound is mediated by the air. Deprived of its medium, the sound cannot travel.
Bell jars can also be used to simulate the vacuum of space. Hardware can be tested for performance issues in a bell jar which has been evacuated of air.
For information on Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, follow this link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bell_Jar
2006-12-18 10:48:28
·
answer #3
·
answered by notaxpert 6
·
0⤊
0⤋
This was my favorite book in high school. I've probably read it a couple of dozen times. It was a coming of age novel for me at a time when I often felt confused and miserable. The Bell Jar gave me something to identify with and the opportunity to learn a little bit more about someone's actual life since I was too young to have experienced so much myself. My mom would make fun of me whenever she saw me reading it, though. I'm not sure exactly what my mom was thinking, but looking back at that novel now with a bit more life experience I do feel kind of bad that I had used it to legitimize my own melancholy in a way. It's great to read once or twice (especially then it helped to clear up a lot of things I was curious about), but more than that is just avoiding real life and all the other things that are out there to learn. If you're asking whether or not you should read it for the first time, you definitely should. Some of the language is beautiful, and it shows you a perspective that you might otherwise never experience. It may serve as a decent introduction to other great writers like Faulkner, Dostoevsky and Camus.
2016-03-28 23:33:01
·
answer #4
·
answered by Anonymous
·
0⤊
0⤋
A bell jar is a clear glass container with a handle at the top and no bottom, just like a bell. It is used mostly to cover objects on display and protect them from dust and contamination. They are also used to protect items from contact with air as they can be sealed by placing them on a waxed plate then applying a vacuum to the interior through a hole in the bottom cover.
2006-12-18 11:00:50
·
answer #5
·
answered by bulruq 5
·
0⤊
0⤋
A bell jar is a glass cover (like a bell) which gardeners used to put over plants, like a small greehouse. It is also something that was sometimes used in physics experiments.
Basically it's a large glass jar, usually with a knob on the top, shaped like a bell.
2006-12-18 10:46:41
·
answer #6
·
answered by Owlwings 7
·
1⤊
0⤋
I read it and enjoyed it.
You've already received answers as to what an actual bell jar is, and as one who has formerly suffered from depression I can say what I think Plath meant by 'bell jar'... the feeling of detatchment, isolation, disconnection from the world, the kind of numbness that can come from depression.
She writes, after treatment, that the main character could feel the 'bell-jar' hovering somewhere above her head instead of encasing her. She felt connected to the world, alive again.
I hope this helps.
2006-12-18 10:52:29
·
answer #7
·
answered by Nog 3
·
3⤊
0⤋
It's a glass container shaped like a bell, with a knob on top for lifting it off its glass base. It was used to keep dust off objects. My mother kept a clock under one. Or you could use it for dried flowers. The point is it preserved anything that was lifeless. Anything living would die if trapped in a bell jar. Plath was referring to her life being "protected" into a living death by her parents, especially her father.
2006-12-18 10:47:36
·
answer #8
·
answered by Holly R 6
·
1⤊
0⤋
A glass jar that has " bell" written on it.
2006-12-18 10:44:50
·
answer #9
·
answered by Richard J 4
·
0⤊
2⤋
a bell-shaped usually glass vessel designed to cover objects or to contain gases or a vacuum
2006-12-18 10:44:48
·
answer #10
·
answered by Anonymous
·
1⤊
1⤋