Shortly afterward she makes a serious suicide attempt by overdosing on her mother’s sleeping pills but survives and is admitted to an inpatient psychiatric facility.Īt the mental hospital, Esther is treated by Dr. The treatment is botched, leaving Esther traumatized. Gordon, who prescribes her a course of electroshock therapy. At home, Esther falls deeper into depression and begins to plan her suicide, making several unsuccessful attempts. Greenwood doesn’t understand her daughter’s unconventional ambitions or her mental illness. Esther and her mother have a strained relationship, as Mrs. After her internship ends and she is rejected from a prestigious summer writing course, she returns home to the suburbs of Boston, where she lives with her widowed mother. She is waiting for him to recover so that she can break up with him.Įsther’s mental state continues to decline. He asked Esther to marry him, but Esther turned him down. Buddy is currently in a sanatorium recovering from tuberculosis. Esther resents him after discovering that he slept with another woman while they were dating but expects her to be a virgin until she marries him. Buddy is a practical, conservative medical student who thinks Esther’s artistic ambitions are a passing whim. During her internship, Esther experiences a series of jarring events, including an intense bout of food poisoning and a narrow escape from a would-be rapist.Įsther reflects on her unsatisfying relationship with her boyfriend, Buddy Willard. She struggles to define her identity and decide what she wants to do with her life after graduation, feeling stifled by pressure to conform to society’s stereotype of womanhood. Despite the exciting chance to escape her small-town upbringing, Esther feels listless and depressed. In summer 1953, college student Esther Greenwood is working as a writing intern at the prestigious Ladies’ Day magazine in New York City.

The bell jar sparknotes