The Progression of Depression Told Through an Illness Narrative: Analyzing the Perspective on Suicide Plans, Attempts, and Psychiatric Treatment in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar

This thesis investigates how the progression of protagonist Esther Greenwood’s depression, told through her illness narrative, can be read to comprehend her outlook on her suicide plans and attempts, and psychiatric treatments she receives by her doctors Gordon and Nolan, in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar (1963). Previous research has studied the doctors’ treatments’ effects on Esther, and the portrayal of Esther’s mental illness; however, fewer scholars have analyzed how Esther’s illness narrative, specifically, outlines the progression of her depression, nor the role it plays in conveying her perspective on her suicide plans, attempts, and treatment experiences, and the question of whether Esther wants to die or not be alive, from how she describes her suicidality. This essay aims to investigate what Esther’s illness narrative reveals about the extent to which her suicidality is based on a wish to die, and how the treatments she receives by Doctor Gordon and Doctor Nolan affect her suicidality. The analysis concludes that Esther’s suicidality is ambivalent, as she wants to not be alive, but does not want to experience the event of dying, and that Doctor Gordon’s treatments lead to Esther’s agency decreasing and her suicidality increasing, and to her agency increasing and suicidality decreasing, from Doctor Nolan’s.