In The Bell Jar, originally published under the pseudonym of Victoria Lucas, Sylvia Plath was recording much of her personal experience. Plath was born on October 27, 1932. Her brother, Warren Joseph Plath, was born in 1935. When Plath was five years old, her family moved to Winthrop, Massachusetts, where she was a model student. However, in 1940, her father Otto Plath died of pneumonia and complications from diabetes. Plath won many awards, both local and national, for her …showed first 75 words of 733 total…

…showed last 75 words of 733 total…the audience a quite moving and probably very accurate account of mental health treatment in the 1950's. Electro-shock therapy was very common during that decade, but nowadays, it is only rarely used. In conclusion, during the time of the novel, there is clearly not much encouragement for women to be individual, to be different, and to be brave and daring. For this reason, Esther Greenwood was pushed to insanity, for society could not accept her.