TRAVELING INWARD IN SEARCH OF GENDER BALANCE IN THE NOVEL “THE BELL JAR” BY S. PLATH

Abstract

In the article the analysis of “The Bell Jar” by S. Plath is conducted for the purpose of studying and understanding the escape motifs inherent in the heroine of the new American female prose of the mid-20^th century and the author himself. The novel is considered as an example of escapism and possible reasons for the use of this method by S. Plate are suggested. Methods of rethinking of women’s prose in the context of disputes about literary reputation are analyzed.

In this novel, S. Plath reveals her secret thoughts, experiences, allows entering her life, because it is a semiautobiographic work. There are several reasons for such an admission. First, it’s a desire to be heard and tell her story. After all, being a woman-author at that time was very difficult, S. Plath was subjected to crushing criticism, and during her life her creativity was not very popular. Secondly, the hard way of the betrayed woman and the mother made her to take desperate steps, and this novel is an attempt to free herself and her thoughts from things that Silvia worried about the most part of her life: here we find relations with the mother, and the absence girlfriends, and attempted rape. So, this novel is like a confession, before the final act of the writer, her suicide.