Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar and the Higher Education of Women

Sylvia Plath and her 1963 novel The Bell Jar can help readers understand how experiences at a post-World War II women's college directly led to feelings of regret and depression in the women who attended them. The novel illustrates the challenges that Plath and other women faced in college and in their post-graduation lives in a 1950s society dominated by patriarchal demands and designs. This book will examine these themes and, most importantly, how freedom is not necessarily fulfilling if it is only offered but not supported by society.