This past week in English class we
looked over our summer reading books and the ideas and themes within them. We
examined Tender is the Night, and
compared and contrasted Nicole and Rosemary, who serve as foils to each other.
Rosemary represents innocence and purity, while Nicole represents the opposite;
ruined sexuality, for she was molested by her father at a young age. Rosemary’s
purity is shown through her attempts of trying to get with Dick, for she never
makes a strong approach. Instead, she tells him how she feels and bats her
eyelids in an attempt to woo him. This does eventually work, but takes a while
as Nicole has a strong hold over Dick. Nicole being “broken” in a sense gives
Dick a purpose in their relationship- trying to fix her. Rosemary, on the
contrary, is not “broken,” and does not need Dick’s help. This gives her much
less control and persuasion over Dick, as she offers no significant challenge
for him. Once Nicole recovers completely and leaves Dick for cheating on her,
Dick has nowhere to go, for he has nobody he can be in a relationship with who
needs his help and guidance.
We also examined The Bell Jar, and how it reflects the
life of Sylvia Plath, both events that happened before and after she published
the novel. Like Esther, Sylvia attended a prestigious college and was an
excellent student. The two also both suffered from depression during their
life, which became overwhelming during an internship in New York City one
summer. This internship created a lot of stress for them, which they were not
able to cope with effectively because of their depression. They eventually
tried to kill themselves, and were put into a mental hospital to help them
overcome their depression. They worked through their problems at the mental
institution, and were eventually released. While there, they received
Electro-Convulsive Therapy (ECT), which was supposed to help “reset” the mind
in order to cure depression. For both of them this proved mainly ineffective,
and served as only an aggravation. Sylvia did fall for a man named Ted, much
like how Esther fell for Buddy. After the novel was published, Ted left Sylvia
for Assia Weeble, the wife in a couple who rented Sylvia and Ted’s apartment. In
the end, Assia and Sylvia killed themselves, similar to how Esther and Joan
attempt (with Joan succeeding) to take their own lives during the book. The Bell Jar provides interesting
insight into the life of Sylvia Plath, and provides a peek into her mind and
how it worked.
Hello Jonathan, this is a very interesting post. I'll focus solely on the first paragraph because there is just so much information in this post. It's interesting to examine Dick's power-trip in his relationship with Nicole. Ms. Baskin noted in class that in both of Dick's relationships in the novel, he played a passive role rather than an active one. What I mean by this is that Dick waited for both Nicole and Rosemary to make a move on him rather than pursue them. This is uncharacteristically odd for Dick, who, as you mentioned, relishes his control over Nicole in the form of psychiatric care. I wonder why Dick never was offensive when he met those women. Maybe he felt that they should put in all the effort because he viewed himself as a prize to be won. Great post and good insights.
ReplyDeleteYour friend,
Emma Meehan
Wonderful post! SInce Emma focused on the first paragraph, I will focus on the second paragraph. I find it so interesting how much Sylvia Plath put herself into the character of Ester Greenwood. My blog post was about perspectivism, and the idea that the author shares a different perspective than the narrator of the story. This idea somewhat conflicts with The Bell Jar, because the narrator and the author are so similar.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed all of the specific examples you found of the similarities between Ester and Sylvia, superb job.
Out of both of these books I would say I enjoyed The Bell Jar more. I found it was easier to decipher the certain plot events that may have escaped me when reading Tender is the Night due to an over the top use of flowery language. Also, I was intrigued by the story of how the main character in the Bell Jar is connected to the author of the story so vividly. I liked how you took that angle and really layed it out so people can understand the connections.
ReplyDelete