Bell Jar trivia

Related Trivia

Albert Ellis

Brene Brown

Brené Brown

DBT

Eckhart Tolle

Bell Jar Mini Quiz

Test your knowledge with these top questions!

Question 1

Sylvia Plath uses the titular glass object in The Bell Jar to symbolize what mental state?

A bell jar is a scientific glass cover used to create a vacuum, perfectly mirroring how Esther feels entirely cut off from the breathable air of the living.

Question 2

Protagonist Esther Greenwood uses a branching fig tree in The Bell Jar to describe what struggle?

Esther imagines each fig as a different life path, such as marriage or a writing career, but she starves because choosing one means losing all the others.

Question 3

Doctors in The Bell Jar attempt to treat the main character's depression using what procedure?

Plath based this on her own 1950s hospitalizations, a time when shock treatments were often brutally administered without proper anesthesia or muscle relaxants.

Question 4

Sylvia Plath ends The Bell Jar with the glass object lifting to represent what health milestone?

Plath ends the novel on an intentionally ambiguous note, as Esther acknowledges the stifling glass could drop down to trap her again at any moment.