Summary: The Bell Jar

Esther Green­wood, a schol­ar from Mass­a­chu­setts, embarks on a jour­ney to New York to serve as a tem­po­rary edi­tor at a jour­nal. Her super­vi­sor, Jay Cee, is firm yet com­pas­sion­ate. Esther resides in a hos­tel with eleven oth­er female stu­dents, liv­ing in extrav­a­gance. How­ev­er, she expe­ri­ences sad­ness and anx­i­ety over the forth­com­ing exe­cu­tion of the Rosen­bergs. Fol­low­ing a lav­ish ban­quet that results in food poi­son­ing for Esther and her com­pan­ions, she tries to lose her vir­gin­i­ty to a UN inter­preter but faces rejec­tion. As her time in New York draws to a close, she encoun­ters a dis­tress­ing blind date with a man named Mar­co, who tries to assault her. Esther con­tem­plates her life choic­es, torn between con­form­ing to a tra­di­tion­al role as a house­wife or pur­su­ing her own aspirations.

Her suit­or, Bud­dy Willard, an intel­li­gent and hand­some man, is hos­pi­tal­ized for tuber­cu­lo­sis treat­ment and plans to wed Esther upon his recov­ery. Despite Bud­dy’s appar­ent per­fec­tion, Esther real­izes he fails to appre­ci­ate her pas­sion for writ­ing, and his unfaith­ful­ness leads her to view him as a hyp­ocrite, caus­ing her to dis­miss thoughts of mar­ry­ing him. She endeav­ors to lose her vir­gin­i­ty in search of answers to a cru­cial enig­ma. Upon return­ing home to Boston, Esther falls into despair after fail­ing to enroll in a desired writ­ing course, inten­si­fy­ing her feel­ings of detach­ment. Unable to engage in read­ing, writ­ing, or sleep, her men­tal state dete­ri­o­rates, and she suc­cumbs to a series of unsuc­cess­ful sui­cide attempts.

Fol­low­ing a final effort involv­ing an over­dose of sleep­ing pills, she awak­ens in a hos­pi­tal. Even­tu­al­ly, she is trans­ferred to a pri­vate psy­chi­atric facil­i­ty fund­ed by a renowned author, Philom­e­na Guinea. Under the care of psy­chi­a­trist Dr. Nolan, Esther grad­u­al­ly shows signs of improve­ment through a com­bi­na­tion of ther­a­py, insulin injec­tions, and appro­pri­ate­ly admin­is­tered elec­tro­con­vul­sive ther­a­py. She forms a bond with Joan, a col­lege acquain­tance, but is tak­en aback when Joan makes a sex­u­al advance. Over time, Esther gains lim­it­ed free­dom to leave the hos­pi­tal. Dur­ing one such excur­sion, she los­es her vir­gin­i­ty to a math­e­mat­ics pro­fes­sor named Irwin, result­ing in a health scare that neces­si­tates a vis­it to the emer­gency room. With Joan’s sui­cide, Esther acknowl­edges the end of her rela­tion­ship with Bud­dy. As she pre­pares to depart the hos­pi­tal and resume stud­ies for the win­ter term, she under­stands that her san­i­ty hangs by a thread, aware that the loom­ing threat of insan­i­ty could resur­face at any moment.

Chapter 1

Esther Green­wood, a stu­dent, secures a sum­mer posi­tion in New York as a guest edi­tor at a fash­ion peri­od­i­cal in 1953. Trou­bled by the impend­ing exe­cu­tion of the Rosen­bergs, Esther strug­gles to find con­tent­ment in her priv­i­leged cir­cum­stances, sens­ing detach­ment and a pro­found inner wrong­ness. Resid­ing at the Ama­zon, a wom­en’s board­ing house, with eleven fel­low edi­tors and sec­re­tar­i­al trainees, Esther befriends the wit­ty and allur­ing Doreen, who mir­rors her cyn­i­cism. Bet­sy, a ground­ed Mid­west­ern­er, con­sis­tent­ly reach­es out to Esther in friend­ship. When Bet­sy pro­pos­es they share a cab to a mag­a­zine gath­er­ing, Esther opts to accom­pa­ny Doreen instead. In a traf­fic jam, a man named Lenny Shep­herd per­suades them to join him at a bar. Lenny shows inter­est in Doreen and intro­duces his com­pan­ion, Frankie, to Esther, who is stand­off­ish due to his stature. Esther, unfa­mil­iar with alco­hol, orders a vod­ka and assumes a false iden­ti­ty as Elly Hig­gin­bot­tom. Frankie leaves solo, and Esther and Doreen depart with Lenny.

Chapter 2

Esther and Doreen find them­selves in Lenny’s apart­ment, rem­i­nis­cent of a West­ern ranch. Lenny plays his own radio show record­ing while serv­ing drinks. He sug­gests arrang­ing a date for Esther, an offer she declines. Doreen and Lenny engage in a play­ful dance, observed by Esther from a dis­tance, feel­ing iso­lat­ed. As their antics esca­late into quar­rels and phys­i­cal tus­sles, Doreen’s attire slips, expos­ing her chest. This prompts Esther to decide it’s time to depart. Despite being slight­ly ine­bri­at­ed, she embarks on a lengthy, sober­ing forty-eight-block walk home. Upon arrival, she feels dis­con­nect­ed from both New York City and life in gen­er­al. She indulges in a cleans­ing bath before drift­ing off to sleep, inter­rupt­ed by the bois­ter­ous arrival of Doreen, accom­pa­nied by the night atten­dant. Esther opts to leave Doreen in the hall­way, where she vom­its and faints. Despite the ordeal, Esther resolves to main­tain a dis­tance from Doreen, acknowl­edg­ing her lack of gen­uine con­nec­tion with her. She iden­ti­fies more with the sin­cere Bet­sy than the allur­ing Doreen. The next morn­ing, Doreen is absent.

Chapter 3

Esther attends a lav­ish ban­quet host­ed by Ladies’ Day mag­a­zine, as Doreen opts for a day at Coney Island in the com­pa­ny of Lenny. Hail­ing from a fam­i­ly con­scious of meal expens­es, Esther rel­ish­es the opu­lent ban­quet offer­ings, par­tic­u­lar­ly her favorite, caviar, a del­i­ca­cy intro­duced to her by her grand­fa­ther at a coun­try club. She indulges in two help­ings of caviar dur­ing the lun­cheon, accom­pa­nied by chick­en and avo­ca­do stuffed with crab­meat. Bet­sy ques­tions Esther’s absence from the fur dis­play, lead­ing Esther to tear­ful­ly con­fide that she was sum­moned by her boss, Jay Cee. This rec­ol­lec­tion trig­gers emo­tion­al tur­moil in Esther. She elab­o­rates on the events pre­ced­ing the lun­cheon, recount­ing a moment when Jay Cee con­tact­ed her while she was in bed, lis­ten­ing to her peers ready­ing for the day and grap­pling with her depres­sive thoughts. Upon reach­ing the office, Jay Cee ques­tions Esther’s inter­est in her work. Although typ­i­cal­ly pre­pared with respons­es about her post-grad­u­a­tion plans involv­ing trav­el, teach­ing, and writ­ing, Esther admits her uncer­tain­ty. Her hes­i­tant men­tion of poten­tial inter­est in pub­lish­ing prompts Jay Cee’s sug­ges­tion for her to study for­eign lan­guages, an idea that frus­trates Esther due to her lack of space in her senior year for lan­guage cours­es. She reflects on a pri­or instance where she lever­aged her impres­sive grades to cir­cum­vent a chem­istry class, con­vinc­ing the dean and sci­ence instruc­tor, Mr. Manzi, that she wished to audit the class with­out cred­it when in real­i­ty, she used the time to com­pose poet­ry instead.

Chapter 4

Esther grap­ples with guilt over deceiv­ing Mr. Manzi into believ­ing she pos­sessed a fer­vor for chem­istry. Dur­ing an inter­ro­ga­tion about her future by Jay Cee, her boss, Mr. Manz­i’s image inex­plic­a­bly intrudes on her thoughts. Jay Cee shares nar­ra­tives for Esther to cri­tique before dis­patch­ing her to a post-ban­quet event fol­low­ing a brief work stint. Esther wist­ful­ly wish­es her moth­er pos­sessed Jay Cee’s acu­men and for­ti­tude, con­trast­ing her moth­er’s encour­age­ment for prac­ti­cal skills like short­hand. Esther attrib­ut­es this stance to her father’s death when she was nine, leav­ing them with­out insur­ance and incens­ing her moth­er. Post-dessert at the ban­quet, Esther hes­i­tant­ly uses her fin­ger bowl. She rem­i­nisces about a pri­or mid­day meal with her uni­ver­si­ty grant provider, Philom­e­na Guinea, dur­ing which she mis­tak­en­ly sipped from the fin­ger bowl. After depart­ing the feast, she pro­ceeds to a movie pre­miere with oth­er young women. While watch­ing the film, she begins to feel unwell, as does Bet­sy, anoth­er girl. They exit the the­ater, both vom­it­ing on their way back to the hotel. Esther con­tin­ues to vom­it until she faints in the bath­room, only com­ing to when there is a knock at the door. She tries to rise but col­laps­es in the cor­ri­dor. A nurse assists her to bed and informs her that all the girls have food poi­son­ing. She lat­er awak­ens to Doreen attempt­ing to give her soup, reveal­ing the ori­gin of their ill­ness as taint­ed crab­meat from the feast. Esther sud­den­ly feels famished.

Chapter 5

Hav­ing suf­fered from ill­ness, Esther receives a call from Con­stan­tin, a Unit­ed Nations inter­preter and an acquain­tance of Mrs. Willard, who invites her to tour the UN and dine. Despite sus­pect­ing that he extend­ed the invi­ta­tion due to Mrs. Willard’s influ­ence, she agrees. Esther reflects on Mrs. Willard’s son, Bud­dy, who is recu­per­at­ing from tuber­cu­lo­sis and desires to wed her. She pon­ders the irony of her ini­tial admi­ra­tion for Bud­dy from afar against her cur­rent dis­dain since his pro­pos­al. Esther con­tem­plates her strug­gles with tip­ping in New York, includ­ing her fail­ure to tip a porter and a taxi dri­ver’s dis­par­age­ment of her min­i­mal gra­tu­ity. She shifts her focus to a book sent by the Ladies’ Day mag­a­zine team, find­ing a sen­ti­men­tal get-well card with­in. Read­ing a tale about a Jew­ish man and a nun encoun­ter­ing under a fig tree in the book, she draws par­al­lels with her failed con­nec­tion with Buddy.

How­ev­er, she acknowl­edges the dis­par­i­ties: she and Bud­dy are Uni­tar­i­an, they observed a birth, not a bird hatch­ing. Esther pon­ders Bud­dy’s recent cor­re­spon­dence, in which he appears more recep­tive to the coex­is­tence of doc­tors and writ­ers, a depar­ture from his ear­li­er dis­dain­ful com­ment that poet­ry was “a speck of dust”. Pre­vi­ous­ly unable to respond, Esther now envi­sions sharp replies, cri­tiquing his work and assert­ing that heal­ing indi­vid­u­als is no less sig­nif­i­cant than cre­at­ing “poems peo­ple would remem­ber and recite to them­selves in times of dis­tress or ail­ment.” Final­ly, Esther rec­ol­lects the incep­tion of her bond with Bud­dy. She har­bored affec­tion for him for years until one day he vis­it­ed her at col­lege to escort anoth­er girl, Joan Gilling, to a dance. Despite her anger, she pre­tend­ed to have a date of her own. Bud­dy left her a note invit­ing her to the Yale Junior Prom. She recalls him treat­ing her as a friend and kiss­ing her at the end of the evening, an episode she was eager to share with her friends.

Chapter 6

Esther rem­i­nisces about her bur­geon­ing rela­tion­ship with Bud­dy dur­ing her vis­it to his med­ical school at Yale. He presents her with a grim dis­play of med­ical odd­i­ties — cadav­ers and fetus­es in con­tain­ers — which she absorbs with­out flinch­ing. They attend a lec­ture on ill­ness­es and lat­er wit­ness child­birth. Bud­dy and his com­rade Will jest about Esther poten­tial­ly being dis­suad­ed from moth­er­hood by wit­ness­ing the birth. Bud­dy men­tions the use of a drug that erad­i­cates the wom­an’s mem­o­ry of her pain, a con­cept that Esther finds repug­nant. Fol­low­ing the hos­pi­tal vis­it, Bud­dy ques­tions if Esther has ever observed a man unclothed. Despite her lack of inter­est, she agrees to his pro­pos­al to undress.

His nudi­ty con­jures images of “turkey neck and turkey giz­zards” in her mind, leav­ing her unset­tled and despon­dent. When pressed about his roman­tic his­to­ry, Bud­dy con­fess­es to a sum­mer fling with a wait­ress named Gladys. Esther’s dis­tress stems not from his sex­u­al past but from his hyp­o­crit­i­cal pre­tense of inno­cence. She con­fides in her col­lege com­pan­ions about Bud­dy’s rev­e­la­tion, who believe one can only be per­turbed if betrothed or pledged. Inquired about his moth­er’s stance, Bud­dy responds that his moth­er knew that Gladys was “free, white, and twen­ty-one.” Esther resolves to ter­mi­nate the rela­tion­ship. How­ev­er, before she can act, Bud­dy dis­clos­es his tuber­cu­lo­sis diag­no­sis over a long-dis­tance call. Far from being upset, Esther feels relief as it implies reduced inter­ac­tion with him. She mis­leads her dor­mi­to­ry mates into pre­sum­ing her and Bud­dy’s engage­ment, gar­ner­ing their sym­pa­thy and soli­tude on Sat­ur­day nights under the guise of con­ceal­ing her anguish at Bud­dy’s illness.

Chapter 7

Esther accom­pa­nies Con­stan­tin to the UN in his sports car, bond­ing over their mutu­al aver­sion for Mrs. Willard. Despite him not being quite tall enough for her lik­ing, she is drawn to him. This inter­ac­tion brings her a joy she has­n’t felt since the sum­mer before her father’s pass­ing. At the UN, she is impressed by the inter­preters’ exper­tise and begins con­tem­plat­ing her own lim­it­ed skills. She views her knack for secur­ing schol­ar­ships as her sole mer­it, some­thing she will be unable to uti­lize post-grad­u­a­tion. Esther envi­sions her life as a fig tree, each fruit sym­bol­iz­ing a poten­tial life path, all of which she desires but can­not choose, lead­ing to the even­tu­al decay of fruition. The duo dine togeth­er, and Esther, invig­o­rat­ed by the meal, con­tem­plates los­ing her vir­gin­i­ty to Con­stan­tin as a form of retal­i­a­tion against Buddy.

She recalls Eric, a boy she con­tem­plat­ed bed­ding, who had a dis­il­lu­sion­ing sex­u­al encounter and sub­se­quent­ly chose to abstain from inti­ma­cy with a cher­ished woman. When he pro­fessed his feel­ings for her, she knew he wouldn’t sleep with her, so she claimed to be engaged. Esther is invit­ed back to Con­stan­ti­n’s apart­ment to lis­ten to music, antic­i­pat­ing that it may lead to inti­ma­cy, an idea her moth­er had cau­tioned her about. Dis­re­gard­ing her moth­er’s advice of pre­serv­ing her vir­gin­i­ty for mar­riage, refut­ing the notion of dou­ble stan­dards in sex­u­al con­duct for gen­ders, she is dis­ap­point­ed when all Con­stan­tin does is hold her hand. Ine­bri­at­ed from wine, she drifts off to sleep in his bed, awak­en­ing at three in the morn­ing, con­tem­plat­ing the poten­tial facets of mar­ried life. She dreads the notion of domes­tic­i­ty and the hin­drance it could pose to her aspi­ra­tions, as implied by Bud­dy’s insin­u­a­tion that moth­er­hood would sup­press her lit­er­ary ambi­tions. The chap­ter con­cludes with Con­stan­tin dri­ving a dis­heart­ened Esther home.

Chapter 8

Esther rec­ol­lects Mr. Willard tak­ing her to see Bud­dy at the sana­to­ri­um and express­ing his desire for her to become his daugh­ter, mis­in­ter­pret­ing her tears as joy. He left her alone with Bud­dy, who had gained weight at the sana­to­ri­um. He shared a poem he’d had pub­lished in an obscure mag­a­zine, which Esther found dread­ful, though she kept this sen­ti­ment to her­self. When Bud­dy inquired, “How would you like to be Mrs. Bud­dy Willard?” she staunch­ly retort­ed that she would nev­er mar­ry. He chuck­led at her procla­ma­tion. She remind­ed him that he had labeled her neu­rot­ic for desir­ing two things that could­n’t coex­ist and affirmed that she would always yearn for such aspirations.

He expressed his wish to be with her. Bud­dy arranged for Esther to learn ski­ing, procur­ing the nec­es­sary gear for her. She ascend­ed with the rope tow to the moun­tain’s sum­mit, while Bud­dy called out to her from below. Ini­tial­ly appre­hen­sive, the thought of death gave her a sense of exhil­a­ra­tion. She raced down the slope at full speed, expe­ri­enc­ing a surge of joy as she felt like she was enter­ing the past. How­ev­er, she had a tum­ble, the chill invad­ed her oral cav­i­ty, and she was struck by real­i­ty. Eager for a new descent, Bud­dy deliv­ered the news, look­ing odd­ly sat­is­fied, that she had frac­tured her leg in two spots.

Chapter 9

Esther engages with Hil­da, a co-edi­tor guest, on the day the Rosen­bergs face exe­cu­tion. Unfazed by the immi­nent deaths, Hil­da exudes calm­ness. Emo­tions over­whelm Esther dur­ing a pho­to ses­sion at the mag­a­zine when she is asked to smile with a sym­bol­ic paper rose, lead­ing her to break down in tears. Jay Cee lat­er assigns her sto­ries to cri­tique, spark­ing fan­tasies in Esther’s mind of Jay Cee prais­ing her future work unknow­ing­ly. Reluc­tant to wear her fan­cy clothes for her last evening in New York, Esther finds them hid­den under the bed by Doreen. Per­suad­ed by Doreen, Esther joins her, Lenny, and Lenny’s com­pan­ion Mar­co at a dance in a coun­try club. Instant­ly, Esther per­ceives Mar­co as a chau­vin­ist. He presents her with a dia­mond pin, promis­ing a deed wor­thy of it, grip­ping her arm with a force that bruises.

Despite ini­tial­ly refus­ing to dance, Mar­co insists on a tan­go, instruct­ing her to imag­ine drown­ing. Esther com­plies, reflect­ing to her­self, “Danc­ing does­n’t require two, only one.” Out­doors, Mar­co dis­clos­es his affec­tion for his cousin, who is enter­ing a nun­nery. Enraged, he shoves Esther into the mud, tears her dress, and hurls deroga­to­ry insults at her. Ini­tial­ly pas­sive, Esther even­tu­al­ly retal­i­ates and lands a punch on Mar­co’s nose. Before let­ting her depart, Mar­co demands the where­abouts of his dia­mond pin. Despite his threats, Esther refus­es to dis­close its loca­tion and leaves him in the mud. Unable to find Doreen, Esther hitch­hikes back to Man­hat­tan. There, she ascends to the rooftop of the hotel and toss­es her gar­ments off the edge, one by one.

Chapter 10

Esther returns to Mass­a­chu­setts via train, clad in Bet­sy’s attire and still stained with Mar­co’s blood, find­ing it a poignant and rather dra­mat­ic sight. Upon arrival, her moth­er deliv­ers the news of her rejec­tion from a writ­ing course she had aspired to attend. This, cou­pled with the prospect of spend­ing the sum­mer in the sub­urbs, plunges her spir­its. She pon­ders on her neigh­bors, regard­ing Mrs. Ock­enden as over­ly curi­ous and Dodo Con­way, a Catholic moth­er of six with anoth­er child on the way, as uni­ver­sal­ly adored despite her messy home. Dur­ing a call with her friend Jody, Esther dis­clos­es her rejec­tion from the writ­ing course, result­ing in her not being able to stay in Cam­bridge with Jody as planned. Jody sug­gests alter­na­tive cours­es, which Esther declines.

A let­ter from Bud­dy arrives, con­fess­ing a poten­tial fond­ness for a nurse but offer­ing a chance to rekin­dle their rela­tion­ship. Esther responds by declar­ing an engage­ment to an inter­preter and express­ing no desire to see Bud­dy again. Envi­sion­ing writ­ing a nov­el, Esther laments her lack of life expe­ri­ences. She reluc­tant­ly agrees to learn short­hand from her moth­er but soon real­izes it’s a skill she nei­ther wants nor requires. Bat­tling insom­nia, she con­tem­plates spend­ing the sum­mer writ­ing her the­sis, defer­ring col­lege, or trav­el­ing to Ger­many, yet dis­miss­es these thoughts. Tor­menopt­ed out of swim­ming to reach the rock, Esther endeav­ors to delib­er­ate­ly sub­merge her­self in her cur­rent spot but finds her body emerg­ing each time. To divert her atten­tion from her despon­dent state, her moth­er pro­pos­es engag­ing in vol­un­tary work at a near­by hospital.

Her brief tenure, how­ev­er, con­cludes when she upsets the patients with her rearrange­ment of their flower arrange­ments and hasti­ly departs. Esther con­tem­plates embrac­ing Catholi­cism as a poten­tial rem­e­dy for her sui­ci­dal ideations, but her moth­er dis­miss­es the notion with a chuck­le. She makes her first vis­it to her father’s grave, trig­ger­ing a flood of tears as the real­i­ty of her father’s demise hits her; the absence of see­ing his body or attend­ing his funer­al kept the truth at bay. Ulti­mate­ly, she set­tles on a method for her sui­cide. After her moth­er departs, she drafts a note about embark­ing on a lengthy stroll. She then retrieves around fifty of her moth­er’s sleep­ing pills from a secure box, retreats to the base­ment, ingests the pills, and grad­u­al­ly drifts off to sleep.

Chapter 14

Esther grad­u­al­ly regains con­scious­ness in a dim room, obliv­i­ous to her loca­tion in a hos­pi­tal. She artic­u­lates her vision impair­ment, prompt­ing a nurse to jest about mar­ry­ing a visu­al­ly impaired man. The physi­cian con­firms her eye­sight is intact; she sim­ply has ban­dages around her head. Dur­ing her fam­i­ly’s vis­it, she finds her moth­er’s pres­ence irk­some. An old acquain­tance, George Bakewell, cross­es paths with Esther, whom she dis­miss­es, sus­pect­ing his inquis­i­tive­ness regard­ing her sui­cide attempt. Upon encoun­ter­ing her bruised reflec­tion and shaved head in a mir­ror, she acci­den­tal­ly drops the mir­ror, lead­ing to her trans­fer to a met­ro­pol­i­tan hos­pi­tal. In this fresh set­ting, she shares a room with Mrs. Tomo­lil­lo. Upon divulging her sui­cide endeav­or, Mrs. Tomo­lil­lo requests a par­ti­tion between their beds. Esther’s moth­er pays a vis­it and chas­tis­es her for not coop­er­at­ing with the med­ical team. Grow­ing para­noid, Esther believes the hos­pi­tal staff are using alias­es and doc­u­ment­ing her con­ver­sa­tions. She implores her moth­er to have her dis­charged from the hos­pi­tal. Fol­low­ing an inci­dent involv­ing green beans and an impo­lite atten­dant, Esther is relo­cat­ed to a cham­ber pre­vi­ous­ly occu­pied by Mrs. Mole, dis­creet­ly keep­ing a sphere of mer­cury along the way.

Chapter 15

Esther’s col­lege bene­fac­tor, Philom­e­na Guinea, cov­ers the expens­es for Esther’s res­i­dence in a high-end men­tal facil­i­ty, hav­ing under­gone a sim­i­lar expe­ri­ence her­self. Guinea probes whether a young man played a role in Esther’s sui­cide attempt, but Esther’s moth­er reveals her daugh­ter’s fear of los­ing her writ­ing prowess. Con­se­quent­ly, Guinea trans­fers Esther to an opu­lent men­tal asy­lum. Despite her moth­er’s insis­tence on grat­i­tude due to their finan­cial straits, Esther strug­gles to con­nect emo­tion­al­ly, her depres­sion akin to a bell jar. Con­sid­er­ing jump­ing off a bridge as a means of sui­cide, her fam­i­ly’s pres­ence deters her.

Upon arrival at the facil­i­ty, Esther meets her new psy­chi­a­trist, Dr. Nolan, and is tak­en aback by encoun­ter­ing a woman in this pro­fes­sion. She befriends Valerie, a fel­low patient, and artic­u­lates her aver­sion to elec­tro­con­vul­sive ther­a­py dur­ing her ini­tial con­sul­ta­tion with Dr. Nolan. The doc­tor assures her that it was mis­ap­plied pre­vi­ous­ly, promis­ing a dif­fer­ent expe­ri­ence if required again. Esther becomes intrigued by Miss Nor­ris, a tac­i­turn elder­ly patient who becomes her neigh­bor. Esther is reg­u­lar­ly admin­is­tered insulin injec­tions by a nurse, yet expe­ri­ences no adverse reac­tions aside from weight gain. Valerie shares her lobot­o­my scars with Esther, elu­ci­dat­ing how the pro­ce­dure sub­dued her pre­vi­ous fury. As Miss Nor­ris is relo­cat­ed to a low­er-sta­tus ward, Esther is shift­ed to a brighter cham­ber. Sub­se­quent­ly, Esther learns of the arrival of a new patient, Joan Gilling, whom she rec­og­nizes from college.

Chapter 16

Joan dis­clos­es to Esther that her admis­sion to the men­tal insti­tu­tion was trig­gered upon learn­ing of Esther’s predica­ment. She dis­clos­es her staunch dis­tress from a dis­tress­ing job that led to painful foot con­di­tions. Joan’s eccen­tric habit of wear­ing rub­ber boots to work strikes Esther as out­landish. She admits to con­tem­plat­ing sui­cide and spi­ral­ing down­wards, neglect­ing oblig­a­tions and with­draw­ing from soci­ety. After an uncom­fort­able encounter with a psy­chi­a­trist and his stu­dents, she stum­bled upon Esther’s sto­ry, prompt­ing her voy­age to New York with the intent of end­ing her life.

Pre­sent­ing Esther with news­pa­per arti­cles chron­i­cling her own nar­ra­tive, one doc­u­ments Esther’s van­ish­ing, anoth­er nar­rates the miss­ing sleep­ing pills and search efforts for Esther, and a final one details the dis­cov­ery of Esther by her moth­er. Joan, stay­ing at her pri­or col­lege room­mate’s abode, attempt­ed to end her life by slash­ing her wrists with shat­tered glass. One fate­ful night, Esther awakes to find her­self pound­ing her bed­post in an insulin-induced fren­zy. Sur­pris­ing­ly, she feels some­what relieved after­ward. Delight­ed by Dr. Nolan’s announce­ment that no fur­ther guests will be per­mit­ted, Esther finds these vis­its from old acquain­tances and her moth­er, who con­tin­u­al­ly ques­tions her actions, dis­qui­et­ing. Esther con­fides in Dr. Nolan her resent­ment towards her moth­er, a con­fes­sion that seems to appease the doctor.

Chapter 17

Esther is relo­cat­ed from the Caplan ward to Bel­size, a sec­tion reserved for patients near­ing dis­charge. Despite not expe­ri­enc­ing sig­nif­i­cant improve­ment, she’s relieved by the dimin­ished like­li­hood of under­go­ing shock ther­a­py. The women at Bel­size exhib­it typ­i­cal behav­ior; engag­ing in card games and con­ver­sa­tions. Esther joins them, and Joan, who arrived at Bel­size ear­li­er, stum­bles upon Esther’s pho­to­graph in a fash­ion mag­a­zine, a claim Esther refutes. One morn­ing, Esther’s break­fast tray fails to mate­ri­al­ize. She assumes it’s an error since only those slat­ed for shock ther­a­py for­go break­fast. How­ev­er, the nurse con­firms her break­fast will be delayed. This prompts Esther to seek refuge in the cor­ri­dor, over­whelmed with dread over the impend­ing treat­ment and feel­ing betrayed by Dr. Nolan’s lack of warn­ing. Upon Dr. Nolan’s arrival, she reas­sures Esther, explain­ing her ratio­nale for with­hold­ing the infor­ma­tion to spare her a night of fret­ting, and pledges to accom­pa­ny her dur­ing the pro­ce­dure. Miss Huey, the nurse respon­si­ble for admin­is­ter­ing the treat­ment, speaks ten­der­ly to Esther. As the treat­ment com­mences, Esther los­es consciousness.

Chapter 18

Esther awak­ens fol­low­ing her elec­tro­con­vul­sive ther­a­py ses­sion, along­side Dr. Nolan. She sens­es a slight alle­vi­a­tion in her men­tal suf­fo­ca­tion, pre­vi­ous­ly likened to a bell jar. Dr. Nolan divulges that these ses­sions will occur thrice week­ly. While crack­ing open an egg lat­er on, Esther pon­ders her past fas­ci­na­tion with knives, the ratio­nale elud­ing her as mem­o­ries “slipped from the noose of the thought and swung, like a bird, in the cen­ter of emp­ty air.” Both Joan and Esther receive let­ters from Bud­dy Willard, express­ing his desire to vis­it them. Joan, who pre­vi­ous­ly court­ed Bud­dy, con­fess­es her par­tial­i­ty towards Bud­dy’s fam­i­ly over Bud­dy him­self, deem­ing them more con­ven­tion­al than her own kin. Joan yearns for Bud­dy and his moth­er’s vis­it. Ini­tial­ly resis­tant to the notion of his vis­it, Esther now views it as a chance to turn the page on that chap­ter of her life. Ear­li­er that day, Esther stum­bled upon an inti­mate moment between Joan and DeeDee, anoth­er patient. She dis­cuss­es with Dr. Nolan the aspects that might attract women to one anoth­er, a top­ic that intrigues Dr. Nolan’s response, “Gen­tle­ness.” Joan admits to Esther that she favors her over Buddy.

Esther remem­bers inter­ac­tions with oth­er homo­sex­u­al women, two peers, and an edu­ca­tor. She firm­ly rep­ri­mands Joan before depart­ing. Esther shares with Dr. Nolan her long­ing for the same free­dom that men enjoy, but she is bur­dened by the threat of preg­nan­cy loom­ing over her. She recounts the absti­nence brochure her moth­er sent, elic­it­ing laugh­ter from Dr. Nolan who deems it as pro­pa­gan­da and rec­om­mends a physi­cian who can aid her. Esther vis­its this physi­cian to acquire a diaphragm. Sur­round­ed by women with babies at the clin­ic, Esther pon­ders her lack of mater­nal instincts. The physi­cian fit­ting her with the diaphragm is mod­est and cheer­ful, and Esther expe­ri­ences a surge of lib­er­a­tion from the fear of an unwant­ed preg­nan­cy and being wed­ded to the wrong man. Now equipped with con­tra­cep­tion, Esther seeks a suit­able man to whom she can will­ing­ly offer herself.

Chapter 19

Joan reveals her aspi­ra­tions to Esther of pur­su­ing a career in psy­chi­a­try and resid­ing with a Cam­bridge-based nurse. Despite Esther gear­ing up to depart the hos­pi­tal for the win­ter term at col­lege, Joan’s impend­ing depar­ture stirs envy with­in her. While in town, Esther meets a math­e­mat­ics pro­fes­sor, Irwin, at Har­vard’s library. After a cof­fee, she accom­pa­nies him back to his place for a drink. An unex­pect­ed arrival of Irwin’s occa­sion­al lover, Olga, is prompt­ly turned away by him. Esther dines with Irwin and secures Dr. Nolan’s con­sent to spend the night in Cam­bridge, under the guise of stay­ing at Joan’s. She deems Irwin to be an excel­lent can­di­date for her first sex­u­al encounter, valu­ing his intel­lect, past expe­ri­ences, and anonymi­ty. She envi­sions her ini­tial inti­mate expe­ri­ence with an “imper­son­al, priest­like offi­cial, as in the tales of trib­al rit­u­als”. Despite antic­i­pat­ing a trans­for­ma­tive event, she is greet­ed only with intense dis­com­fort. Bleed­ing pro­fuse­ly, Esther ini­tial­ly remains rel­a­tive­ly uncon­cerned, recall­ing sto­ries of vir­gin bleed­ing after first inter­course on the wed­ding night. The bleed­ing per­sists, lead­ing her to wrap her wound with a tow­el before seek­ing Irwin’s assis­tance to reach Joan’s res­i­dence. After reveal­ing her predica­ment to Joan, claim­ing to be hem­or­rhag­ing, Joan, obliv­i­ous to the real­i­ty, escorts her to the emer­gency room of the hos­pi­tal. The exam­in­ing physi­cian express­es shock at the sig­nif­i­cant blood loss from a first inti­mate encounter, a rare inci­dent, and suc­cess­ful­ly stops the bleed­ing. Sev­er­al days lat­er, Dr. Quinn vis­its Esther’s room to inform her of Joan, who has since returned to the asy­lum, going miss­ing. Despite being clue­less about Joan’s where­abouts, Esther awak­ens the fol­low­ing day to the dread­ful news of Joan’s sui­cide by hang­ing in the woods.

Chapter 20

Esther eager­ly antic­i­pates her return to col­lege in a week. She envi­sions the famil­iar aca­d­e­m­ic envi­ron­ment await­ing her. Her moth­er wish­es for them to slip back into their old rou­tine, pre­tend­ing that Esther’s men­tal health cri­sis was but a dread­ful dream. How­ev­er, Esther real­izes she can­not erase the mem­o­ry of her men­tal col­lapse. When Bud­dy pays a vis­it, Esther helps him unbury his car from the snow. He appears less con­fi­dent both phys­i­cal­ly and emo­tion­al­ly. He asks Esther if she believes he con­tributed to her or Joan’s men­tal strug­gles. Esther recalls Dr. Nolan’s assur­ance that no one is to blame for Joan’s demise, espe­cial­ly not Esther herself.

She assures Bud­dy he was not the cause of their trou­bles, great­ly eas­ing his mind. He casu­al­ly inquires who would mar­ry Esther now after her stint in a men­tal facil­i­ty. Esther bids Valerie farewell and demands that Irwin cov­er her med­ical expens­es from the night they were inti­mate. He com­plies and asks when he will see her again. She responds with a res­olute “Nev­er,” and ends the call, feel­ing relieved that he can­not track her down or con­tact her. She feels a sense of lib­er­a­tion. Esther attends Joan’s funer­al, over­hear­ing her own heart repeat­ing: “I am, I am, I am.” She awaits her final appoint­ment with the doc­tors. Despite Dr. Nolan’s reas­sur­ances, she feels appre­hen­sive. She is pre­pared to leave Bel­size but acknowl­edges that her men­tal ill­ness, sym­bol­ized by the bell jar, may resur­face. She enters the room filled with doc­tors, bring­ing the nov­el to a close.