Diction

Blog Entry #2: Diction

As one of the prevailing motifs in The Bell Jar is isolation, the text was dominated with diction that produced a detached tone. Imagery associated with blurriness, blood, or shadows are often used to portray a sense of separation. For instance, the quote “A glassy haze rippled up. . .and through the haze, as though through a curtain of clear water, I could make out a smudgy skyline of. . .bridges” (156) creates an imaginary barrier between Esther and society. Further, at the peak of her madness Esther describes the darkness to be “thick as velvet,”
Plath made a point to associate society with haze and isolation with shadow and blood. The city, the beach scene, and all else public disoriented Esther with bright lights and heat. For instance, when she was poisoned at the magazine brunch with all the other girls, Esther realized the “poison” of society through the shared and dazing sickness. As society became more and more disagreeable to her, she grew attracted to the quiet and “nothingless” of isolation that shadows provide. When this proved to not be enough, Esther discovers the ultimate silence of death. She seems to have never been calmer than the moments leading up to her suicide with words like: “sweet shadow” and “dark thick as velvet”.
Curiously, despite the shadowy imagery while she was led into the garden alone with Marco (“enveloping darkness” and “the darkness drew up its barricade”) imply that she would have been comfortable, her tone is nevertheless panicked. However, light imagery such as “ghost-pale” and “glimmer of bare skin, like a pale veil” is found to justify her discomfort.