The bell jar quotes

How does Esther refer to her face?

it, the face, the person

What is the first thing Esther “cries” after she has attempted suicide?

Mother!

How does Esther feel about having a female doctor and why

Surprised as she didn’t think they had female psychiatrists.

Why does Joan end up in the ward?

She read about Esther and felt inspired

Where does Joan go to kill herself?

New York

What happens to the Bell Jar after Esther’s first round of EST with Nolan?

The Bell Jar now hangs suspended above her.

What’s the only thing Doreen did that Esther didn’t like?

Deters Esther from handing her deadlines in on time.

What colour was Doreen’s dressing gowns?

The colour of sin.

What does Doreen, ironically, call Esther when she stops doing her assignment to go out with her?

Smart girl

Why did it seem Betsy was asking Esther to do things with her?

As if she was trying to save her in some way.

What happens to Doreen when they meet Lenny?

She goes dumb as a post

What sort of character is Lenny?

A metrosexual

How does Lenny stare at Doreen?

Like the way people stare at the great white macaw in the zoo

What is the name of Esther’s alternative character?

Elly Higgenbottom

What is Lenny’s apartment built like?

The inside of a ranch

What does Lenny boast about having on his wall?

A rabbit he ran over

What happens to Esther when she walks 43 blocks home from Lenny’s?

Her feet are swollen from her shoes

What does Esther compare how she feels about a hot bath to?

How religious people feel about holy water.

What does Esther do with Doreen when D gets back from Lenny’s?

She dumps her on the carpet outside her room.

What did Esther mistakenly do when she meets Mrs Guinea?

She drank the whole finger bowl.

What happens in the movie Esther goes to see?

The nice girl ends up with the man and the sexy girl ends up with nobody.

What do Betsy and Esther do for each other when they are sick?

Hold each others’ hair

What does Buddy refer to poems as?

A piece of dust

Why don’t the doctors think women should witness birth?

Because they’ll never want to have a baby if they do

What do they doctors do to the women when she’s struggling to give birth?

Cut the women’s skin like cloth

What pants does Buddy wear and why?

Nylon fishnet pants as his mother says they wash easily.

Who does Esther and Constantin “rake over the coals”?

Mrs Willard

What is the first fig on Esther’s metaphorical fig tree?

A husband and a happy home and children.

What professions are seen in Esther’s fig tree?

A famous poet, a brilliant professor and an amazing editor.

What is the main message of the article “In Defence of Chastity”?

A man’s different from a woman, so he can sleep with who he wants but a woman must wait until marriage.

Why is Esther worried about Constantin falling for her?

She might find fault after fault, the way she did with Buddy.

What does Buddy give Esther when she visits him in hospital?

An ashtray, even though she doesn’t smoke.

Why did Esther go along with Buddy’s skiing instructions?

Because it never occured to her to say no.

What expression comes over Buddy’s face when Esther breaks her leg?

A queer, satisfied expression.

Why doesn’t Esther want her photo taken?

Because she was going to cry.

What does Marco say to Esther after he tries to SA her?

“Sluts … yes or no it is all the same”

How does Esther describe the “heart of new york”?

Dark

What does Esther wear on her way back home?

Betsy’s clothes and the two lines of blood smeared on her cheek.

How many children does Dodo have?

6 going on to 7

Why does Esther not see any point in getting up on her first morning back home?

She had nothing to look forward to.

How could Esther see right away Dr Gordon was conceited?

He was young and good looking,

Does the sailor Esther goes on a date with know her age?

No and he doesn’t care either.

What does Buddy tell Esther when she says she wants to live in both the city and country?

That she has got the perfect set-up of a true neurotic.

What style does the writing almost turn to as Esther goes mad?

Stream of consciousness.

Why is Esther disappointed that Cal would choose to kill himself by shooting himself?

Because it was just like a man to do it with a gun.

What does Esther try to hang herself with?

Her mother’s yellow bathrobe

Why does Esther not go to a priest for help?

She was pretty sure they wouldn’t take in any crazy nuns.

What effect does insulin treatment have on Esther?

Nothing, except making her get fatter.

Where does Joan suggest Esther keep the scraps of the newspaper articles about her suicide attempt?

In a note book.

Why does Esther get upset at Doctor Nolan?

Because she doesn’t tell her the night before that she’d getting EST.

What does Dr Nolan do to comfort Esther when she gets upset at her?

Puts her arm around Esther and hugs her like a mother. She also wipes Esther’s face with a handkerchief.

What is it that Joan likes about Buddy?

His parents, in particular Mrs Willard who she sees like a mother to her.

What was Philomena Guinea buying Esther without her knowledge?

Her freedom (A diaphragm)

What weather signifies the start of a new era for Esther?

A fresh fall of snow

Why does Esther think the college aren’t very different from the girls in the institution?

As those girls, too, sat under bell jars of a sort.

Why does Buddy suddenly question Esther’s future?

As if to revenge himself for her digging out the car and his having to stand by.

What is Esther’s internal monologue as she leaves Joan’s funeral saying?

I am, I am, I am.

New York was…

New York was bad enough.

I was supposed…

I was supposed to be having the time of my life.

Only I wasn’t…

Only I wasn’t steering anything, not even myself.

The city hung…

The city hung in the window […] but it might just as well not have been there at all.

I never intended…

I never intended to get married.

Buddy Willard was…

Buddy Willard was a hypocrite.

It sounded just…

It sounded just like the sort of drug a man would invent

What a man wants…

What a man wants is a mate and what a woman wants is infinite security’ and ‘what a man is is an arrow into the future and what a woman is is the place the arrow shoots off from.

I saw my life…

I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree

I saw myself sitting…

I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose.

A man’s world…

A man’s world is different from a woman’s world

I couldn’t stand the idea

I couldn’t stand the idea of a woman having to live a single pure life and a man being able to have a double life.

After I had children…

After I had children, I would feel differently, I wouldn’t want to write poems anymore

I’m so glad…

I’m so glad they’re (the Rosenburgs) going to die

She wants…

She wants Jay Cee said wittily to be everything.

It seemed…

It seemed to have taken my spirit with it.

Dodo interested…

Dodo interested me in spite of myself.

My mother turned…

My mother turned from a foggy log into a slumbering, middle aged woman.

My mother sighed…

My mother sighed. Doctor Gordon cost twenty five dollars an hour.

I knew my baby…

I knew my baby wasn’t like that […] I knew you’d decide to be all right again.

How could I write…

How could I write about life when I’d never had a love affair or a baby?

As if the sea…

As if the sea could make a decision for me.

The more hopeless you were…

The more hopeless you were, the further away they hid you.

I would be sitting under…

I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar

Everybody would…

Everybody would know about me, of course.

I wonder…

I wonder who you’ll marry now

I wished I had…

I wished I had a mother like Jay Cee… my own mother wasn’t much help