Death of a Salesman and The Bell Jar.
Mythology defines the basis of literature today, while it has shaped writings of all kinds for thousands of years. The voyage of the hero is illustrated in a number of mythological works. Each step in the heroes journey, define an aspect of himself and his life. Campbell notes that mythology is still incorporated into our everyday lives. Often writers relate motifs and archetypes from mythology into short stories or novels, which help the reader to understand the similarities between mythology and modern day society. These classic literary works have common motifs and archetypes that are evident in ancient mythology. .
Esther and Biff travel through many aspects of the heroes quest. The shadow archetype thrives through each of these classic works of art. Esther and Biff create double personalities in which they do not know who to adhere to in situations and circumstances. Both want to please their fathers, even though one is just a fantasy. The shadow archetype reveals that in order to achieve enlightenment the two figures must intertwine together. .
The first step that they undergo in the heroes quest is the second step of Divine Sign. For both of the characters the divine sign is one that is negative at first and later on in their lives turn into a positive experience. Esther is traumatized by her father's death at such a young and pure age. "My mother hadn't let us go to the funeral because we were only children then, and he had died in the hospital, so the graveyard and even his death had always seemed unreal to me."(Plath 132). Esther has a life changing experience as a child. .
Biff also undergoes a wake up call at a young age. His life is grand and everyone loves him, until he finds out that his father is cheating on his mother. All of his dreams come crashing down before his very eyes. Biff shouts to his father, "You fake! You phony little fake! You fake!" (Death 203) This is also Biff's turning down point of his life.
Esther, once out of the bell jar, experiences reality. ... Once Esther has freed herself from the bell jar she feels renewed. ... However, she is still oppressed by the threatening nature of the bell jar. ... The bell jar hung, suspended, a few feet above my head. ... The bell jar still hangs over her head. ...
The "bell jar" is a metaphor for the alienation, isolation and confinement that Esther experiences during her mental breakdown. ... During a month in New York, Esther's bell jar descends as her sense of alienation and isolation are overpowering her. ... To Esther, "the person in the bell jar, blank and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is the bad dream" (237). ... How did I know that someday ... the bell jar, with its stifling distortions, wouldn't descend again (241). Will Esther be able to withstand another descent of the bell jar? ...
Sylvia Plath uses the motif "the bell jar" to illustrate the effect of society on Esther. As mentioned earlier, societal pressure incarcerates and suffocates Esther forming a bell jar around her. "The air of the bell jar wadded around me and I couldn't stir." The bell jar represents society's expectations and pressures, which leads her to become mentally instable and suicidal. ... "I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air." ...
This is the question that troubles Esther Greenwood in Sylvia Plath's novel "The Bell Jar." ... In the novel "The Bell Jar," Sylvia Plath's style requests her readers to look inside the distraught mind of Ms. ... She's intrigued by the idea of experiencing such a tormented way of death. ... In Stephanie Tsanks, "The Bell Jar: A Psychological Case Study," states the bell jar as a symbol of society's stifling constraints and befuddling mixed messages that trap Sylvia Plath's heroine, Esther Greenwood, within its glass dome (166). ... As duly noted in, "The Bell Jar: A Ps...
Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar is an autobiographical account of the author's mental breakdown and suicide attempt as a young woman. ... Robert Taubman drew this conclusion about the significance of the viewpoint Miss Plath chose to write in: It [The Bell Jar] reads so much like the truth it is hard to disassociate her from Esther Greenwood, the "I" of the story, but she has the gift of being able to feel and yet watch herself: she can feel the desolation and yet relate it to everyday life (345). ... This is stated in The Bell Jar when she says: "A girl lives in some out-of-t...
Willy grades his life on the success he has as a salesman. ... When Biff finally realizes that he has "stolen his way out of every job he ever had-(Case Study of Death of a Salesman) he meets with his brother and father at a restaurant to tell them he will no longer be bringing home any prizes. ... In the title, the illusion that Biff is going to become a salesman like his father, we can interpret this as not the death of Willy but the death of the dream that Biff is not going to follow in his fathers footsteps. ... This is what makes Death Of A Salesman so great....
In Sylvia Plath's, "The Bell Jar," the theme of identity is a recurring topic. ... Early in "The Bell Jar," Sylvia Plath makes it increasingly clear that Esther Greenwood is mentally unstable. As early as from the first paragraph of the novel we learn about Esther's fascination with death as she talks about how she cannot get the electrocution of the Rosenberg's out of her mind (Plath 1-2). ... After hearing that Joan had committed suicide, Esther has a revelation that the death of Joan symbolized the death of her old depressed, suicidal self. Finally after being trapped in a hy...