Context ~Closest she comes to succeeding with her ultimate goal of suicide ~Esther is unable to succeed ~Accepting her illness ~She believes that death is where she could receive happiness ~Takes actions into her own hands ~Esther’s Mother begins to accept the fact that she needs help

~Physical vs. Mental Illness ~Acceptance ~Internal Conflict ~Fear Themes ~Physical vs. Mental Illness ~Acceptance ~Internal Conflict ~Fear

Symbols Father’s Grave – When she visits her father’s grave she then realizes that her mother had neglected her father after his death by burring the relationship they all had with him. At this point Esther realizes her life could have been better off if her father was still around. But in the eyes of her Mother “she said what a merciful thing it was for him he had died, because if he had lived he would have been crippled and an invalid for life” (176). This can also relate to the state Esther is in and how her mother doesn’t know how to go about her illness. She doesn’t actually know what’s best for her daughter. Her body - Esther body is a symbol because unlike her mind, her body won’t let suffer. An example of this is when she says “I saw that my body had all sorts of little tricks, such as making my hands go limp at the crucial second which would save it” (167). Even though she wanted the pain to stop from inside her, her body physically wouldn’t let her. Mirror – Throughout the novel Esther struggles with recognizing herself and matching what she feels on the inside with what she looks like on the outside. One of the times that Esther doesn’t recognize herself the most was after she overdoses on her medication and she wakes up in the hospital. When she looks in the mirror “[She] couldn’t tell if the person in the picture was a man or a woman” (183, Plath) Pills – The pills act as gateway to Esther’s over all goal of taking her life and finally achieving happiness. “I unscrewed the bottle of pills and started taking them swiftly, between gulps of water, one by one by one.” (178, Plath)

Only my case was incurable. Passage #1 After a discouraging time of walking about with the silk cord dangling from my neck like a yellow cat’s tail and finding no place to fasten it, I sat on the edge of my mother’s bed and tried pulling the cord tight. But each time I would get the cord so tight I could feel a rushing in my ears and a flush of blood in my face, my hands would weaken and let go, and I would be alright again. Then I saw that my body had all sorts of little tricks, such as making my hands go limp at the crucial second, which would save it, time and again, whereas if I had the whole say, I would be dead in a flash. I would simply have to ambush it with whatever sense I had left, or it would trap me in its stupid cage for fifty years without any sense at all. And when people found out my mind had gone, as they would have to, sooner or later, in spite of my mothers guarded tongue, they would persuade her to put me into an asylum where I could be cured. Only my case was incurable. I had bought a few paperbacks on abnormal psychology at the drug store and compared my symptoms with the symptoms in the books, and sure enough, my symptoms tailed with the most hopeless cases. The only thing I could read, beside scandal sheets, were these abnormal psychology books. It was as if some slim opening had been left, so I could learn all I needed to know about my case to end it in the proper way. I wondered, after the hanging fiasco, if I shouldn’t just give I up and turn myself over to the doctors, but then I remembered Dr. Gordan and his private shock machine. Once I was locked up they could use that on me all the time. (Plath, 167-168) Pink=trapped/ cage/ zoo animals Purple=internal conflict/ what she wants versus what her body allows Blue= becoming aware Turquoise=searching for hope Orange=symbolism/blood/fear Yellow=significance of colour