THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STYLE AND THEME IN A NOVEL (IN THE EXAMPLE OF “THE BELL JAR” BY SYLVIA PATH)
Keywords:
Style, theme, Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar, mental illness, societal expectations, identity, alienation, confessional toneAbstract
This article examines the intrinsic connection between style and theme in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, illustrating how Plath’s stylistic choices enhance the novel’s exploration of mental illness, societal expectations, and personal identity.
The analysis highlights three key aspects of Plath’s style: her use of vivid imagery and metaphor, a confessional tone, and the juxtaposition of beauty and despair. It discusses how these stylistic elements reflect and deepen the novel’s central themes, such as alienation, entrapment, and the struggle for selfhood. The metaphor of the bell jar and the fig tree imagery are emphasized as particularly powerful representations of Esther Greenwood’s internal conflicts. The article concludes by arguing that the interplay of style and theme in The Bell Jar not only enriches the narrative but also demonstrates the profound potential of literary form to evoke emotional and intellectual engagement.
References
1. Bloom, H. (Ed.). (2007). Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. Bloom’s Literary Criticism.
2. Bonds, D. S. (1990). The separative self in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. Women’s
Studies, 18(1), 49-64. 3. Brain, T. (2001). The Other Sylvia Plath. Routledge. 4. Gilbert, S. M., & Gubar, S. (2000). The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman
Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. Yale University Press. 5. Perloff, M. (1972). A Ritual for Being Born Twice: Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar.
Contemporary Literature, 13(4), 507-522.
6. Plath, S. (1963). The Bell Jar. Harper & Row.
7. Smith, A. (1997). Critical Approaches to Sylvia Plath. Longman.
8. Stevenson, A. (1989). Bitter Fame: A Life of Sylvia Plath. Houghton Mifflin. 9. Wagner-Martin, L. (2003). Sylvia Plath: A Biography. University of Michigan Press.
10. Zilcosky, J. (2007). Closed Circuits: Narratives of Loss and Reconnection in Plath’s The Bell Jar. Modern Fiction Studies, 53(4), 847-873.
11. Ma’ripov J. K. A BRIEF INFORMATION ABOUT TENSES //OʻZBEKISTON RESPUBLIKASI OLIY VA OʻRTA. – С. 464.
12. Tolibovna A. K. et al. Features Of Anthropocentric Study Of Sacred Texts //Open Access Repository. – 2022. – Т. 8. – №. 1. – С. 5-10.
