Esther got a problem with Joan. Por que?
The readers of the novel The Bell Jar follow the protagonist Esther. Most of the time the reader can empathize with Esther, but she is oddly rude to another patient with mental health issues, Joan. For some reason, Esther refuses to empathize with Joan, even when she opens up to her and sees Esther as her best and only friend. Joan goes out of her way to take Esther to the hospital the night she loses her virginity. Esther is usually a relatively likable person, so why is she so mean to Joan.
In my opinion, most of this can be attributed to her own mental illness. An example of this is that after her procedure and she is in a healthier mental state, she asks Dr. Nolan if she should feel responsible for Joan's death. While this isn't exactly a direct display of empathy, it shows that she is able to think about other people and their emotions and worry about things other than her own pain and feelings. Despite this, I would argue Esther still isn't as nice to Joan as she should be. Joan goes out of her way to take Esther to the hospital when she is bleeding heavily from losing her virginity. Despite receiving no acknowledgment or companionship from Esther, she still cares for her and helps her out for nothing in return. Maybe Joan still cares for Esther as she describes Esther as an inspiration for her to attempt to take her own life.
Before her procedure, Esther was depicted as having no sympathy for a struggling Joan. Joan tells her she tried to kill herself because of Esther's actions. A normal person would probably tell Joan that they shouldn't kill themselves and feel guilty about making someone feel this way. However, Esther has a totally nonchalant response and is almost angry at Joan for doing this. Esther is so caught up in her own mental health issues that she is simply incapable of thinking about anything or anybody else.
I think that subconsciously Esther doesn't mess with Joan because she is kind of taking the attention away from her own mental health. Esther looks up to Dr. Nolan as a maternal figure and Joan being there too takes the attention and care she gets from Dr. Nolan. This could be a reason why Esther dislikes Joan as she feels her motherly love is being taken away and given to Joan.
I was honestly really weirded out by Joan at the beginning because it felt like she was trying to copy Esther and experience something 'cool' and chart her own path when Esther was really struggling. However, I definitely grew more empathy for her as her character progressed and found myself annoyed with Esther at moments. You make an interesting point that Esther maybe feels threatened by Joan in terms of taking attention away and this may explain some of her animosity.
ReplyDeleteI was kind of on Esther's side when Joan first arrived Joan's reasoning for being at the mental hospital seemed disturbing but as time went on I see what you mean Esther was unreasonably cold towards Joan. I personally think its also because Joan reminded Esther of herself which took away from her feeling like her experience with mental health was isolated, she was a reminder that not only Esther went through mental health issues (from the social status she came from) which at the time was something Esther felt was something only she could experience
ReplyDeleteI agree that Esther does seem uncharacteristically cold towards Joan. I think it is possible that she feels some sort of competitiveness with Joan. It is also interesting to remember that this book is through the perspective of Esther in a "bell jar." Maybe Esther see too much of herself in Joan, and it is like seeing outside of the bell jar? So, in a way, her bitterness towards Joan might stem from self-hatred or regret.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Esther was quite mean to Joan. I think that Joan just wanted to be seen and understood, so she looked to Esther because she was going through a similar thing. When she saw that even Esther wouldn't empathize with her, she felt even more misunderstood and I think that that might have been one of the factors contributing towards her eventual suicide.
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