Esther's Treatment
For most of the end of the novel, we see Esther receiving treatment in a mental institution. We can see her improvement, which is clearly a result of this treatment. Being in a hospital allows Esther an escape from society and its expectations. There are no expectations of good grades, internships, scholarships, or relationships. It allows an isolated environment where Esther is able to get the help she needs. The staff there have a clear recovery plan suited for her specifically, compared to the group environment at the public hospital. I think Esther’s story would have ended very differently if not for her access to a private, female mental health facility.
The clearest difference we can see is with her experience with the electro-convulsive therapy. In her experience with Dr. Gordon, the traditional suburban doctor ideal, the therapy is painful. She compares it with the execution of the Rosenburgs – some sort of punishment. “I thought my bones would break and the sap fly out of me like a split plant” Esther says. “I wondered what terrible thing it was that I had done”. Immediately after, she chooses to not return to Dr. Gordon, leaving his failed treatment plan behind. With Dr. Nolan, she notes a feeling of calmness after, “I felt surprisingly at peace. The bell jar hung suspended… I was open to circulating air”. This is the first time we see Esther acknowledge that her treatment plan is working, marking a stark difference between these two doctors.
Beyond just doctors, the treatment facility Esther was in also played a huge role. In the first public hospital, she’s kicked out almost immediately. The nurses said it was for breaking a mirror, but Esther believes that wasn’t the true reason. The next hospital she’s moved into, she’s paranoid the whole time. She thinks her roommate is imitating her mother, is overwhelmed with all the doctors there to observe her, and thinks the man bringing their food is out to get her. The group of doctors there only serve to remind her of Buddy Willard and the suburban lifestyle that caused her so much stress. One of the nurses at the private facility even points out the vast difference from the public hospital, “this is a regular country club. Over there they’ve got nothing. No OT to talk of, no walks…. Not enough em-ploy-ees”. I think the private environment where the employees were catered to Esther and she was awarded certain freedoms, allowing her to slowly reintegrate into society, were of utmost importance in her recovery. Without those, her recovery would have either been much slower or nonexistent.
I definitely agree with you that without Dr. Nolan and the private mental health facility in general, Esther may not have recovered at all. Dr. Nolan especially played such a crucial role in Esther's recovery and ultimately, I think it stemmed from Dr. Nolan and the rest of the workers at the facility treating Esther as a human being. A recovering human being, but still a human being. At the other mental health facilities, Esther felt like she was a foreign specimen being studied instead of helped. Additionally, Dr. Gordon seemed to not care about Esther in the slightest, shown by him not paying attention to their conversations and saying the same questions/response on two different appointments. All while Esther sees Dr. Nolan as a friend and motherly figure who she can confide in.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you in that the specific facility she was at played a huge role in her recovery. In particular, I think Dr. Nolan being a woman was actually one of the most important things. Obviously we don't know exactly what was the cause of Esther's depression but the reader can assume it was a build up of a lot of factors, with one likely being the traditional female societal expectations that were placed on her by her mother, Buddy's mother, Buddy, etc. They kind of pushed her to be in this box or be this person she didn't want to be and especially the idea of giving up her career and kind of just being a support tool for her potential husband, seemed to really push her over. I think Dr. Nolan was such a huge push back against this because she's this powerful woman in a position of authority who is not only an anomaly against what Esther hated so much, but also just treats her kindly and like she actually cares.
ReplyDeleteI think the fact that these women had to be isolated and "escape" from society in order to recover says a lot about how society at the time viewed mental health/illness. Esther feels attacked and misunderstood from every angle before she comes to this private institution, which I think is purposefully written. By writing this way, Plath makes a big statement about mental illness being misunderstood and "hidden away" in public in this time period, and how much harm this attitude did to affected people.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with all of your points! I also felt a huge difference in Esther’s narration and emotions overall when she moved from Dr. Gordon and his treatment, as well as in the first hospitals, to Dr. Nolan, her treatment, and the private hospital. The change not only was dramatic, but it was almost instant as well as soon as Esther was introduced to Dr. Nolan and saw a woman as her doctor. I thought that the points about how when she met Dr. Nolan, she realized that her treatment would be different and she got to avoid the elements of the suburban lifestyle that caused her so much stress before were so interesting!
ReplyDeleteI thought that the part where you explore and analyze the difference in treatment facilities, not just the doctors themselves, was super interesting and insightful as well, and how without the environment that Esther was ultimately in, her recovery would have either gone much slower or wouldn’t have been able to happen at all.
I agree completely with this blog post, and I think Dr Nolan's role is emphasized by the fact that she is all at once a mother figure and a trusted friend to Esther, two things she never really had at home (no offense to her mom but she kinda sucks at the whole mental health thing). I would also say that Esther is so much more respectful of Dr Nolan because not only is she a woman, but she is a woman in a respected profession, which is something that Esther doesn't normally see. And since we know Esther seems to look down on women who fit the societal norm (her mother and Dodo, for example), it makes sense that Esther would like Dr Nolan so much.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering how her shock treatment could have worked so well and I completely agree with you. This isolation from all the judgmental people that essentially crushed her to the point where she began to give up on living finally allowed her to focus on herself and find meaning in her life once again. I do wonder, however, once she is back in the real world, would she eventually slowly go back to caring about what others think about her since she never really faced these expectations and challenges head on. Instead, she had to go somewhere isolated from those challenges. Although, once again, this isolation may have allowed her to realize the value in herself and her life that she had never been able to realize before.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree that her experience with Dr. Nolan allowed her to improve in some capacity. However, I still feel a lot of contempt for everyone who "treated" her (given it was the 1940s it was bound to be way worse I guess). The life away from home/ the structure it gave her was definitely good because those were major reasons why she spiraled in the first place, but it's really absurd to me how some of the treatments (esp Dr. Gordon's) only made her worse.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, one of the most sobering aspects of this story is Esther's realization that she can't end up in the "state hospital" because no one "gets out" from there: she is aware that she's very privileged (thanks to her "scholarship" from P. Guinea) to be able to attend the private facility, and the state hospital is a constant threat, a place she'll be "sent" if she doesn't "do better." The reader can't help but think of all the unfortunate souls who end up in the state facility because of poverty and lack of resources: the mere existence of a mental-health facility as a prison-like "threat" for "bad behavior" says a lot about the stigmatization of mental illness at the time.
ReplyDeleteI found your perspective on the differences between Dr. Gordon and Dr. Nolan really insightful. It led me to think, maybe the treatment itself (the shock therapy) was no different between the two doctors, but what really mattered was the quality of treatment she got before and after the shock therapy that really matters. In Dr. Gordon's case, Esther made no real connection to him prior to her treatment with him, and she clearly felt uncomfortable sharing anything with him before and after treatment. However with Dr. Nolan, we are given accounts of their lengthy talks together and the almost maternal way that Dr. Nolan treats Esther. And I haven't even mentioned the other therapies that Esther was able to receive with Dr. Nolan vs. the neglect (at least it felt that way to me) of Dr. Gordon. All of this makes me think, maybe when Esther was still with Dr. Gordon, maybe she just wasn't ready to come out of the bell jar yet? Maybe in some ways the bell jar had become her only reality, and removing it so abruptly was a traumatizing experience. This is of course all metaphorical, but it makes a lot of sense to me.
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