Previous
Foreshadowing
Chapter 10
Explanation and Analysis:
The Bell Jar is a roman à clef, a French term that translates to “novel with a key” but that ultimately refers to works that lightly fictionalize real people or events. Like other writers working in this genre, Plath tells a story based on true events in her own life, concealing the true identities of various characters with false names. At one point in the novel, Esther herself attempts to write a roman à clef:
Back on the breezeway, I fed the first, virgin sheet into my old portable and rolled it up. From another, distanced mind, I saw myself sitting on the breezeway, surrounded by two white clapboard walls, a mock orange bush and a clump of birches and a box hedge, small as a doll in a doll’s house. A feeling of tenderness filled my heart. My heroine would be myself, only in disguise. She would be called Elaine. Elaine. I counted the letters on my fingers. There were six letters in Esther, too. It seemed a lucky thing.
After returning home from New York, Esther begins to write a novel based upon her own life, depicting herself “in disguise.” Her protagonist, she notes, will be called “Elaine,” as that name has “six letters,” just like her own name, “Esther.” Here, Plath playfully acknowledges the status of her own novel as a roman à clef. Her own first name, “Sylvia,” also has six letters, underscoring the fact that Esther is based on herself and her own experiences living in New York City after winning a contest held by a fashion magazine. Throughout the story, Plath draws from her own life without directly acknowledging the autobiographical nature of the story. In this sense, The Bell Jar can arguably be seen as a precursor to the popular modern-day genre of autofiction.
