Joan may be a relatively minor character in The Bell Jar but I thought she was an interesting mirror to Esther. They both came from the same hometown, dated Buddy, and went to the same mental hospital. However, while Esther survived and is on course to leave the mental hospital, Joan committed suicide. I also think that Joan helped Esther realized that other women also had their own bell jars. Joan, like many of the characters in The Bell Jar, feels like a caricature as a result of Esther's portrayal. Joan is repeatedly associated with horses and Esther comments on her big teeth and eyes which are like grey pebbles. Something about this depiction of Joan makes her feel not completely human. As a result of this distorted portrayal, Joan doesn't feel like a person but a cartoon character. This warped image of Joan signifies how Esther finds it difficult to connect with other people.
At first, Joan seems pretty successful, she's president of her class, college hockey champion, and a psychics major. However, she later goes to the same mental hospital Esther does. When Ester finds out that Joan is at the mental hospital she thinks, Joan, "engaged a room at the asylum on pretense, simply as a joke" (195). And when Joan begins explaining how she ended up at the mental hospital, Esther thinks that Joan is either crazy or "she must be trying to see how crazy I was, believing all that" (195-196). Even though Joan might have gone through similar experiences as Esther, at this point in the novel, Esther doesn't realize so because of her distorted view of people. However, Esther does eventually realizes that Joan and her have some similarities. When Joan shows Esther the marks on her wrists, Esther thought "For the first time it occurred to me Joan and I might have something in common" (199). Here, Esther meets makes a connection with another person which is important to her because throughout the novel Esther has always felt isolated.
However, Esther soon becomes jealous of Joan because she had more privileges and moved to Belsize. Esther thought "Joan was the beaming double of my old best self, specially designed to follow and torment me" (205). To Esther, Joan seems like a mirror of herself. Later Esther thinks "Her thoughts were not my thoughts, nor her feelings my feelings, but we were close enough so that her thoughts and feelings seemed a wry, black image of my own" (219). I think Esther's feels unnerved by the similarities between herself and Joan. So later, when Joan committed suicide, Esther probably felt particularly unnerved that someone she considered a mirror image successfully killed themselves while Esther is still alive. Joan serves as a reminder for what could have happened to Esther. In addition, Joan's struggle were viewed with respect to that of Esther's. However, when Joan commits suicide she's no longer just Esther's mirror image since her and Esther's paths diverged. As a result, Esther can no longer view Joan's struggle as just a mirror to her own. And while Joan's death could still "follow and torment" Esther, I think Esther is also forced to view Joan as her own person and not just a caricature or a double of herself.
I still feel like I haven't completely discussed all aspects of Joan, such as her sexuality and Joan's feelings for Esther, or why she committed suicide and how all of that affects Esther. And honestly, Joan's character still confuses me so I would love to here other thoughts and interpretations of Joan.
This is a really interesting observation. I feel like Joan played a really important part in Esther realizing that she was not alone in her struggles with mental health. Before Esther met Joan, she was always thinking about how alone she was but as she talks to Joan I think she finally realizes that other people might have bell jars over them too. I think this realization is really important for Esther's recovery.
ReplyDeleteI too am perplexed by Joan's presence in the novel, and at times I wonder, with Esther, whether she has made her up inside her head--she seems like a metaphor, or a literary device to present a foil for the narrator. You make a great point about how if Esther can relate to ANY peers in this novel, it would seem like Joan is the best candidate--they have so much in common it's almost absurd. So her inability to really grasp that they have anything in common could be seen as a reflection of her "distorted" bell-jar perceptions. Not only does she not "relate," she's quite nasty to Joan in her narration--her difference or strangeness is constantly rendered with the cruel horse-jokes, but even this might be seen as a reflection of how Esther in some ways seems monstrous to herself, and she projects this onto Joan.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Joan even helped Esther in a way--maybe the way she cared for Esther when Esther was hemorrhaging was symbolism for the way Joan helped Esther mentally by showing her that her struggles were not completely random and unwarranted. Maybe Esther saw Joan and firmly believed that Joan could recover, and so she began to believe that she herself could as well.
ReplyDeleteI'm not going to lie, I really did think that Joan was Esther's imaginary friend. It's just that she was so strikingly similar to Esther and the way Esther described her, it seemed as if Esther made her up. I think Joan was used by Esther as a way for her to not feel alone with what she was going through, and I thought of Joan's suicide was symbolizing the death of Esther's old self. Just a thought.
ReplyDeleteI kinda agree with you, I feel like Joan's sudden appearance and departure from Esther's narration startled me and it felt not quite "real"?
DeleteI think that this idea is quite interesting. It almost feels like Joan's suicide is the way that the book tells Esther that she looked normal (or at least non-suicidal) to everyone around her, but felt differently internally, and that others can feel that way as well.
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