Quotes from book
The Bell Jar

The Bell Jar
Sylvia Plath

The Bell Jar is the only novel written by the American writer and poet Sylvia Plath. Originally published under the pseudonym "Victoria Lucas" in 1963, the novel is semi-autobiographical, with the names of places and people changed. The book is often regarded as a roman à clef because the protagonist's descent into mental illness parallels Plath's own experiences with what may have been clinical depression or bipolar II disorder. Plath died by suicide a month after its first UK publication. The novel was published under Plath's name for the first time in 1967 and was not published in the United States until 1971, in accordance with the wishes of both Plath's husband, Ted Hughes, and her mother. The novel has been translated into nearly a dozen languages.

Sylvia Plath photo

“The silence depressed me. It wasn't the silence of silence. It was my own silence. I knew perfectly well the cars were making a noise, and the people in them and behind the lit windows of the buildings were making a noise, and the river was making a noise, but I couldn't hear a thing. The city hung in my window, flat as a poster, glittering and blinking, but it might just as well not have been there at all, for the good it did me.”

Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar

Source: The Bell Jar (1963), Ch. 2

Sylvia Plath photo

“Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one’s head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no tomorrow. To forget time, to forgive life, to be at peace.”

Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar

Source: The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath photo

“If you expect nothing from somebody you are never disappointed.”

Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar

Source: The Bell Jar (1963), Ch. 5

Sylvia Plath photo

“I didn't know why I was going to cry, but I knew that if anybody spoke to me or looked at me too closely the tears would fly out of my eyes and the sobs would fly out of the throat and I'd cry for a week.”

Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar

Source: The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath photo

“The floor seemed wonderfully solid. It was comforting to know I had fallen and could fall no farther.”

Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar

Variant: It was comforting to know I had fallen and could fall no farther.
Source: The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath photo

“I wondered why I couldn't go the whole way doing what I should any more. This made me sad and tired. Then I wondered why I couldn't go the whole way doing what I shouldn't, the way Doreen did, and this made me even sadder and more tired.”

Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar

Source: The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath photo

“I felt wise and cynical as all hell.”

Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar

Source: The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath photo

“I felt dreadfully inadequate. The trouble was, I had been inadequate all along, I simply hadn’t thought about it.”

Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar

Variant: The trouble was, I had been inadequate all along, I simply hadn't thought about it.
Source: The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath photo

“I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.”

Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar

"Mad Girl's Love Song" http://www.angelfire.com/tn/plath/madgirl.html (1953) from Collected Poems (1981)
Variant: I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead; I lift my eyes and all is born again.
Source: The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath photo

“I am sure there are things that can't be cured by a good bath but I can't think of one.”

Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar

Source: The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath photo

“Whenever I'm sad I'm going to die, or so nervous I can't sleep, or in love with somebody I won't be seeing for a week, I slump down just so far and then I say: 'I'll go take a hot bath.”

Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar

Source: The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath photo

“I never feel so much myself as when I'm in a hot bath.”

Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar

Source: The Bell Jar (1963), Ch. 2

Sylvia Plath photo

“Ever since I was small I loved feeling somebody comb my hair. It made me go all sleepy and peaceful.”

Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar

Source: The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath photo

“I wanted to be where nobody I knew could ever come.”

Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar

Source: The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath photo

“I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart: I am, I am, I am.”

Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar

Variant: I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart: I am, I am, I am.
Source: The Bell Jar (1963), Ch. 20

Sylvia Plath photo

“I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”

Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar

Source: The Bell Jar (1963), Ch. 7

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