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the end is so disturbing for her. As a result, she suddenly cannot read, write, bath or sleep. Esther’s mother decides to take her to a psychiatrist where she receives
shock therapy. Unfortunately, the treatment influences Esther into a more unstable condition. She finally decides to commit suicide.
Esther comes to her new psychiatrist, a woman named Dr. Nolan, and begins to trust her. Esther starts to get better day by day. She also makes friend
with Joan, a woman who has to struggle from mental illness. She falls in love and tries to seduce Esther. However, Esther rejects her. When Joan leaves the hospital
she commits suicide. After being hospitalized, Esther starts to show improvement. Therefore, the hospital officials grant her permission to leave the hospital.
Following her freedom, she tries to have relation with a man named Irwin who makes her loses her virginity. Esther goes back to emergency room as she is
bleeding after having sex with Irwin. As she gets better, she leaves the hospital and decides to go to college. She tries to control her life once again. However, she
knows that the dangerous illness that put her life at risk could strike again at any time.
E. Conceptual Framework
Having a good and stable personality is important to an individual. It becomes one of many factors which can influence someone’s behavior and how
he or she will interact with society. Researcher believes that someone will have a good personality as long as he or she can pass the particular stage of psychosocial
development in his or her life. However, failure to complete stage of the
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psychosocial development in someone’s life can lead to unhealthy personality.
The Bell Jar
narrates the story of Esther Greenwood, who fails to complete one of the psychosocial stages in her life. As the consequence, she is not able to pass
through the next stage of her psychosocial development smoothly. Furthermore, this failure brings many impacts to her personality. The researcher believes that
this novel is one of the representations of humans’ psychosocial development. To analyze Esther’s psychosocial development and her personality, the
following objectives are proposed: 1 to identify in which stage of the psychosocial development does Esther unsuccessfully handle the crisis, 2 to
explain the impact of the stage psychosocial development toward Esther’s personality
. The researcher applies Erikson’s psychosocial theory to answer the question of the research. The theory believes that someone will experience each
stages of psychosocial crisis which will help someone to describe his or her personality growth. If he or she is able to complete each of the stage, he or she
will have a healthy personality and the other way around. The conceptual framework of the research can be seen below.
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Figure 2. Conceptual Framework
Erikson’s Theory: Psychosocial Theory
RQ. 2 RQ. 1
Words, phrases, clauses, sentences,
paragraphs Sylvia Plath’s
The Bell Jar
Eight Stages of Development: 1.
Trust vs. Mistrust 2.
Autonomy vs. Shame Doubt
3. Initiative vs. Guilt
4. Industry vs. Inferiority
5. Identity vs. Role Confusion
6. Intimacy vs. Isolation
7. Generativity vs. Stagnation
8. Integrity vs. Despair
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CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD
A. Subject of the Study
The subject of this study is Sylvia Plath’s
The Bell Jar
