women, but it is also a portrayal of social realities. Novel is a work of art which enables us to enter into the world that is created by the writer and can feel what the
writer want to express about the writer’s own life. It shows how Plath herself has experienced as her character in the novel. Esther falls into mental breakdown just the
same as Plaths own experiences that underwent mental depression. Although the ending is different, Plath chose to end her own life whereas Esther’s life will be
determined by the readers how she will continue it. In this study, the writer wants to explain that novel is one of the most effective
tools in presenting certain problems or ideas. Novels can also bring certain messages and hidden intentions from the author or certain social situations. The Bell Jar is one
of the countless novels launched in the world of literature that has touched so many aspects of reality from its intrinsic sides and also its extrinsic. This study is hoped to
send a message or a lesson for women living in society. Sylvia Plath has not only transferred her own life’s reflection “through the distorting lens of a bell jar” in the
novel but she has made readers enter her world and mind, we can understand what she thought about the society.
1.2 Problem of the Study
Based on the topic and background of the study, the writer tries to formulate the problems of the study:
1. How does social construction decide everything for women’s life? 2. What are the struggles of the Esther Greenwood in facing social
oppression?
Universitas Sumatera Utara
1.3 Objective of the Study
The purposes of this study are: 1. To describe how social constructions decide everything for women’s life.
2. To explain the struggles of the Esther Greenwood in facing social oppression.
1.4 Scope of the Study
In doing an analysis, it is necessary to limit the focus that is going to be analyzed in order that the study is not out of context.
Throughout the story The Bell Jar tells about the main character called Esther Greenwood and her struggles in New York City and Boston as a successful,
intelligent young woman. The study analyzes Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar and the writer focus only on the main character’s struggles in facing the social oppression.
Other characters involvement will also be used in the study to support the analysis. The writer would like to identify the Esther’s problems and struggles in a society that
is full of oppression and judgments. These are events leading to her mental breakdown until the attempts of trying to end her life. The writer will also try to show
how Sylvia Plath’s work is influenced by feminism ideology and illustrate the phenomenon of social construction of women’s life during the social condition of the
novel in American society.
1.5 Significance of the Study
The result of this thesis is expected to enrich the reader’s knowledge about the novel The Bell Jar as well as learning a lesson about women in society. Firstly, the
significance of this study is to give readers an insight and exploration about the social
Universitas Sumatera Utara
oppression to the main character in the novel and the struggle of the main character to live her life. Secondly, through this research the writer hopes that the readers will be
more aware of how certain roles or lives in certain society is very hard to achieve by women in a world where there is already a determined social construction of it.
Universitas Sumatera Utara
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE
In doing an analysis, it is important for reviews or theories that are related to the subject of discussion to support the study.
2.1 Sociology of Literature
