Los paisajes de Sylvia Plath : ciudad versus naturaleza en "The Bell Jar"

Abstract

Sylvia Plath was mainly a writer of natural landscapes. She lived close to natural environments most of her life and and when she describes them in her personal and public writings she does it in a much more positive way than when she portrays urban settings. This articles analyzes the way New York is described in The Bell Jar, the only novel we keep from Plath: an aggressive, inhuman and sinister place that constitutes an excellent example of what Sigmund Freud defines as "uncanny" or "unheimlich". New York is in The Bell Jar a city where Esther Greenwood, the main character, does not feel comfortable but threatened. In fact, in such a setting Esther does not even think of herself as a minor character but as an element added to the urban chaos. This strong sensation worsen her already delicate mental state until she gradually falls into a severe depression. Also, the impression that the city is just a "poster", an "improbable postcard" is repeated once and again in the novel and gives the place the same character of fantasy and unreality with which Rem Koolhas defines Manhattan from an architectural point of view.