In Claire Hilton’s Journal Review, “An exploration of the patient’s experience of electro-convulsive therapy in mid-twentieth century creative literature: A historical study with implications for practice today”, the author writes that “Esther, the main character, in The Bell Jar receives ECT without consent, explanation, or anaesthetic. She also perceived the treatment as punishment.” (9). In this section of The Bell Jar it is clear that Esther’s mother perceived the treatment as a type of response to Esther’s transgressive behavior, and perhaps as a punishment, even stating “I knew you’d decide to be right again.” (Plath 146). Esther’s mother rationalizes her perception by insinuating that because Esther did not like the treatment, she was therefore unlike other people in the hospital experiencing mental illness. In this case, Esther’s mother is demonstrating how internalized gender oppression can perpetrate the conflation of gender transgression and mental illness and further insinuate that mental illness is a choice. In Laura de la parra Fernández’ article, “‘We Are All Mad Here’: Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar as a political novel”, the author writes about how The Bell Jar depicts that gender oppression is internalized and therefore a causation of mental illness in women stating, “a question that is problematized by Plath in The Bell Jar as not only consisting on being able to opt for a job or not, but on something much more difficult to solve and deeply ingrained in their psyches, to the point of causing mental distress.”. Ultimately, the dialogue between Esther and her mother helps readers understand how gender oppression is generationally internalized and can further perpetrate the invalidation of legitimate mental illness, further confounding the use of ECT as a method of capital punishment instead of as a psychiatric treatment.
