The Bell Jar

The Bell Jar is a roman à clef, a French term that translates to “novel with a key” but that ultimately refers to works that lightly fictionalize real people or events. Like other writers working in this genre, Plath tells a story based on true events in her own life, concealing the true identities of various characters with false names. At one point in the novel, Esther herself attempts to write a roman à clef:

Back on the breezeway, I fed the first, virgin sheet into my old portable and rolled it up. From another, distanced mind, I saw myself sitting on the breezeway, surrounded by two white clapboard walls, a mock orange bush and a clump of birches and a box hedge, small as a doll in a doll’s house. A feeling of tenderness filled my heart. My heroine would be myself, only in disguise. She would be called Elaine. Elaine. I counted the letters on my fingers. There were six letters in Esther, too. It seemed a lucky thing.

Cite this Quote