Esther's Role Models in The Bell Jar Throughout Plath's novel The Bell Jar, Esther Greenwood struggles to decide who she wants to be. His quest for identity leads him to turn to his female role models. These women are not ideal in his eyes. Although they represent part of who she wants to be herself, Esther finds it impossible to decide which one she wants to become. Jay Cee, Mrs. Willard, Philomena Guinea, her mother, and Doctor Nolan all serve as role models for Esther Greenwood. The way these women are portrayed speaks volumes about Esther's perspectives on identity and her search for an identity of her own. Jay Cee, Mrs. Willard and Philomena Guinea are characterized as archetypes and therefore very limiting. Jay Cee is portrayed as hyper, brusque and she speaks "in a waspish manner" (29). She's smart and talented but she's ugly. Philomena Guinea, on the other hand, says she was stupid in college and is always described as being surrounded by beautiful things. The beauty that Esther sees as the binary opposite of ugliness seems to have been acquired through her “millions and millions of dollars” (38). Jay Cee has “a brain, so his ugly looks [don’t] seem to matter” (5). But Philomena has money so nothing else matters. Mrs. Willard is described as the ultimate wife and mother. One gets the impression that Ms. Willard embodies sensitivity. She is what every little girl is meant to become. But Esther sees differently. Mrs. Willard represents the inevitable result of marriage and motherhood: flattening under the husband's foot like a kitchen rug (80). The way the women are described highlights the type of relationship she had with them. For example, Esther does...... middle of paper...... search for her own identity. Works Cited and Consulted: Brennan, Sheila M. "Popular Images of American Women in the 1950s." Women's Rights Reporter 14 (1992): 41-67. Bronfen, Elizabeth. Sylvia Plath. Writers and their work. Plymouth, UK: Northcote, 1998. Evans, Sara M. Women's Role Models in America. New York: Free-Simon, 1989. Friedan, Betty. The feminine mystique. Twentieth anniversary edition. 1963. New York: Norton, 1983. Nizer, Louis. The implosion conspiracy. New York: Doubelday, 1973. Plath, Sylvia. The bell. 1963. London: Faber, 1966. Radosh, Ronald and Joyce Milton, eds. The Rosenberg file: a search for the truth. 1983. New Haven: Yale UP, 1997. Stevenson, Anne. Bitter Fame: A Life of Sylvia Plath. London: Viking-Penguin, 1989. Wagner-Martin, Linda. Sylvia Plath: a biography. New York: Simon, 1987.