Reflecting on The Bell Jar

In the 1950s, America was in the grip of Cold War paranoia and McCarthyism. Communism and ‘gender maladjustment’ were twin threats to the social ideals of family and security. Yet, previous readings of Plath and her heroine have ignored much of the social context of this era.

Reflecting on The Bell Jar (first published in 1991) acknowledges this repressive post-war regime of social hygiene. Pat Macpherson’s reading takes into account the fundamental rearrangement of the social contract betwe...