The Cold War and Agency Panic in The Bell Jar and "Three Women"

Abstract

Concluding paragraph: "Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar and "Three Women" show that politics influenced Plath's writing process in both direct and subtle ways. Combining the personal with the political in these works, Plath emphasizes the struggle between the individual and external forces of control, real or imagined. In the midst of a Red Scare and paranoia about Communist power, Plath suggests that what we have to fear is nearer to home and more pervasive, in the form of societal expectations that oppress the individual and limit or rob her of her agency."