Navigating trauma, alienation, and neurotic needs in the patriarchal world of the bell jar
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Date
2024
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UMT, Lahore
Abstract
This thesis deploys Karen Horney’s theory of neurotic needs as a theoretical tool to analyze Esther Greenwood’s personality in Plath’s The Bell Jar. The theory of neurotic needs proposes that human consciousness seeks ways to satisfy the neurotic anxieties by developing coping mechanisms that are damaging to the personality. The neurotic need to be compliant, detached, sometimes aggressive are the strategies that psycho-neurotic people adhere to so that they can navigate through life. Horney argues that the environmental factors shape a person’s personality that often times get damaged due to the past traumas. The theory of neurotic needs evinces that a damaged personality leads to the development of the neurotic desire to attain an idealized self that is humanly impossible to achieve causing neurotic people to feel alienated from their real self. Esther Greenwood’s neurotic needs stem from her unfortunate childhood experiences following her inability to fit into the society as an adult. Esther’s childhood traumas cause a rift in her personality consequently making her an apathetic sycophant towards the people around her. The patriarchal society threatens her self-worth by upholding double standards for men consequently oppressing women which instills immense fear in her mind causing her to develop a neurotic personality. This thesis aims to analyze Esther’s neurotic needs while scrutinizing the causes of alienation from her real-self, asserting that her neurotic behaviour stems from the influence of her environment rather than the biological factors being responsible for her psychologically damaged personality.