Plummeting into the gap

Plath utilizes several interesting rhetorical strategies to imply the impending nervous breakdown and increasing suicidal impulses of her main character, Esther. Throughout the chapter, Plath implies that Esther is at war with herself by deliberately describing her in contradictory ways. The first sentence, "The face in the mirror looked like a sick Indian" is jarring, if only because it seems dated and strikingly un-PC (Plath, 112). But it is referenced later in the passage when Esther blurts out absentmindedly, "'Pollyanna Cowgirl.'" Esther describes herself both as a "sick Indian" and as a cowgirl who is so generous as to be taken advantage of by her 'friend.' Plath calls to mind the opposition of cowboy/Indian, and the qualification of the Indian as sick and the Cowgirl as Pollyanna calls to mind an inward sickness paired with a social dysfunction, generosity without agency.

Throughout the chapter, Plath emphasizes Esther's alienation from herself and others by disembodying her actions. It is not Esther that looked like a sick Indian, but her face. The phone, an instrument of social interaction, is described, "The black instrument on the hall table trilled its hysterical note over and over, like a nervous bird" (Plath, 117). Realizing that she should call Jody back and tell her that she would come to stay with her friends in Harvard Square, Esther seems unable to make the effort to pick up the phone and arrange for something positive to look forward to. "My hand advanced a few inches, then retreated and fell limp. I forced it toward the receiver again, but again it stopped short, as if it had collided with a pane of glass" (Plath, 118). Esther seems to be only capable of removing all future opportunities that might cause her to be happy, but even this she does as if not quite in control of herself. "I dialed the Admissions Office and listened to the zombie voice leave a message that Miss Esther Greenwood was canceling all arrangements to come to summer school" (Plath, 119). Esther is described as "zombie voiced" throughout the chapter, as if something has taken over her body and she is no longer in control of her life, an apt metaphor for depression. By including the excerpt from the beginnings of Esther's novel, Plath demonstrates one of the reasons for Esther's unhappiness: her inability to get outside of herself. Esther is only able to write about a fictional version of herself, and this fictionalizing of herself removes her more fully from embodying who she is and claiming agency in her illness.

The chapter is filled with foreshadowing of Esther's attempted suicide, beginning with the blouse she has traded her bathrobe to a friend for, with sleeves that are "floppy as the wings of a new angel." A few sentences later, Esther sees "A wan reflection of myself, white wings, brown ponytail and all, ghosted over the landscape" (Plath, 112). Esther is already dead to herself, as unrecognizable as the landscape outside the train window. When Esther gets off the train to meet her mother, "A summer calm laid its soothing hand over everything, like death" (Plath, 113). Esther's descent into depression begins with her rejection from the writing course she had applied to take during the summer. All through June the writing course had stretched before me like a bright, safe bridge over the dull gulf of the summer. Now I saw it totter and dissolve, and a body in a white blouse and green skirt plummet into the gap." (Plath, 114). Without this comfortable plan to salvage her deteriorating life, Esther seems to decide to give up, watching herself fall into the unknown, as if in a dream. Later, "I crawled between the mattress and the padded bedstead and let the mattress fall across me like a tombstone" (Plath, 123). Esther cannot sleep, and yet dreams of death, of being crushed by sleep.

Esther is also alienated from her family and neighbors. Despite her interest in Dodo Conway, Esther sees her and thinks, "Her head tilted happily back, like a sparrow egg perched on a duck egg" (Plath, 116). This bizarre description serves to completely dehumanize Dodo Conway, and instead characterizes her as a fertility machine. As her mother lies sleeping next to her Esther, annoyed by her snoring, thinks "the only way to stop it would be to take the column of skin and sinew from which it rose and twist it to silence between my hands" (Plath, 123). The sounds of breathing irritate Esther; her violent relationship with herself extends now to others.

There is a great sense throughout the chapter of the passage of time. Through Plath's writing, the reader is able to experience the expansive oppression of free time and Esther's loneliness. This is partly through the use of isocolon, creating a buildup of small details. Then the buzz of the orange squeezer sounded from downstairs, and the smell of coffee and bacon filtered under my door. Then the sink water ran from the tap and dishes clinked as my mother dried them and put them back in the cupboard. Then the front door opened and shut. Then the car door opened and shut, and the motor went broom-broom and, edging off with a crunch of gravel, faded into the distance" (Plath, 115). Beginning the sentences with 'then' weights them at the front and deflates the action, reflecting the deflating of Esther's life. This is enhanced by the repetition of sounds when the sentences include 'then' and 'them' or the two sentences which use 'opened and shut'. There is a sense throughout the chapter that time is simultaneously opening and closing on Esther.