The Crisis of Border in The Bell Jar: A Study of Psychological and Social Thresholds

Abstract

This paper explores the theme of the border crisis in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, examining how the protagonist, Esther Greenwood, experiences psychological fragmentation and social dislocation. Using Julia Kristeva’s theory of abjection and the concept of liminality, the paper investigates how Esther’s identity is constantly destabilized by boundaries—between sanity and insanity, self and other, body and society. These border crises illustrate the entrapment and rebellion of a female consciousness within a patriarchal framework, exposing the fissures in both personal identity and cultural expectations.