Freedom, Purity Culture, and Sex in "The Bell Jar"
Near the beginning of the Bell Jar, our fun Doreen shows a scandalous display with Lenny Shepherd, biting at his ear, when he bites at her hip, and they dance. This semi-sexual display is told through the eyes of Esther Greenwood, who sees this event as animalistic. She describes it as “thrashing”, “screeching”, and Lenny’s “roaring” (Plath, 17). From this we can begin to get a read on Esther’s view of sex; she’s so disgusted she must leave. We get a flashback to Buddy Willard admitting he’d had an affair, as Esther asks if he’d ever done it (expecting him to flatter her with a shy “no, never!”) but alas, he had. Not just once, but for a whole summer. Esther tells us: “Actually, it wasn’t the idea of Buddy sleeping with somebody that bothered me,” (Plath, 71). She goes on to explain that had it been anyone else to tell her, she would’ve simply “gotten even” (by going out and sleeping with someone too), but Buddy had acted like she was sexy, and h...