ABSTRACT ALIENATION AND ISOLATION THEORY IN SLYVIA PLATH’S THE BELL JARAlienation is a state of insensibility and estrangement implying a lack or loss of sympathy towards society and being isolated from it. Human beings live in a world that is decrepit and filled with stereotypes that label and highlight every flaw present in any individual. Living in these conditions can hamper the mental health of an active mind. This sense of alienation propels one towards an overwhelming feeling of anxiety.
This alienation is present as a major theme in many writers’ works in the modern world and is highlighted in the emotional and mental turmoil in their protagonist’s lives. They experience psychological stress and lead desperate lives. This thesis aims at analyzing the alienation and isolation that is explored in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. The first chapter portrays the background and definition of the term and how it has been made use of in literature. The second chapter deals with examining how Karl Marx’s theory of alienation deeply resonates with the protagonist distancing herself from her social world and the deeply destructive effects of it. The third chapter focuses on the patriarchal society and the effect it had in alienating the protagonist along with the culturally-ingrained stereotypes of women
