Sylvia Plath wrote the semi-autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, in which the protagonist, Esther, struggles with depression while trying to make a name for herself as a writer in the 1990s 50. He has the opportunity to work as an apprentice at a well-known fashion magazine publisher, but he still can't find true happiness. She collapses into depression due to feeling like she doesn't fit in and eventually ends up being admitted to a psychiatric hospital undergoing electroshock therapy. However, she describes the depth of her depression as "Wherever I sat - on the deck of a ship or on a street, in a bar in Paris or Bangkok - I would be sitting under the same bell jar, baking in my acidic air." (Plath 178). The pressure from her mother, her friends, and her romantic interests to assimilate into society's standards almost pushes her over the edge and causes her to attempt suicide multiple times throughout her life. Buddy Willard, Esther's one-time boyfriend, repeatedly asks her to marry him but she refuses. Her mother tries to convince her to get married and eventually makes her go to therapy, which lands her in the mental hospital. Esther can't stand the way of settling down and starting a family, as well as going out and partying all night. He just wants to work to become a journalist or editor. However, part of her longs for these other lives that she imagines living, if she were a different person or if different things happened in her life. This is how Elly Higgenbottom was born. Elly is Esther when Esther doesn't want to be herself to new people. Esther's story portrays the role of women in 1950s society through Esther's family and friends who pushed her to conform to the gender roles of the time. Marriage is a factor that weighs heavily...in the middle of the card....g one of the two." (Plath 120). Society has come a long way from there, although a margin still contains these opinions, increasingly people are forming feminist ideals. The only if is that if Esther were here today our world would fit her much more comfortably. Studies on Women 18.1 (May 1990): 49-64. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter and Deborah A. Schmitt January 2014.Whelan-Stewart, Wendy. "Role Playing the 'Feminine' in Letters Home." Intertexts 12.1-2 (2008): 129+. Literary Resource Center. 17 January 2014. Winner bell jar: what has really changed for women since the 1950s?" Books and culture May 2002: 25+. Literary resource centre. Network. January 17. 2014.