The Bell Jar: An Inextricable Hysteria of a Woman Consequent of a Distorted Identity

Abstract

The portrayal of women as ‘Deviant’ has an elongated history. Even the world’s foremost religions and traditions dealing with spirituality often projected women as “uncontrollable.” In literature woman suffering from hysteria have been an engrossing subject. Hysteria as a female condition refers to emotional excess such as fear or panic. The term comes from the Greek word ‘hysterikos’, which means “of the womb.” It was originally seen as a neurotic condition associated with women.