The Bell Jar plot
"Sometimes just being a woman is an act of courage..."
Esther Greenwood (Marilyn Hassett) is a sheltered girl who, when she is 19, is allowed to work for a month on the editorial board of a well-known women's magazine in New York. She won this prize by writing a story. In that month she learns a different way of life. However, she also starts to doubt herself terribly. She does this all the time when her boyfriend, Buddy Willard, tells her he's been dating a maid. When Esther comes home after the month, she also hears from her mother that she has been rejected for a writing course. She had wanted to follow it in the summer. She decides not to take another course and stays at home. She is trying to write a book. She is trying to write for her studies. It all doesn't work. She can't sleep anymore. Her mother tells her to see a psychiatrist, Dr. Gordon.