One of the most prominent characters in The Bell Jar is Buddy Willard. A good looking Yale graduate in medical school, he checks off most (if not all) of the boxes for being a “catch” husband of the time. However, despite all of these seemingly positive attributes, Esther actively despises him for the majority of the novel. She describes him as a "hypocrite" multiple times (Plath 51, 109). Furthermore, she dreads meeting him to the point that when she does visit him with Mr. Willard, Buddy’s father, she considers getting out of the car and hitchhiking back.
The reason for Esther’s disdain for Buddy is because he is an embodiment of the sexist double standards in that time period. He wants total control of his future wife, indicated when Esther broke her leg and Buddy had a grim satisfaction at knowing she would be limited by her injury. He even tells Esther that once she gets married, she won’t feel the desire to write again. Furthermore, despite Buddy fooling around with a waitress, Esther is held to a different standard as she would lose face if she did the same, while his actions are considered normal. Lastly, he is a medical student and as such, is part of a male-dominated system which Esther hates because it dismisses the real concerns of women.
Unlike many other characters, Esther is able to recognize how the status quo unfairly treats women. Throughout the novel, she questions why men can sleep around while women must maintain their purity. Indeed, a large contributor to her mental illness is trying to handle this double standard: as her mental health worsens, she gets more and more affected by it. This is why during her worst days, Esther has such a negative perception of Buddy in comparison to others - he embodies this system that she rightfully despises.
In order to “get even” with the status quo, Esther decides to lose her virginity. After doing so, Buddy becomes peripheral in her life. When she meets him for the last time, her thoughts are mainly focused on the weather. When she speaks to him about shoveling snow, she is not tense and is able to chat freely. That is because in her mind, by sleeping with someone, she has successfully overthrown the double standard that women should be chaste before marriage. Thus, ultimately, Buddy, who had represented this standard, has become irrelevant in her life.
Hello Renee :DD Nice blog running through Esther’s perception of Buddy. I found it interesting how Esther reaches her “coming-of-age” moment with Buddy after she slept with some random person (someone she actively picked to lose her first time to). I think this really highlights how she has confronted and challenged the double standard. She leaves the novel acknowledging that the social expectations will always be there, but at least she knows that she won’t be manipulated by them.
ReplyDeleteGreat perspective of Buddy, Renee! I totally agree with you about everything said regarding Buddy's hypocritical double standard towards Esther. It's honestly pretty disgusting reading all the things he's said all together. I love how you mentioned the way he becomes irrelevant in her life after she "levels" the playing field by losing her virginity with Irwin. It's interesting because I originally would have thought that she would somehow want to see his reaction about this but it was more like an internal feeling of accomplishment and she never needed someone else's affirmation for it. I think the way Plath wrote about that snow scene is interesting because it was a full circle moment but only between us and Esther rather than her and Buddy. Really nice blog!
ReplyDeleteHi Renee! I thought that your interpretation of Buddy being the representation of the sexist double standard in American and by sleeping with Irwin overthrows, and in a sense, wins against society and it's double standards. Even though that those standards will still exist, I think that by losing her purity she doesn't have to worry about this anymore, and thus succeeds. Though I'm not sure if I can relate to this that much, it kind of reminds me of like if I had a streak going in Duolingo or something like that, and by breaking that, I can finally just do Duolingo for the fun of it and not for the streak if that makes sense.
ReplyDeleteHi Renee! I really enjoyed hearing about your perspective on Buddy and I definitely agree that he doesn't live up to the high standards that he sets for other people. He can be very hypocritical with the way expects so much out of people, yet doesn't even do those things himself. However seeing all of these examples in order and how it ends with Esther realizing that he has no significance in her life surely give me a sense of satisfaction. She realized that she was done trying to make him happy and even went against those double standards. Great blog!
ReplyDeleteI like your relatively optimistic conclusion about how to read the final interaction between Esther and Buddy: she checks her own emotional registers, so to speak, and realizes she no longer has any feelings for him, she is "free" of the burden that his desire to marry her represents (and her adventure with Irwin has a lot to do with it). She seems as committed as ever to the idea that she'll "never marry" as the novel comes to a close--reinforced in part by her clean break from Irwin, leaving him with the hospital bill and no way to get in touch with her. Buddy, giving voice to the societal standards as usual, wonders "who she'll marry now" that she has this stigma of a mental institution on her resume, but Esther doesn't even take the bait. Earlier they would have argued about how she never will marry, and Buddy would patronize her and say "of course you will." But now, at the close of the book, she seems free of these expectations. Buddy can awkwardly wonder about her romantic future now that she's "damaged" by her experiences, but she doesn't even take the bait. She truly doesn't care what he thinks, and that gives an undeniably optimistic tone to the ambiguous ending of the novel.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Buddy represents to Esther many of the things that she hates about the world she lives in: the hypocrisy, the systemic sexism, and the feeling that she is doomed to a future that she does not want for herself. That is why I think that her lack of care towards buddy is an important factor in her recovery. She has regained confidence in herself and is learning to push back against the system that is making her miserable, which is in this case represented by Buddy.
ReplyDeleteRenee, these are some really great points about the representation of Buddy! I think the context here is really important; that we are still in the 1950s and society is a lot stricter than it used to be. To me, the point about her injury kind of played to this, because he wanted control over her. I also really like your interpretation of the ending, that she kind of avoids him on purpose because losing her virginity gives her a kind of power. Very nice job!
ReplyDeleteHi Renee, Ioved how you dug deep into Esther's disdain about Buddy. It's not about who he is, but rather what he represents. I agree that Esther throughout the book seems to question gender standards by examining the people around her, and push back through her own actions. Her loss of her virginity, in that sense, represents not just a direct act of resistance against Buddy's hypocrisy, but an establishment of her own power as a woman in oppressive 1950's society.
ReplyDeleteHi Renee! I really enjoyed reading your blog post. I completely agree with all the points that you're making. I find it interesting that Buddy embodies all of the double standards that Esther hates, and to make her realize that and actually do something about it, she had to sleep with some random person. This is sort of her getting rid of Buddy and all the things that he represents in her life. Good job!!
ReplyDeleteHey Renee, I really like how you saw their last conversation as empowering. Considering that women no longer are virgins are considered now unwanted, I think it makes sense to frame it that way. Not only does Ester not seemed phased by this, but she is uninterested, and only speaks of the weather. I think this is her way of saying that she wont let these double standards control her anymore, and I think its more about her nonchalance that anything that makes this satisfying. Good riddance Buddy!
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