THE ROLE OF MENTAL ILLNESS AS A METAPHOR FOR GENDERED OPPRESSION IN THE BELL JAR AND THE AWAKENING

This paper examines the role of mental illness as a metaphor for gendered oppression in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar (1963) and Kate Chopin’s The Awakening (1899). Using feminist literary criticism, the study analyzes how psychological distress in both protagonists—Esther Greenwood and Edna Pontellier—reflects the internalization of patriarchal constraints. These novels do not merely depict mental illness as individual pathology but frame it as symptomatic of broader sociocultural limitations imposed on women. The study employs close textual analysis of metaphor, character development, and narrative structure to demonstrate how mental illness functions as both a critique of and response to gender norms. Findings suggest that both novels metaphorically portray female mental collapse as a form of resistance to societal expectations and a desperate grasp at personal autonomy..