"The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath Quiz

Answer: She won a magazine contest

"There were twelve of us at the hotel. We had all won a fashion magazine contest, by writing essays and stories and poems and fashion blurbs..."

Answer: Pollyanna Cowgirl

Betsy was from Kansas.

Answer: Elly Higginbottom

She used this alias again when she met the sailor in Boston.

Answer: crab meat

They were in the movie theater when all of them started to feel sick. Betsy and Esther kept puking in the cab on the car ride back to the hotel.

Answer: At the U.N.

He was a simultaneous interpreter at the U.N. Mrs. Willard gave him Esther's phone number in New York.

Answer: an amputated limb

It was the woman giving birth that seemed to affect Esther the most.

Answer: a rose

As soon as the photograher started to take the picture, Esther broke down and cried. This is one of the first physical signs of her depression.

Answer: A diamond stickpin

When Marco attempted to have sex with her, she hit him in the nose. At this point, he asked for his stickpin back. She left him crawling around in the mud looking for it.

Answer: Threw them off the roof

She got rid of them all, except her cornflower bathrobe, which she traded to Betsy for a skirt and blouse. She needed that skirt and blouse, because otherwise she didn't have anything to wear for the trip home.

Answer: no

This just added to her depressive state. She decided to write a novel and learn shorthand, but neither of those worked out.

Answer: Doctor Gordon

Doctor Gordon suggested the shock treatments. One of the only questions he ever asked her was, "What college did you say you went to?"

Answer: She couldn't talk

When she tried to write, it came out illegible, like a child's handwriting. The longest stretch of insomnia for her was for a whole month. She couldn't read either, she just looked at the pictures in the newspaper.

Answer: Going for a long walk

She even remembered to take her coat with her to try to convince her mother more. When she didn't show up that night, her mother called the police.

Answer: Overdosed on sleeping pills

She ended up surviving, and was found by her mother a couple of days later.

Answer: mirror

Her mother said this was the reason she was transferred to the psych hospital.

Answer: a thermometer

Esther kicks over a box of medical equipment. While the nurse wasn't looking, she scooped up a ball of mercury. She called it her little secret and played with it while she was in solitary.

Answer: False

Doctor Nolan originally said shock treatments wouldn't have the same effect as the previous ones, which had been incorrectly administered. When Doctor Nolan did give Esther the treatments, they helped her.

Answer: She hemorrhaged

Esther began to bleed profusely after she lost her virginity. She went to Joan's and then to a doctor, where they stitched her up. The doctor said it was one in a million that it happened like that.

Answer: Joan

Joan, who was in the same psych hospital as Esther, snuck out in the middle of the night and hung herself.

Answer: False

As the novel ends, Esther is going into her interview to see if she can be released. At that time, it never says if they think she is cured or not. However, the information in the novel is there to back up the fact that Esther was cured and released (regarding the makeup case she received in New York): "I use the lipsticks now and then, and last week I cut the plastic starfish off the sunglasses case for the baby to play with." Unfortunately, the bell jar must have descended upon her again because Sylvia committed suicide later in life.