Why Esther Hates Joan

Why Esther Hates Joan


When first reading about Joan, many of us likely noticed the many similarities between her and Esther: they both are highly educated young women among elites who ended up “going crazy” as a result of the world around them, and they both attempted suicide to relieve them from their issues with the world, to name a few. But surprisingly, we see that Esther dislikes being in Joan’s company and fails to connect to her, even though the two are quite similar. Esther claims that she dislikes Joan for being the “being double of [her] old best self,” though I personally find this to be only part of her dislike towards her (231). Esther’s uneasiness around Joan, which in part led to her dislike towards her, started from when Joan explained how she ended up in the asylum. After hearing the story, Esther asks if Joan is “all right now” (225). We haven’t seen Esther ever be concerned in the health of others, and this all comes after Joan explains that Esther inspired her attempt at suicide, which I think surprised Esther. Esther never admits that this similarity between the two caused her to hate Joan, but I think that, like how Holden realized the error to his ways when Phoebe started to copy him, Esther realized the “absurdity” of suicide by hearing Joan’s story, which is seen by her wanting to believe that Joan had recovered from all of that craziness. 

 

Esther interprets this realization of Joan’s craziness into a hatred of Joan, and it then develops into a sort of competition between her and Joan (at least in Esther’s mind).This is seen when Esther is complaining that it’s “unfair” that Joan was to leave the asylum sooner than Esther was (253). I interpret this competition as Esther wanting to prove that she’s returned to normal, since, like mentioned earlier, Esther found Joan to be a reflection of herself during a better time, and by performing similar to her in the asylum, it would mean that she is making progress in returning to normal. Esther is thus annoyed by the idea that someone so similar to her should be able to “succeed” before her, especially considering the fact that Esther was the “original,” in the sense that Joan was inspired by her, but is now performing better than the one she was inspired by. While it would make sense for the two to work together to improve, the Bell Jar is also likely distorting Esther’s perception of Joan by turning her into an enemy in the eyes of Esther. Through our eyes, the two are obviously similar, but Esther clearly doesn’t see most of these similarities and finds Joan repulsive. Although, perhaps Esther subconsciously did realize the fact that the two were much the same, and seeing herself in a way upset her.


The relationship between the two isn’t all hate though, as Joan is shown to enjoy Esther and considers her a friend. Whether or not Joan realizes how Esther feels about her is unclear, but regardless of that she is shown to care about Esther on a deep level, like when she took care of her following her interaction with Irwin. On the other hand, the most Esther praises Joan is by admitting that she “fascinated [Esther],” in spite of the “creepy feeling” Joan gave off and Esther’s “old, ingrained dislike” towards Joan (246). We still see Esther thrown off by the energy that Joan gives off (which in reality is probably similar to the energy Esther gives off, considering the similarities between the two), and the implication that Esther hated Joan for a long time. In the end though, after Joan’s suicide, Esther does seem to reflect on their relationship and even goes to her funeral, which was completely her own choice, showing a change in Esther’s mind. Perhaps the Bell Jar had been completely removed after Joan’s suicide, and Esther realized that her hatred towards her was unfair, as in reality the two were quite alike, and Joan genuinely did like Esther. Esther’s nasty attitude towards Joan didn’t help, and maybe it hurt Joan more than we realize.

Comments

  1. Connor G.March 4, 2025 at 6:11 AM

    Hey Mahdi, I liked how you explained why and how Joan is similar to Esther, and why she develops a hatred to me. This part in the book is one of the most ambiguous, to me, and I like to think that Joan is a mirror image of Esther that didn't get better. As you mentioned, they are both very similar, which is one of the reasons why she despises her so much, but one significant difference is that Esther survives her Bell Jar, and Joan does not. This gives Esther a chance to reflect on why she should and needs to live. Great Post!

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  2. JayMarch 4, 2025 at 9:45 AM

    Wow Mahdi! I really feel the parallels between Joan/Esther and Phoebe/Holden. Although the relations between them are contrasting, i.e., hate and love, the depiction of Joan as a sort of wake-up call makes a lot of sense. I suppose this is one of the reasons why this book is (undeservedly) criticized as the female Catcher in the Rye.

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  3. PieterMarch 7, 2025 at 9:56 AM

    The relationship between Esther and Joan is an unusual one, so thank you for going over it. We are able to see how Esther's relationship with society is broken. Esther's relationship with someone who is also severely psychologically disturbed is quite unusual, similar to two magnets of the same pole's interaction with each other.

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  4. MitchellMarch 7, 2025 at 11:59 AM

    I also see something of an elitist or exclusionary attitude in Esther's seemingly inexplicable distaste for Joan, which is related to the idea that she sees a lot of HERSELF reflected in Joan. There's an air of "I was into clinical depression before it was cool" to a lot of Esther's remarks on Joan, as if Joan is late to the new trend, or a "wannabe" imitating Esther. She remains skeptical and dubious toward Joan throughout most of their time in the institution, voicing variants on "she's not REALLY crazy, like I am" throughout.

    I'd even say that we see something of a reflection of Plath's own readers in the Esther-Joan dynamic. This book has been criticized (I'd say unfairly) for romanticizing suicide, and there are indeed a bunch of fan-made videos on YouTube featuring goth fashion and cemeteries as settings for romantic renderings of Plath's poetry. In Joan--who literally reads about Esther's story in the paper and tries to follow in her footsteps, even travelling to New York to make it more authentic--we see an early cautionary tale about how NOT to read and interpret _The Bell Jar_. I wouldn't say this is even close to the most important role Joan serves in the novel, but it is something the novel has led me to ponder. Would Joan have found "Lady Lazarus" to be an empowering and inspirational poem? Esther sort of implies that she might have.

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  5. leoMarch 9, 2025 at 7:18 PM

    I find it really uncomfortable that the similarities between Esther and Joan lead to the former hating the latter. It may be just her illness, but the dynamic of Esther viewing Joan as a rival of "who can go back to normal first" serves as an unsettling example of the bell jar's distortion of Esther's perspective. However, it's even more interesting how you point out that Joan's suicide may also be a wake-up call for Esther not to end it all.

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