Level 2 & 3 Questions | Important Quote from the Text | Analysis | What is Esther trying to say about her life? Why would the author use the allusion of a bell jar for this story? | “…I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air” (185). | In this quote, Esther has accepted her madness. She thoroughly believes she is trapped in her own mind and cannot escape. The first idea of this bell jar of madness comes forth here. “The bell jar wadded around me,” (186) concludes that she feels someone or something is going to trap her, such as a scientist would in science. She feels as if nothing can help her, as if the bell jar is going to come down on her at any moment. |

Level 2 & 3 Questions | Important Quote from the Text | Analysis | What does the connection between tornados and Esther’s on coming madness symbolize? | “I felt very still and very empty, the way the eye of a tornado must feel, moving dully along in the middle of the surrounding hullabaloo” (9). | Esther says this after coming to New York. The idea of Esther feeling distant from others appears in this quote. The entire time in New York she feels this way. With all she has overcome to get to this point, but she is still uncertain. Esther finds New York confusing and depressing rather than romantic and exciting. This quote foreshadows what is to come, and the madness to come that will soon over take her. The gap between her expectations of herself verses the expectations of others about her become too large that she feel she can longer overcome this and no longer survive. |