One of the major causes for Esther's breakdown — that is, the lack of a clear individualized female role — is not dealt with at all in her treatment. How can Esther get well when she is subjected to the same forces and pressures that made her ill in the first place? Dr. Nolan is a kind and helpful woman, but, for the most part, she treats Esther's symptoms — not her problem.
As the reader follows Esther through all her trials and misfortunes, we begin to see a young American girl whom we never knew existed. We see how she feels, how she is bad, how she is good, how she is dumb, and how she is smart. Most of all, we see how human she is, and we want her to make it — to survive. But after Esther's recovery from her breakdown and as she prepares to leave the "asylum," after Joan's (her double's) suicide, we feel apprehensive about her future. We wish desperately that Esther would tell them all to mind their own business, that she's going to do it her way. But she does not seem to have that strength of Huckleberry Finn. And again the reader is brought back to Sylvia Plath, Esther's creator, and we mourn for the victimization of one of our first, authentic young American female voices. If Esther is the darker side of Plath, a voice from her more negative side, we are indeed sorry Plath did not live long enough to give us another female character — perhaps a more mature and bright, and certainly a more positive woman.
