It is at Belsize that Esther experiences her first treachery from the chic, cigarette-smoking Dr. Nolan. One day, Esther does not receive breakfast. She fears that this means that she is due for electro-shock treatment. But, she goes to the kitchen to protest the mistake and claim her meal. When it becomes clear that there is no mistake, she is furious because Dr. Nolan has promised to tell her and discuss the treatment with her. Dr. Nolan arrives, early, to take Esther up for the treatment. The trust between the two women is temporarily lost, however, because Dr. Nolan wanted Esther to sleep.
Esther now feels that she is in a white cocoon, unlike the dark one after her suicide, and the electro-shock treatment does not seem as painful and terrible as before. This time, Esther goes into a sleep, and she tells Dr. Nolan afterwards that the treatment was just like the doctor said it would be. Somehow, the reader is not so convinced of the humanity of these treatments.
The college dormitory atmosphere of Belsize shows us that Esther is still struggling with institutions, for when we see Esther coming out of her treatment with Dr. Nolan at her side, we remember Jay Cee and the Ladies' Day editorial offices. Esther has met these successful, helpful women before, but she has never been helped. Even Valerie, the girl scout-type with the lobotomy, reminds us of girls from other phases of Esther's experience. Are each of these serial experiences, dealing with one kind of institution or another, rather like the one before? Are the new shock treatments just another program for Esther, not so different from the classes at college or the fashion workshops in New York? When will real learning or real change take place? Is Esther not only caught in the sour air of her own bell jar, but also in the sour air of failing institutions and failing cultural ideals that, somehow, cannot give her true sustenance, cannot give her any real support at this fragile time of her life?
