Wordalso written bell-jar, the bell jar, bell jar meaning, what does bell jar mean

bell jar

Meaning

A bell jar is a bell-shaped glass cover used to protect objects or hold gases or a vacuum; the phrase is also famous as the title of Sylvia Plath’s novel and as a metaphor for feeling trapped by depression.

Meanings of “bell jar”

  1. A bell-shaped glass vessel or cover designed to protect objects, contain gases, or maintain a vacuum.123

    Tone
    Neutral; science, museum, and everyday descriptive English.
    Where you’ll see it
    When people ask what does bell jar mean in a lab or décor setting, Merriam-Webster and Cambridge describe a large glass cover shaped like a bell. Dictionary.com notes uses for protecting delicate instruments or ornaments and for chemical experiments that need sealed gas or vacuum. Classroom demos often put a ringing alarm clock under a bell jar and pump out air to show that sound needs a medium.

    Examples

    • They lowered a glass bell jar over the specimen to keep dust off.
    • Air under a sealed bell jar can be pumped down toward a vacuum.
    • The perfume sat in the brand’s iconic bell jar.

    Examples are written for this site to show typical use. They are not quotes.

  2. In Sylvia Plath’s novel The Bell Jar, and in later talk about that book, the image of a bell jar stands for mental suffocation—feeling sealed off and struggling to breathe under depression.42

    Tone
    Literary and cultural; often used when discussing depression or mid-century women’s writing.
    Where you’ll see it
    Searches for bell jar meaning often want the book, not lab glass. Wikipedia records that The Bell Jar (1963; first published under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas) is Plath’s only novel, widely read as a roman à clef about a young woman’s descent into mental illness. In the story, Esther Greenwood likens her depression to being trapped under a bell jar, struggling for breath; later she feels the jar lift as treatment helps. Keep this as a symbol note, not a full plot guide.

    Examples

    • She said the panic felt like living under a bell jar.
    • Readers often link the title The Bell Jar to Esther’s sense of sealed-off despair.
    • When the treatment worked, she described the bell jar lifting.

Usage notes

  • Written as two words (bell jar) in Merriam-Webster and Cambridge; the novel title is The Bell Jar.
  • “What does bell jar mean” in school or book-club searches usually wants the Plath metaphor; in science contexts it means the glass cover.
  • This entry is a definition page, not a chapter-by-chapter study guide.

Origin

Merriam-Webster dates the physical noun bell jar to 1806. The literary sense rides on Plath’s novel title (UK 1963; US 1971 under her own name), which turns the laboratory cover into a metaphor for stifling depression.14

Sources

  1. bell jar — Merriam-Webster

    merriam-webster.comAccessed Back to text

    https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bell%20jar

  2. bell jar — Cambridge Dictionary

    dictionary.cambridge.orgAccessed Back to text

    https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/bell-jar

  3. bell jar — Dictionary.com

    dictionary.comAccessed Back to text

    https://www.dictionary.com/browse/bell-jar

  4. The Bell Jar — Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.orgAccessed Back to text

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bell_Jar