While reading The Bell Jar this time, I wondered, did Plath write about her food poisoning incident and follow it up with our in depth introduction to Buddy Willard with intention? Without a doubt, the guest editors’ bouts with ptomaine poisoning leaves an impression and makes the reader think twice about wanting to eat crabmeat and mayonnaise anytime soon. Plath wrote the scene so vividly, you can practically hear the retching in your head and smell the vileness that must have permeated the halls and bathrooms of the hotel/apartment from the women that fell ill.
I found it interesting it took what must have felt like a near death experience for Esther to realize she wasn’t going to hang out with Betsy’s crowd. That, deep down, she really was drawn to Doreen and needed Doreen’s influence in her life. Esther is an interesting character. Very much like Plath, relatable, yet not always the nicest person. Which brings us to her portrayal of Buddy Willard.
Poor Buddy Willard. I say “poor Buddy Willard” a little tongue in cheek. Plath writes Willard as if she has a major axe to grind. He is a pompous person. Any female can appreciate the scene where Mrs. Tomolillo is giving birth. She is obviously in tremendous pain, but Buddy assures Esther the birthing woman is in a “twilight sleep” from the drug they gave her. Esther knows that’s a load of bull, pointing out Mrs. Tomolillio wouldn’t be groaning if she weren’t in pain. We’ve all known someone like Buddy. The type of person who offers their self-proclaimed expert opinion, even when not asked. A person you just can’t help wanting to knock down a peg.
We know from Plath’s journals, Buddy Willard was modeled after her old boyfriend, Dick Norton. For his part, Norton, stayed mostly silent about his time with Plath. Whether he valued and respected their relationship that much or simply did not feel the need to defend himself, we may never know. They had quite a history, growing up, their mothers were fast friends. Dick’s brother, Perry Norton, was very close with Plath and in many ways a better friend. But, Dick, had been so revered by Plath. Heather Clark writes, “Dick was Sylvia’s ideal: blond, blue eyed athletic, intelligent ambitious and a family friend.”1 One has to wonder if Plath didn’t place her frustration with the double standard of the time squarely on Dick Norton’s (Buddy Willard’s) shoulders.2 Males were allowed to have sex before marriage and people looked the other way. Females were supposed to stay true and pure until that ring was on their finger. Plath never appreciated being told she could or could not do something, especially if it was a double standard between the sexes.
Sylvia Plath and Dick Norton at the Yale Junior Prom, March 9, 1951 (Photo Inserts from “Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath, by Heather Clark)
So it comes as no surprise that Esther, tough as nails on the outside, cool as a cucumber, and sensible as a New England girl could be, would show no outward emotion at having witnessed cadavers being sliced open, stillborn or aborted babies floating in bottles of formaldehyde for educational purposes, and a live birth. Buddy didn’t blanche at such things, so neither would she.
It’s the hypocrisy of Buddy Willard that breaks her. The fact that she finds out he is not a virgin. Not just that he is not a virgin, but that he slept with “some slutty waitress one summer” named Gladys upwards of 30 times in a single summer season. She is not just disgusted by the fact that he is a hypocrite, but that she is not allowed to unleash her sexual frustration given the standards of the times.
We can tell it was the straw the broke the relationship’s back. Esther had already been trying to find ways to cut Buddy down to size. Spending free time thinking up witty comebacks to put in him in his place, after the fact. When he exposes himself to her, she is disappointed in what she sees referring to his male genitalia as “a turkey neck and turkey gizzards”. She then makes up an excuse to not show him her naked body, as a way to get back at him.
The starkest example of her decaying feelings toward Buddy is illustrated when he tells her he has contracted Tuberculosis. She did not feel sorry for him, but rather relieved, possibly vindicated. As if he brought the disease on himself, by his own hypocritical attitudes and tarnished behavior. Esther has valid human feelings to be sure, but they are complicated.
Humans, even fictional ones, are complex beings. That’s what draws us in, what keeps us engaged. I can’t say we haven’t all met someone we once felt was the most exciting person ever, only to realize we had a lapse in judgment. We can relate to Esther’s evolution of feelings toward Buddy, but that doesn’t mean we have to whole heartedly support it. Instead of saying she would write to him up at the TB colony in the Adirondacks, she should have just cut the relationship off and been done with it then and there for both their sakes. Maybe given the family dynamics that seemed like an impossible thing to do.
Nevertheless, Esther’s choices and attitudes come into question more and more. From food poisoning to poisoning of the spirit. Esther’s state of affairs keeps decaying further. We know it is only going to get worse.
Tidbits and Timemachines 