Intuition, Failings and Purity

Mirriam-Webster’s Dictionary describes “Intuition” as:

Intuition:

1a : the power of faculty of attaining to direct knowledge or cognition without evident rational thought and inference

b : immediate apprehension or cognition

c: knowledge or conviction gained by intuition

2 : quick and ready insight

Our main character, Esther Greenwood, seems obsessed with three things up to this point, possessing intuition, achieving success and being perfect. She mentioned Buddy Willard possessed no intuition. Besides being a hypocrite, it was his major failing. Contrary, Constantin, has intuition. Esther realizes it the second she mets him in the flesh. At the end of the first paragraph of Chapter 7 Esther thinks, “He had what no American man I’ve ever met has had, and that’s intuition.”

Perhaps possessing intuition is to Esther (and potentially Plath) like being inherently intelligent. She seems to hold it in very high regard. She sees being unintuitive on par with being a failure.

Speaking of failings, Esther remains very preoccupied with all the things she cannot do. Greenwood’s character is extremely critical of herself. Esther finds herself envious of nearly every one else on some level. With specificity, she lists her failings in Chapter 7.

Things Esther cannot do or skills does not possess:

• Cook
• Take Down Shorthand
• Dance
• Sing in Tune
• Balance
• Ride Horseback
• Ski
• Speak German or Russian, Read Hebrew or Write Chinese
• No Knowledge of Geography

This litany of failings is given to the reader on the heels of knowing Esther has many talents other young women her age may not have held. Not only did she win a scholarship to be a guest editor at a high profile magazine in New York City for a month, but she was quite an accomplished person before she won her editorship. She tells the reader she participated in or learned to do the following while growing up:

• Win Scholarships and Academic Awards
• Earn Straight A’s
• Girl Scout
• Played Piano
• Painted with Water Colors
• Took Dancing Lessons
• Went to Sailing Camp
• Attended Rowing Camp

The above activities don’t sound like the types of passtimes down and out people with no skill set do. They sound like the kind of activities very driven young people would do that need to be challenged.

Esther’s biggest failing is that she is a perfectionist. Begin perfect was her driving factor up to this point. She finds it difficult to live with even the smallest thing she might consider a flaw. It’s twofold, on the one hand she cares when she recognizes what she feels may be a shortcoming, but also is beginning to find the entire thing pointless. What will become of her when no more scholarships are to be won, she asks herself in Chapter 7.

Furthermore, her desire for Constantin to sleep with her, removing the yoke of her virginity once and for all, is displayed in utter disappointment when she wakes up with both of them fully clothed in his room. She comes right out and admits it’s a contest with Buddy, but sleeping with Buddy wouldn’t count as he would be “one person ahead of her (the waitress)”. Esther is so damn competitive about everything she cannot handle being in anything less than first place. Winning is everything. Winning contests, winning the best grades, winning the most admiration from others.

Picture of Plath Circa the Early to Mid-1950s. (Not a hair out of place. We see where this idea of perfectionism comes from. The author, without a doubt.)

Having others see her in an adoring light is why she never tells the other guest editors what she really thinks, but lets Doreen be the bad guy. Doreen is the slut. Doreen speaks her unfiltered mind. Doreen is trashy. Esther is not. Esther is above it all. Or, so she acts. If Esther had been able to call Betsy “Pollyanna Cowgirl” to her face it would have meant losing Betsy’s respect and approval. Something Esther’s character cannot handle from anyone. Even Buddy keeps getting strung along far too long. Esther should have made her feelings clear ages ago, but she keeps making him think they have a future together while he takes his cure up at the TB colony in the Adirondacks.

Esther is a coward and weak in many ways. A calculating girl, but a coward nonetheless. She sees sleeping with Constantin not only as a one up on Buddy, but also his mother, as she was the one who set Esther and Constantin up.

Pureness is a term that gets thrown around a lot the second half of Chapter 7. To be pure is to be unmixed with anything else; to not be contaminated. Being pure gives the connotation of being perfect. Esther has to this point been pure. But she is starting to question the duplicity of being so. Why do woman have to be pure before they are married, but men can be held to a double standard? It nags at her tremendously.

Circling back to perfectionism. Esther not only wants perfection in herself, but also in the men she dates. She recognizes Constantin was the “most beautiful man she had ever seen”, but that she knew he would sink into ordinariness if he loved her, just like Buddy Willard had and others before Buddy. She wants what is not possible for herself personally and in a male partner. She holds everyone to such a high standard, it’s no wonder she’s on the road to a nervous breakdown. People have flaws. People make mistakes. People are not pure. It’s not in the cards dealt with humanity.

The cracks grow wider. The breakdown is only a matter of time. With such high exacting standards how can it not be inevitable?