The Bell Jar: Chapters 17-20

by Sylvia Plath
This semi-autobiographical novel chronicles a young woman's struggle with depression.

Here are our lists for the novel: Chapters 1-4, Chapters 5-8, Chapters 9-12, Chapters 13-16, Chapters 17-20

Here are our lists for poems by Sylvia Plath: "Morning Song", "Mushrooms"
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. disdainful
    expressing extreme contempt
    We passed Joan, coming out of her room, and I gave her a meaning, disdainful smile and she ducked back and waited until we had gone by.
  2. hobnob
    associate familiarly, especially with someone of high status
    At first I had thought it would be awful having Buddy come and visit me at the asylum — he would probably only come to gloat and hobnob with the other doctors.
  3. maxim
    a saying that is widely accepted on its own merits
    I had a picture of Mrs. Willard, with her heather-mixture tweeds and her sensible shoes and her wise, maternal maxims.
  4. ingrained
    deeply rooted; firmly fixed or held
    In spite of the creepy feeling, and in spite of my old, ingrained dislike, Joan fascinated me.
  5. innocuous
    not causing disapproval
    The only other address I had was the innocuous box number which people used who didn't want to advertise the fact they lived in an asylum.
  6. ruefully
    in a manner expressing pain or sorrow
    The man looked ruefully at his watch.
  7. incomprehensible
    difficult to understand
    We sat in his study on stuffed brown leather chairs, surrounded by stacks of dusty, incomprehensible books with huge formulas inset artistically on the page like poems.
  8. inaudible
    impossible to hear; imperceptible by the ear
    A large, bosomy Slavic lady in a bulky sweater of natural sheep's wool, purple slacks, high-heeled black overshoes with Persian lamb cuffs and a matching toque, puffed white, inaudible words into the wintry air.
  9. surreptitiously
    in a secretive manner
    Surreptitiously, I applied a fresh section of white towel to my wound, thinking that as soon as the bleeding stopped, I would take the late trolley back to the asylum.
  10. hemorrhage
    lose blood from one's body
    "I'm hemorrhaging."
  11. hassock
    a thick cushion used as a seat or leg rest
    Joan pulled up an Indian hassock and began to dial down the long list of Cambridge doctors.
  12. myopic
    unable to see distant objects clearly
    In a few swift words, I managed to tell her the truth about my predicament before Joan came in the door, blinking and wide-eyed as a myopic owl.
  13. topography
    the configuration of a surface and its features
    But under the deceptively clean and level slate the topography was the same, and instead of San Francisco or Europe or Mars I would be learning the old landscape, brook and hill and tree.
  14. distortion
    the act of twisting something out of its true meaning
    How did I know that someday—at college, in Europe, somewhere, anywhere — the bell jar, with its stifling distortions, wouldn't descend again?
  15. alumna
    a woman who has received a degree from a school
    Patients, with accompanying nurses, made their rounds of the stocked shelves, conversing in low tones, with the asylum librarian, an alumna of the asylum herself.
Created on Wed Oct 11 10:41:38 EDT 2017 (updated Tue Aug 05 15:32:54 EDT 2025)

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