Diction
“The lawn was white with doctors”
― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
The use of "white" to describe the lawn connotates a lawn sprawling with doctors in white lab coats. The white symbolizes the unity and sterility of the doctors on the lawn and makes them seem boring and uninviting. It is telling that Esther sees them as a giant blanket of whiteness instead of individual people because of her negative attitude towards most doctors in the story. White symbolizes purity, so it is somewhat ironic that Esther categorizes them as "white".
Tone
“So I began to think maybe it was true that when you were married and had children it was like being brainwashed, and afterward you went about as numb as a slave in a totalitarian state.”
― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
Esther has a very negative attitude towards conventional marriage throughout the novel, and the cynical tone of this quote supports those thoughts. "Numb as a slave in a totalitarian state" suggests an extreme amount of abuse and oppression that most do not associate with marriage. The use of such a strong metaphor, along with comparing being a wife to "brainwashed, is a strong example of Esther's morose attitude towards marriage.
Detail
“But when I took up my pen, my hand made big, jerky letters like those of a child, and the lines sloped down the page from left to right horizontally, as if they were loops of string lying on the paper, and someone had come along and blown them askew.”
― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
Esther's great amount of detail about her messy handwriting clues readers into her disheveled mental state at the time. Instead of simply saying "my handwriting was a mess," she goes into detail about the exact direction and loops of her words so readers can almost imagine her childlike letters across the page.
Syntax
“The silence depressed me. It wasn't the silence of silence. It was my own silence.”
― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
"Silence" is repeating four times in the span of only three sentences. This makes the word very impactful and emphasizes the silence Esther feels. Sylvia Plath choses to emphasize silence because it conveys a depressing mood and isolation.
Imagery
“Piece by piece, I fed my wardrobe to the night wind, and flutteringly, like a loved one’s ashes, the gray scraps were ferried off, to settle here, there, exactly where I would never know, in the dark heart of New York.”
― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
The dark imagery of this quote parallels the depressing tone of The Bell Jar, but this quote also includes contradicting light imagery. The words "night" "ashes" "gray" and "dark" are all negative words that convey an image of darkness. However, the lighter words in the quote, such as "wind" "flutteringly" "loved one's" and "heart", contrast the darkness by conveying a more positive and loving image, and suggest a sense of freedom.