Esther: The Ant Under the Cup

      For Esther, The bell jar is a space of confinement and societal pressure. She is trapped and on display, for the world to see her success and her failure, like a specimen, and she has to sit there and face their judgmental gazes.  She feels that if she isn't able to find her own way to escape the pressure, death may be her only other option.

    Esther's situation reminds me of an ant trapped under a cup. An ant came to mind because people often put a cup over an ant if it is unwanted in their space. For Esther, this is like being told she is unwanted for choosing to follow her own path. Like Esther, the ant is on its own, trapped away from its colony, with little to no support from anyone, except the person trying to preserve its life. The ant will do whatever it takes to escape and get back to its colony and will die trying, since like Esther, those are its only options. 

Esther wants to be in total control of her life. She wants to work and have her own personal success, like a worker ant, who doesn't lay eggs, but instead helps to keep the colony running. she doesn't want to be bound to the constraints of motherhood the way the other women in her community are, like the queen ant, who is responsible for having the children to make way for the next colony, or like the rest of the women conforming to the standard of society, who are like the rest of the ant colony with a collective mind.

I find it interesting how the two can be somehow related despite being two completely different things. Surprisingly, ants and humans are quite similar to each other and have similar societies, both of which can place pressure to perform up to expected standards yet may leave you with little to no autonomy.