Miss Murder

"We're the empty set just floating through, wrapped in skin
Ever searching for what we were promised
Reaching for that golden ring we'd never let go"

The song I think relates most to The Bell Jar is "Miss Murder" by AFL. The song is about someone contemplating death in the face of hopelessness. Esther, the heroine of The Bell Jar sees no end to her illness, thus believes suicide to be the only escape. The first line, where the lyrics say, "We're the empty set just floating through, wrapped in skin," describes the numbness Esther feels. She describes herself as "the eye of a tornado" mulling around amidst the energy around her. Thus, pain is the only way she can make herself feel (cutting herself with a razor.) The next line,"Ever searching for what we were promised," could be the peace and happiness society promised Esther. She has a great life as an intern for a popular magazine in New York, she has nice clothes, and (seems to be) pretty. Everyone around her is genuinely happy so she feels she should be too. The very last line, "Reaching for that golden ring we'd never let go," relates to Esther's perception of the perfect relationship: a pure woman and a pure man (the golden ring.) When she discovers that Doreen, a good friend, , and Buddy, her ex, are not virgins, she has trouble letting go. She continuously calls Buddy a hypocrite and a bad person because he slept with someone and didn't tell her. I particularly thought this was a good song for the book because it makes suicide look like the only logical escape to the person, just as Sylvia Plath does.