Esther's Doppleganger
When we first meet Joan, she seems to be almost a doppleganger of Esther. Both her and Joan dated Buddy Willard, and found themselves wishing they were like Mrs. Willard, wanting to be the epitome of a succesful wife. Even Esther herself said "Sometimes I wondered if I had made Joan up" (Plath, 219), because they had so many things in common. She also thought that Joan was almost a stage in her life that she had already been through as shown when she says "Other times I wondered if she would continue to pop in at every crisis of my life to remind me of what I had been, and what I had been through, and carry on her own separate but similar crisis under my nose" (Plath, 219). This poses the question of whether or not Joan is real or a figment of Esther's imagination. Could Joan be made up by Esther's schizophrenia? Though Joan and Esther are very alike, Joan is much easier to influence, and doesn't share that same mindset Esther does. We woul...