(Gilmore Girls fan site)In the episode “The Breakup, Part 2,” in reference to Sylvia Plath.
LORELAI: You’re going to a Chilton party?
RORY: Yes I am.
LORELAI: Honey, why don’t you just stay home and read The Bell Jar? Same effect.
Could Lorelai have picked a more insensitive thing to say to her daughter?
Because Rory just broke up with Dean. Or rather, Dean broke up with Rory. The previous evening was their three-month since they began dating. And it was so romantic. Dean gave Rory a car. Actually, only part of a car, because he wasn’t done building it yet. Yes, he was making Rory a car. And then he told her he loved her. And all she could muster was, “I love the car.”
And Rory didn’t want to deal with it. All the next day, she filled her time with every meaningless task she could think of, because to have meaning would plunge her into sorrow.
This is when Rory announced that she wanted to go to Madeline’s party.
To get the reference, you have to understand about The Bell Jar. This was Sylvia Plath’s only novel, based on part of her own life. It’s a story about a woman named Esther and her descent into depression.
Ironically, Rory’s situation is more like Sylvia Plath’s than Esther’s. When her husband Ted Hughes left her, she entered a deep, deep depression that ended in her suicide, a heart-wrenching story.
And this is analogous to what happens to Rory at Madeline’s party.
Read more about Sylvia Plath
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