It's very hard to feel empathy for depressed people. A lot of us would think otherwise and that's why we see ourselves as proud "allies" to those that live with mental illness, but it's almost never an actually easy task.

Depressed people can come in many shapes and forms, but a lot of them can be boring, irrational and even selfish. You hang around one for a long time and it starts to stack up. You feel sorry for them at first, but then you see a lack of progress and "lose interest".

That's why Plath's writing is off putting for so many. Esther is "boring", her world seemingly detached (something you can notice in the writing in the way Plath is so adamant to give us more insight into Esther's feelings) and there is a considerable lack of progress.

The worst thing is that depressed people tend to be some of the first people to recognize these traits in themselves, even if they can't help them. But they can, and that's the point. Everyone deserves one more push into the right direction. The problem is that many of us feel unprepared to deal with those afflicted with mental health issues. The Bell Jar is uncomfortable, not only for depicting depression but also for bringing awareness to how detached most of us feel from it from the outside.

The Jar locks you in but it also locks the victim out of sight.