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For all that it is considered a "sad book" by a "tragic author," The Bell Jar revolts against its own reputation: it is sad, yes, but also fiercely funny and defiantly hopeful. Plath's own fate should not undermine the message of her book: that it is possible to leave the bell jar.
Keeping this in view, is the bell jar difficult to read?
Even a dim awareness of this history makes it impossible to read The Bell Jar as pure fiction, divested of its viscerally painful autobiographical parallels. The coincidences are far too many, and Plath herself was apprehensive about her mother trying to stop its publication.
One may also ask, what is the bell jar a metaphor for?
In The Bell Jar, the main character uses the bell jar as the primary metaphor for feelings of confinement and entrapment. She feels that she's stuck in her own head, spinning around the same thoughts of self-doubt and dejection, over and over again, with no hope of escape.
The Bell Jar was published under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. Plath used a pseudonym for two reasons: one was to protect the people she fictionalized in the book—not only would it embarrass her mother, but her publisher worried about libel suits.