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If the isolation of the individual and the moral chaos of a competitive society are the special province of the contemporary novelist, Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar and Joan Didion’s Play It As It Lays are perfect examples. Whilst The Bell Jar is a critique of 1950s America, Play It As It Lays is a critique of Hollywood. The latter charts the emotional breakdown and eventual institutionalisation of Maria Wyeth – a thirty one year old burnt out actress; Didion choosing Hollywood to serve as a microcosm of contemporary American society, exposing a culture characterised by emptiness. Plath’s novel is often described as the story of a young woman’s struggle to survive in a society that does not take her talents or ambitions seriously; but it is also the story of the protagonist Esther Greenwood’s mental illness, her struggle to become independent, and her journey of sexual discovery. Through the psychological alienation of the heroine, we are given an increasingly objective and exterior view of the culture she has inherited. The aim of this essay is to discuss the images of mental breakdowns presented in these two novels, and identify similarities between the two in the way this is represented. Both Pla