stly girls my age with wealthy parents who wanted to be sure their daughters would be living where men couldn't get at them and deceive them...and simply hanging around in New York waiting to get married to some career man or other.'
             The language here is shown to list the rather boring lives of the rich girls which is probably what Plath intended to do in order for the reader to realise how boring their life was and how little society expected of these girls – apart from marriage. The name of the hotel is the 'Amazon' and it is only for girls; it is quite apt in describing the predicament of women as it symbolises an oppressive jungle of the ideals created by society.
             Women were encouraged to pursue traditional interests such as cooking and sewing and an example of this is shown where Esther explains that her mother tried to force Esther into having a job in shorthand, a conventional job;
             'She was always on to me to learn shorthand after college, so I'd have a practical skill as well as a college degree.'
             Mrs. Greenwood may well have wanted Esther to have this practical job as it would provide her with an income until she was married. The same applied to the rich girls who were in 'posh secretarial schools' and 'waiting to be married off.'
             Women had to be fairly attractive to receive any recognition or attention in a 1950s society. Beauty was seen to be an important factor and is touched upon by Doreen's description of Jay Cee being 'ugly as sin' and that her husband 'turned out all the lights before he got near her.'
             One of the main factors in a 1950s society was the double standards which concerned sexuality and morals. Esther's mother sends her an article called 'In defence of chastity' written by a fema
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