In my class, we just talked about the scene where Esther takes a bath. For me, one of the most interesting things about this scene is the fact that Esther feels the need to get clean, but she did nothing wrong. She didn't go out and get drunk and hook up or anything else she may regret later. In fact, she turned down the offer to "call" a guy over. So, if she didn't do anything wrong, why would she want to cleanse herself? I think it's because she's disappointed in herself. It seems to me that she tried to be someone else, she was experimenting with a more glamorous, more confident lifestyle, and she failed. Esther tried to observe a "critical situation"; she tried to be Doreen. She couldn't do it, she had to leave. In my opinion, there is nothing more disappointing than trying to change to "improve" yourself and failing utterly. This is what Esther was washing off. In the bath, she becomes herself; all of her problems "melt away." It is easy to be yourself when there's nothing to force you to change. While Esther is in total solitude in her bath, she doesn't have to adapt her personality/activities.
To clarify, I consider the concept that people act different around different people completely true. It's not that weird of an idea. Depending on who Esther is with, she acts differently. With Jay Cee, she is professional getting her work done and contemplating her life because Jay Cee is her boss and a role model. However, around Doreen, Esther tries to be rebellious, ignoring planned activities, fabricating new identities for herself, and not doing her work. These are two completely different versions of the same Esther. To me, the bath symbolizes these two versions of Esther coming to a head--and in a way, Esther just kind of decides to ignore them and momentarily just not worry about it. This is why the bath is so relaxing. Eventually, she kind of decides to be more like Betsy, working hard, attending all of the sanctioned events and everything, but I kind of feel like that's not Esther either. Maybe that's why she gets food poisoning; she was trying to be perfect on the outside without taking care of the inside.
