Rational Thinking in an Irrational Era

One thing that has always struck me about both the character of Esther as well as our discussions of her as a character is the thought of her rationality. A point I remember striking me was when Mr. Mitchell said "Her irrationality is rational". There's a weird train of thought in which we can more or less understand Esther's actions from a distant perspective.

Esther handles her multiple attempts at suicide with a certain rationality. While there is a general lack of emotion in these chapters, we see her end goal, and how she plans on getting there. For example, during her first attempt she describes her process of trying to hang herself, however because of her houses construction, she wasn't able to find a place to hang herself. So she moves on to the next step, pulling the cord herself, however her body fights against it so she moves on to the next attempt. There is an obvious trial and error process which Esther follows, and while awful to read, it definitely seems that she is thinking through the process.

That said, is she really that rational? At the end of the day these are suicide attempts, and that isn't considered rational. Could it just be a side-effect of Esther's determination to be out of this life? Maybe not, as in a later section as she drives along a bridge, she notes that she wouldn't have jumped even if her family hadn't have been there to stop her. Like most other matters centered around Esther, its never as simple as one would think.