Contemporary novels bring a new point of view to the actions and the lives in which the struggle, consciously or unconsciously, to dominate, plays a crucial role. Because of the fact that life itself is a game of gaining power over another, these novels depict a deeper analysis of this game. Although the most striking are the ones that deal with equality of males and females, these power struggles occur not only between man and woman but also society and the individual, two close friends or any two people who are related to each other. This presentation of characters and their actions is not simply narrated; rather, the issues of who controls, how he/she controls, and the process of power struggles are explored. The audience generally is able to discern when a power struggle is taking place, because they can see characters unable to go beyond attempting to control, while the others cope with these attempts, like playing cat and mouse. Furthermore, these novels aim to represent the character that refuses to play the role anticipated by his/her social surrounding and to resist strongly the rules of people which leads someone's life to be directed by others. This effort supports today's popular idea of what is called 'I am what I am'. So, this paper aims to examine in what ways the characters in Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark, and Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood attempt to control or have power over the lives and actions of others or themselves through identifying who controls, how he/she tries to do this, what the process of power struggle is and the question of whether it is easy or not.
             To begin with, The Bell Jar tells the story of Ester, a talented young woman who has a nervous breakdown starting in a summer internship at a magazine in New York. Her life is full of struggles with other characters in the novel. Esther's relationships with other characters are of great importanc...