The Blotched Window Pane And The Cobwebs

1. The usage of “crooked claws” within the poem, causes the eagle to be personified, rather the eagle being just a bird, it is somewhat human. This symbolizes how the eagle, is in fact a human, who sees themselves as above the rest of society, thus tying into the usage of “too close to the sun.” This phrase can represent not only how as some people develop they begin to think that they are smarter, and better than those around them, thus feeling that they are “closer to the sun,” above society. Likewise, this phrase can allude to the Greek tale of Icarus, who made golden winds; however, he flew too close to the sun, causing his wings to burn off, ultimately crashing to his death, no longer being able to fly. This tale showcases how the
The “blotched window pane” and the “cobwebs” showcase how the housewife has died. Under social constructs women are taught at a very young age that they have to take care of the home, making sure it is always clean. Throughout the narrator’s life all she has done is what she was taught and told, being a ‘proper’ woman, by doing this the narrator soon begins to realize the true nature of her life, and the oppression she lives under. The accumulation of “cobwebs” and the “botching of the panes,” suggests that the narrator has died, for death is the only true way she could escape the confines of her oppression at the
The speaker’s desire for death is highlighted in the river’s comparison to a person for the river embodies seduction, using phrases such as “calm,” “cool,” and “kiss,” the author showcases how the river entices the speaker to come to it. This parallels to the fact that once suicide becomes a possible decision in your life it will begin to control you, always in the back of your mind, trying to seduce you, like the river to follow through. However, the comparison is unlike for a river can have positive connotation, by washing away the speakers sins and impurities like the baptism in the river that occurs in the Bible, while suicide can represent the devil’s advocate, always hiding in the corner of someone’s mind, until the idea finally consumers their mind causing them to actually commit suicide. A depressed and hopeless mind frame would allow this comparison to occur, for the speaker is trying to rationalize his own justification for suicide, thus forming this comparison in order to express his lose with the temptations of suicide, by comparing it to the art of