Widow by Sylvia Plath Themes

Widow. The word consumes itself —-
Body, a sheet of newsprint on the fire
Levitating a numb minute in the updraft
Over the scalding, red topography
That will put her heart out like an only eye.

Widow. The dead syllable, with its shadow
Of an echo, exposes the panel in the wall
Behind which the secret passages lies—stale air,
Fusty remembrances, the coiled-spring stair
That opens at the top onto nothing at all….

Widow. The bitter spider sits
And sits in the center of her loveless spokes.
Death is the dress she wears, her hat and collar.
The moth-face of her husband, moonwhite and ill,
Circles her like a prey she’d love to kill

A second time, to have him near again —-
A paper image to lay against her heart
The way she laid his letters, till they grew warm
And seemed to give her warmth, like a live skin.
But it is she who is paper now, warmed by no one.

Widow: that great, vacant estate!
The voice of God is full of draftiness,
Promising simply the hard stars, the space
Of immortal blankness between stars
And no bodies, singing like arrows up to heaven.

Widow, the compassionate trees bend in,
The trees of loneliness, the trees of mourning.
They stand like shadows about the green landscape —-
Or even like black holes cut out of it.
A widow resembles them, a shadow-thing,

Hand folding hand, and nothing in between.
A bodiless soul could pass another soul
In this clear air and never notice it —-
One soul pass through the other, frail as smoke
And utterly ignorant of the way it took.

That is the fear she has—the fear
His soul may beat and be beating at her dull sense
Like Blue Mary’s angel, dovelike against a pane
Blinded to all but the grey, spiritless room
It looks in on, and must go on looking in on.

Grief and Loss: The poem delves deeply into the emotional turmoil experienced by a widow following the death of her husband. It explores the intense pain, emptiness, and longing that accompany grief.

Isolation and Loneliness: The widow in the poem is depicted as profoundly isolated and lonely, trapped in her own grief and disconnected from the world around her. The imagery of her as a “bitter spider” sitting in the center of her loveless web underscores her sense of entrapment.

Identity and Selfhood: The widow’s identity is profoundly affected by her loss, as death becomes a pervasive presence in her life. The comparison of death to her attire, with her husband’s face circling her like a moth, highlights the ways in which her sense of self is shaped by her grief.

Existential Angst: The poem also grapples with existential questions about the nature of existence and the search for meaning in the face of despair. The widow’s fear of her husband’s lingering presence and her uncertainty about the afterlife reflect her profound sense of existential angst.

Spirituality and Faith: The widow’s relationship with God is depicted as fraught with emptiness and disillusionment. The voice of God offers no solace or comfort, only the vast emptiness of space and stars, echoing the widow’s sense of spiritual abandonment.