Literary Commentary Essay: The Rival
The quote, “Too much of anything could destroy you, Simon thought. Too much darkness could kill, but too much light could blind” by Cassandra Clare is significant in understanding the concept revolving around this poem. The speaker seems to have trusted her husband too much that when he cheated on her, it came as a sudden shock. Sylvia Plath’s “The Rival” was designed to portray the poem’s aim, to explain that one shouldn’t trust too much since it can end up shattering one’s life. Too much of anything will only harm us. The most prominent way in which this aim was seen through is narration/structure, literal/figurative meaning and one point of allusion. Narration and structure were both effective in recognizing the poem’s aim.
Utilizing the poem’s audience as the poet’s husband’s mistress, as well as using a semicolon stresses the poem’s aim. In stanza 3, the poet discusses the rival’ actions. She claims that the rival’s thoughts are sent with love, yet are also considered poisonous. “White and blank expansive as carbon monoxide” The poet demonstrates that the poem’s audience is the poet’s husband’s mistress through of the use of a simile. White is a carries a connotation of cold and lifeless, while, blank is a motif of death and also without life. Thus, the speaker compares the poem’s audience, her husband’s mistress, to carbon monoxide. Not only comparing her, but comparing the effect of carbon monoxide to the effect of her rival. It is important that the poet exhibits simile because the comparison of the rival to carbon monoxide is in their actions. The speaker states that carbon monoxide is white, blank and expansive, and thus, all these qualities connote to death, as they are both poisonous. Therefore, this identifies the audience as the poet’s husband’s mistress, as they are both lethal and their actions have suffocated the poet. The effect of the poet’s use of simile on the theme was eye opening. The poem’s lesson was that one shouldn’t trust too much since it can end up shattering his or her life. The poet obviously as stated in the above paragraph trusted her husband so much that when he cheated, it shattered the poet’s life. That simile helped demonstrate the effect that the infidelity had on the poet’s life and that they are both lethal. Narration is a significant tool; however, structure is also effective. Plath’s use of a semicolon also heightened the aim. “I wake to a mausoleum; you are here,” The poet should his use of unique structure through the use of a semicolon. Hughes used a colon when he could’ve used a comma to link the two thoughts. The word mausoleum is defined as a burial place for the bodies or remains of many individuals, thus it carries a connotation of death. Furthermore, the phrase afterwards you are here implying that as soon as the speaker woke up to the burial place, she found her rival. It is important that the poet uses a semi-colon because it forces the reader to stop and understand that the following idea is related and at the same time, the reader pauses for a while, expecting something significant and shocking. The effect of the poet’s use of a semicolon on the reader was significant. The colon prepared the reader for an explanation and a further analysis of what the speaker saw at the mausoleum. The reader finally understood that the speaker does not have a positive attitude towards the rival because of her actions. Despite the fact that both narration and structure were effective in portraying the poem’s main idea, the poem’s literal and figurative meaning were also significant.
The poem’s literal meaning is weaker than its figurative meaning, as it better portrays the poem’s aim. The literal meaning of the poem discusses the speaker’s anger towards the moon, who she considers to be her rival. Therefore, the literal meaning of the poem is not as significant and valuable as its figurative meaning. The poem’s figurative meaning can thus, be seen through Plath’s use of a metaphor. Plath begins the poem by talking to her rival. Then, she continues by comparing her rival to the moon. She is both praising her rival and insulting her and using the moon as a reference. The metaphor is on line 5 of the poem, “Both of you are great light borrowers”. The poet demonstrates her use of a metaphor through the use of motifs. ‘Both of you’ here refers to both the moon and the speaker’s rival. The moon is known to be a feminine symbol, whereas, the sun is known to be a masculine symbol and “light’ is a motif for knowledge and life and the opposite of misery and darkness. It is important that the poet used a metaphor because, figuratively, it helped connect the meaning of the poem to the real life situation and whom the poet/ speaker may be addressing this poem to. Furthermore, it implies that both the rival and the moon can borrow light. The use of the word borrowers implies that the moon, her husband’s mistress, borrows light from the sun, Plath’s husband. This stresses the existence of night time, which is dark for a little while and then returns it. This may also be related to how the poet’s husband has been cheating on her with a mistress. The effect of the poet’s use of metaphor on the reader was enlightening. The use of the metaphor helped the reader understand how the speaker has been feeling. The reader was able to imagine a scene where borrowing light is distinct as it stresses the significance of the light. The speaker is implying that her husband is her source of life and light, who she trusts so much. The moon, here compared to her rival, is borrowing the light (her husband) from her, shattering her into pieces and putting her in darkness and misery.5 The literal and figurative meaning of the poem were both crucial in portraying the poem’s main idea, but the use of allusions was also significant.
The poet’s use of allusion exhibited the rival’s power and thus, highlighted the lesson. The poet here switched from her comparison of the moon to the rival and compared her to something else, but more devious. “And your first gift is making stone out of everything”. The poet demonstrates this allusion through of the use of irony. The word ‘stone’ is defined as a non-living object that is life-less. In addition, the phrase ‘To make stone out of everything’ is implying that the rival, just like Medusa, is sucking the life out of everything or killing everything. Plath creates a sense of verbal irony in the contradicting words ‘gift’ and then ‘making stone out of everything’. It is important that the poet uses allusion because it further elucidates the description of the rival and why the poet has an antagonistic tone towards the rival. Furthermore, the poet chose a Greek goddess that is known for killing people by turning them into stone to figuratively imply that the rival has killed her by taking the life out of her. The effect of the poet’s use of allusion on the theme was validating. It was validated because it highlighted the lesson, one shouldn’t trust too much since it can end up shattering one’s life. The allusion helped the reader see how the speaker’s life was basically shattered, which is the message behind the poem. Therefore, one shouldn’t trust too much, because if something otherwise occurs, it truly shatters one’s life. Therefore, the use of allusions was extremely significant in explaining the poem’s aim.
In conclusion, Sylvia Plath’s “The Rival” was designed to portray the poem’s main aim, one shouldn’t trust too much, because if something otherwise occurs, it truly shatters one’s life. The entire poem discusses how one should always remain in a medium state. Too much of anything will only harm us. The most prominent way in which this aim was seen through is structure/narration, literal/figurative meaning and one point of allusion. “The Rival” is a distinguished piece of work that gets its message across clearly.