'The Table' is a poem from the collection 'Birthday Letters', which contains eight-eight poems detailing the life that Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes had together before the Plath's untimely death. In particular, "The Table" is a poem about the desk that Ted Hughes made for his then-wife, Sylvia Plath, which ended up revealing all of her father's darkness as she wrote poetry on it. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The main metaphor of the poem is that the writing table equals a door that opened the darkness inside Plath and the memories of her father. The lines: "I didn't know / I knew I made and installed a door / Opening down into your daddy's grave" have Hughes openly acknowledging his mistake, his role in Plath's downfall, even if he wasn't aware of it at the time. The adjective “adjusted” tells the reader that this door was carefully designed, but Hughes had no idea what the devastating repercussions would be. "Opening down into your daddy's grave" refers to how the "ghost" of Plath's deceased father was resurrected through Plath's writings - he is not literally resurrected, but the link that Plath establishes with her father through her poetry almost seems to blur the boundary between her. world and the spiritual realm where his father resides. The adverb “down” refers to the grave, which is literally sunk into the ground. However, I also believe that this line is written in hindsight; Hughes says Plath walked through that door herself to be with her father in death, and Hughes can't let go of her role in his disappearance. The phrase shows his retreat, his remorse for what he did, similar to the poem "Mistake" which recognized the move to Devon as one of Hughes' biggest mistakes in his marriage. There, Hughes asks: “What wrong fork / Did we get?” ” which is a rhetorical question because he knows he is responsible for bringing her to Devon. This idea of ​​the many roles Hughes plays in Plath's life is explored from another angle in the second stanza, during her nightmare, where Hughes uses the analogy of an actor by comparing himself to "an actor with his script/The eyes blindfolded on the other side of the mirror. The use of figurative language in the verb "blindfolded" relates to Hughes' lack of control, his inability to properly see and execute the script of their lives. I think this may be his way of trying to deny any responsibility on his part for what happened to Plath, mainly out of guilt and grief. He realizes how much she meant to him, because for now he remains "on the empty stage", bitter and alone, and now that the play is over, he realizes in a surprising and somewhat tragic way that he is not the hero of his own life, but he is only the secondary actor in Plath's life. A major theme explored in "The Table" is the idea of ​​Plath's father still playing a leading role in Plath's life, particularly when she was writing poetry and could finally truly explore her repressed emotions that she had towards her father. The metaphor "Your daddy resurrected" makes this seem like a curse, an unwanted haunting of a ghostly apparition rising from the dead, invading Hughes and Plath's world, especially as the emphasis is on the word "Dad." , as is the case. a bitter taste in Hughes' mouth. This idea continues when Hughes writes: "While I slept he snuggled / Shivering between us", a.