Ariel

The sun typically symbolizes divine beings, life, and knowledge. Plath’s “Ariel” builds all of these connotations into her image of the sun as “the cauldron of morning” (Line 31). The speaker’s movement from “darkness” (Line 1) to “the red / [e]ye” (Lines 30-31) of the sun represents a larger movement from ignorance to knowledge that goes back to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave (where the sun represents truth and knowledge versus the shadows inside the cave that represent ignorance). Though the speaker’s journey from birth to rebirth might seem cyclical, the speaker gains knowledge and potentially moves to a higher, divine realm.

More than these traditional associations, Plath presents the generative possibilities of the life- and knowledge-giving sun as a maternal sphere of infinite potential. Plath often associates the color red with motherhood (See: Analysis). The “red / [e]ye” the speaker rides toward is a “cauldron” (Line 31), or womb of a larger maternal spirit. This spirit not only illuminates the speaker’s world, diffusing the “darkness” (Line 1), it provides the necessary possibilities that allow the poem’s speaker to transform and grapple with their identity. These possibilities are inherent in the “morning” (Line 31) sun, which represents renewal and coming into being.

Horses are among the first animals domesticated in the Western world and have a long history as artistic symbols. Traditionally, horses represent strength, courage, and freedom due to their powerful muscles and their ability to travel long distances. Horses are also symbols of female independence. If a woman owned her own horse, prior to the invention of cars and bicycles, she had the ability to travel without a male companion. For this reason, Regency and Victorian literature often associates female horseback riding with independent thought, behavior, and sexuality.

The speaker’s horse Ariel is named after a powerful spirit in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Prospero, the magician who frees Ariel, forces him into servitude. Prospero uses Ariel throughout the play as an extension of his magic powers. Though Shakespeare’s play identifies Ariel as male, many productions cast him as female. Ariel means God’s lion in Hebrew. “Ari,” the first part of his name, means lion and is a synonym for courage.

In Plath’s “Ariel,” the horse takes on all these meanings and recasts them in a feminine lens. The horse is primarily a symbol of bravery and sexuality, but also of captivity and servitude. These contradictions make Ariel one of the richest symbols in Plath’s poem.