Sylvia Plath Mirror themes

[curiosity]

In trying to inspire my Son to see his english coursework as interesting and something to embrace rather than a dull task to be avoided at all costs!! I have read Sylvia Plath for the first time. Mirror and Blackberrying. Particularly with Mirror there are so many interpretations on various literature forums that I am now confused. Am I wrong in thinking that this woman liked to stray from reality for a variety of reasons, imagined herself as the mirror on the wall and wrote about the significance of the mirror as an everyday object, and the experience that mirror has e.g meditating the wall opposite apart from when its night or someone passes or looks into the mirror. Then the writer reflects on her own use of "mirrors" introducing the lake that she frequents and daydreams into, and gives us a little insight into the sadness she feels when she tries to see her inner self, and that she is missing reality and her life is passing, without feeling it. I'd love to hear your views on this poem, I know poetry is a personal experience, but is it really as deep as some people see it ? This will not assist his coursework as it's more analytical and in depth than the he needs to be writing for his specific essay, it's just I'd like to know. I know where he gets going off on a tangent from now!

[biscuitslapp]

I think Plath was refering to herself as the woman looking in the mirror. The phrase "terrible fish" is a reference to the poem Narcissus in which a man looks into a lake and falls in love with his own reflection. He looks at it for so long and close that he falls in the water and drowns. Ironically, Plath killed herself two years after this poem was written. You might try getting your son interested in the darker aspects of literature, like authors commiting suicide, if he's old enough and you think it is appropriate.
Anyway, good luck getting a guy interested in literature, your going to need it.