Woman Before An Aquarium

The poem Woman Before an Aquarium written by Patricia Hampl’s in 1978 the writer initially seems to argue for the necessity of escaping her current life. The poem is more complex , however, because it also implies the fact of overcoming fear of man and discovering who she is. Yet Patricia seems paradoxically, gaze into a fishbowl she does so in order to imagine her life as one of the fish.

Patricia initially seems to argue for the necessity to overcome her fear and live a normal life. She suggests this idea quite forcefully in the paired short sentences that open the second stanza of the poem: “The world is round, distorted the clerk said when I insisted on a round fishbowl .” The fishbowl represents the way Patricia feels this woman obviously feels bound by someone or something and desires to be free. In the poem the speaker illustrates how she always wanted to be a mermaid. However, this shows that there is some conflict in her life from which she desires to escape. The writer wishes to be a fish because even though fish are certainly not free, at least they have not the capability to realize they are trapped. Furthermore, in the poem in stanza 20 she expresses her desire to be untouchable “the only power of the woman: to be untouchable.” meaning woman are priceless. She feels as a person who cannot live and act the way she wishes to because of her family strict rules of society that are implied on her. In the painting we see in the poem we see a woman who is not …show more content…
She pictured herself as a mermaid of a double life. Describing herself as a mermaid living a double life meaning as a woman an a fish at the same time. We can also see in the painting that most of the painting is dark or neutral colors, while the fish in the fishbowl are orange. This demonstrates two different worlds presents in the woman's mind the world she wishes to live and the world she is living