‘MIRROR’ by Sylvia Plath

Themes:-
● Loneliness
● Depression
● Self Perception
● Body Image
● Observation
● Aging
● Discontentment with one’s features
● Society’s belief of what a woman should look like

Literary Devices:-
1. Personification- The entire poem is personified. A mirror is an inanimate
object however, in the poem, the mirror takes on a first person voice and we
see the world through ‘the mirror’s perspective’.
2. Metaphor- ‘The eye of a little God’- The mirror compares itself to a God.
Much like God, the mirror is not biased against anyone, and has no likes or
dislikes,the mirror only reflects the person’s image as what they are. In the
line ‘Now I am a lake’- This line compares a mirror and a lake. Since a lake
has a reflective surface, it can also be used to get a reflection that the woman
needs to see her face.
3. Simile- ‘Like a terrible fish.’- Compares aging to the rising of a fish to the
surface. It can also suggest the woman’s death approaching her slowly but
surely, the effects of aging.
4. Allusion- The poem also alludes to the Greek Myth of Narcissus who was
obsessed with looking at his reflection in the lake. He was so upset that he
never ate or slept, only looked at his reflection and then one day he became
so upset with it, that he committed suicide.

● The tone of this poem is an apathetic one. The mirror gives an almost
nonchalant commentary of everything it sees with no emotion. The mood of
the poem is a sad one and one of acceptance.