Possible Themes

NOTES <3 – {Mirror by Sylvia Plath}

✓ Identity/Self-image
Bani Omapersaud ✓ Loss of youth
✓ Woman vs aging
✓ Depression

Summary

The “life” of a mirror owned by a woman recapping what it is seeing and what he has seen. The
monotony of the day-to-day occurrences set the scene for the poem and the plain and
sagacious way of speaking because of this we see that the mirror seems to be quite old. It
recalls the woman who seems to be the owner searching the mirror to find herself as she is
now an old woman who has spent time in the mirror since she was a young woman and now
seems to be going through a crisis trying to accept the image of herself in the mirror as she is
now. She finds alternative ways to view herself but she is unable to come to terms with aging
and is trying to grasp at her youth as her perception of her now-old self causes her grief.

Stanza By Stanza Analysis

Stanza 1:

The poem begins with the mirror explaining what he is and sets the scene for it being a truthful
and reliable albeit monochromatic character. The first stanza is very slow-paced and calm as we
go through the day-to-day “life” of the mirror as it is a personified thing.

“I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions. Whatever I see I swallow immediately”.

The mirror gives no judgment but instead shows exactly what it sees.

“I am not cruel, only truthful ‚//The eye of a little god, four-cornered.”

This sets up the second stanza reinforcing the statement that the mirror only reflects what is in
front of it and does not form its judgment. The mirror refers to itself as a little god, a god is
seen as the amplification of truth in the realm of humans and what is said or shown by a god is
the only truth.

The mirror continues to speak of the monotony of its existence as it sits facing the opposite wall
“pink with speckles”, “I have looked at it so long I think it is part of my heart.” The mirror has
faced this wall so long that it seems to be a part of it as it would only reflect that surface. The
fact that the mirror is pink and has been pink for so long even into the old age of the woman
could be an attempt by the woman to latch on to something of the past and a semblance
(resemblance; similarity) of her youth by keeping the wall in the room that color. Also seeing
that the color pink is a vibrant color associated with youth.
“But it flickers.//Faces and darkness separate us over and over.”

The flickering could be a reference to time moving, darkness then light over and over again as
each day passes. These last two lines set up stanza two. Which faces are seen in the mirror?

Stanza 2:

“Now I am a lake”.

They say that water has memories, the mirror referring to itself as a lake, a large body of water
that if looked on is usually reflective, it could hold memories, the memories that this woman
holds of the past.

“A woman bends over me, //Searching my reaches for what she really is.”

The woman is unable to come to terms with the fact that she is now old, searching for her
youth, but the mirror only reflects what is in front of it, and what it sees is an old lady.

“Then she turns to those liars, the candles, or the moon.”

She looks to other things to hopefully show a different image. The candle and the moon can
only shed light on what is there and cannot reflect, they only show shadows that are not the
actual image which may be why the mirror calls them liars. These ‘liars’ are not reliable; unlike
the mirror, they are only seasonal. For when the candle flickers so do your reflection and when
there’s no moon out... you’re left all alone.

“I see her back and reflect it faithfully. //She rewards me with tears and an agitation of
hands.”

We see that the woman is not satisfied with the image that is shown by the mirror, we get the
feeling of melancholy from this stanza. She hates the image she now sees. Seeing her image
and her trying it distort the image or rather her trying desperately to change what she sees.

“I am important to her. She comes and goes. //Each morning it is her face that replaces the
darkness”

Even though the woman hates the image she sees in the mirror she seems reliant on it
compelled to look each day. The mirror has seen her face every day since she was a young
woman aging until she now is an old woman and now her reflection seems to be something of a
crisis or point of hurt for the woman.
“In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman//Rises toward her day after
day, like a terrible fish.”

Figurative Devices
➢ Metaphor

“In me, she has drowned a young girl,”

The woman has been looking at the mirror since she was a young woman now her youth has
passed, and she is old.

“I think it is part of my heart”

The mirror has been reflecting the wall for so long that it has become a standard part of its
existence as it has always there

➢ Simile

“Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.”

Making a comparison to the woman’s reflection and her perception of herself as a terrible fish
shows how much she distains her reflection.

➢ Personification

“Now I am a lake”-

“I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.”

The mirror is personified throughout the poem as it is the narrator. It now gives itself more
human qualities and refers to itself as a being.

➢ Imagery

“It is pink, with speckles.”

The description of the wall allows us to imagine the wall

“But it flickers. Faces and darkness separate us over and over.”

We can imagine the moving of faces, the darkness, and the light which give the impression of
time moving.