Mirror

2 Pages 493 Words

Mirror
Sylvia Plath


I chose the poem Mirror by Sylvia Plath because I think it is a good representation of what I have learned in this class. Plath uses metaphors and symbolic gestures to tell a simple story of a woman growing old. The story is told from the inanimate perspective of the silver mirror. Obviously the mirror being a stationary item, the poem can only be told form the woman looking in it, not the mirror following the woman. Hence, the poem can only make references by the woman’s obsessive behavior of repetitively checking herself out. However, the mirror perspective is also shown from the lake. The woman looks at herself in the tranquility of the water. Plath brings up that a young woman drown in the lake, and that the old woman rises towards her everyday like a terrible fish. That enforces the multiple perspective of the mirror, that in which the woman glances in both the mirror and lake. The woman “growing old” is important in this poem because of the fact that the mirror has been there this whole time. Viewing the woman on a daily basis the reflection seen is growing old. Plath talks about the moon and candles being “liars”. I infer this metaphorical relationship as being a false reflection. Both the mirror and the lake give the woman’s reflection. As is the moonlight, and the candlelight flickering in the dark. They are all reflections, and I have a theory that this poem itself Is a reflection on another meaning. Plath says, “I see her back, and reflect it faithfully. She rewards me with tears and agitation of hands. I am important to her. She comes and goes. Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.” I believe that this has another meaning. Maybe to a loved one. The reward of tears and agitation is saying that it is a pleasure to grow old with the sharing of love with this person. And when they wake up in the morning, the first thing the loved one sees is her face, old or young. Thi...