Mirror By Sylvia Plath
“Mirror, Mirror on the wall who’s the fairest of them all?” was asked by the Evil Queen in the Disney movie Sleeping Beauty. The Evil Queen uses the mirror to assure herself of her beauty. Mirror symbolizes ritual reflection, image based upon appearance. In Sylvia Plath’s poem “Mirror”, Plath emphasis the process of senescence and addresses the search of individuality for a woman in a patriarchal society. (Mirror also represents the society’s view upon an educated woman who is searching for self-recognition in a male dominated culture. )The speaker is personified mirror with human traits. The personification characterizes the mirror as “silver and exact”. The poem begins by the mirror informing the reader that it only tells the truth since has no knowledge prior of anything about person and has no reason to alter the image. It claims that the truth is “unmisted by love and dislike,” basically describing its nondiscriminatory nature towards the person it reflects.
Then, the mirror goes further and declares itself in a metaphor as “the eye of little god”. Someone who sees all but has no moral judgement. This metonymy implies that the eye of the mirror is as righteous as God although it is only an object. It solidifies the position of the mirror as an important part of people’s life since it possesses the ability to boost or deflate one’s self-esteem. The usage of imagery when describing the position of the mirror assigns a feminine side giving the wall a pink color which has become and essential part of the mirror. The poem had no rhyme scheme but there was one paired rhyme “part of my heart” emphasizing the importance of the wall to the mirror. The stanza ends with the repetition of “over and over” stressing the passing time.
The second stanza begins with a metaphor, “Now I am a lake. ” It reflects an image of a woman, the subject, as she bends over to see her reflection in the lake. She is disappointed with her appearance, the imperfections. This stanza also alludes to Narcissus who fell in love with his own reflection. Though, the woman doesn’t receive a flattering response. The women came searching for her true self and she was only met with the mirror faithful reflection. She calls the candles and moon lairs as they only mask her imperfection, casting flattering dim gleams. The mirror sees her back in a godlike manner with its detached truthfulness and holds the image about what matters most about women in the society, youthfulness (). The woman weeps because of the honesty and the realization that her beauty is fading. The tone of the poem shifts from a neutral to distressed.
The woman kept on returning to look at her reflection and the repetition of the term “day after day” serves as the passing time and maturation of the women as she gets older. The mirror holds the young girl beneath the surface while the old woman replaces her like a terrible fish. The poem ends with a simile of woman trying to hold on to her youth in the same way a fish opens its mouth at the surface of the water. This poem serves the mirror as a powerful tool in people’s life. Mirror holds the power to project imperfections and fear of growing old. The reflection in the lake serves as a reminder of the passing time and the effects it has on people’s appearance. “She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands. ” Plath utilizes imagery to stress the pain of growing old as the woman surfers both mentally and physically.
The mirror indicates the woman’s loss of her identity, and beauty dictated upon physical appearance. The poem brings forth the concept of appearance and deterioration as a person age. Sylvia Plath was also afraid of the concept of growing old as she wrote in her diary, “I am afraid of getting older. I am afraid of getting married (). ” The poem also has an autobiographical element as the women in the poem represents Plath’s own struggle with the concept of aging. She puts her fear into the poem through the imagery, personification, metaphors, and simile. The poem consisted of two stanzas reflecting each other. The poem is a free verse which reflected the uncertainty and emotional state of the woman. It does not contain any end rhymes or meter suggesting there is no closure or certainty for the woman. Rhymes secure lines and anchor them in familiar sound (). The woman can’t anchor herself to the youth she so desires. Even though the poem is a free verse, there is a limited enjambment with periods and end stops, which adds to the flow of the poem like the movement of water.
The poem is about the importance of image within society. This poem is also about the gender roles and how women are view within a society. The women feel the need to conform to society’s definition of beauty. Sylvia Plath wrote this poem at a time of feminist movement. Plath was discontent with the gender roles and has battled the anti-intellectual bias regarding women (). The mirror represents a society’s view on an educated woman in a male dominated culture. Mirror bases its opinion on the external appearance, the image the society deems fit in a male dominated culture. The women who comes searching for herself gets overwhelmed with the image the mirror swallows and reflects. According to Parvin Ghasemi, “the mirror represents the unfeeling male view of a woman and what is socially expected of her: possessing an idealized beauty and ever-lasting youth” (Ghasemi, 2007). The woman rejects the mask provided by the candles and moon as they impose the role of a dutiful house wife dominated by male in the patriarchal society. She comes searching for herself to the mirror as she bends over to search amidst the water. The mirror regards her with passivity and reflects the ugly truth of what is thought of women as they grow older. The lake symbolizes a mirror for self-revelation. If she chooses to become independent and pave her own identity, then she will no longer be perceived as beautiful but with a critical gaze of society as a terrible fish.
The age becomes the woman shortcoming. While the woman ages, the mirror speaks the exact truth that her worth lessens as beauty cease to exist. If she were to deviate from what the society, consider acceptable then the society critically dehumanizing her as an ugly fish. At the time, the society considered intellectual incline women unattractive. It was said that well knowledges and educated women turned “attractive young into dried-up prunes (Hughes, 2014),” which is exactly the subject of the poem, woman, experienced when the mirror reflected her image. Even families refused and forced daughters to not attend college in fear that it would make them unmarriageable (Hughes, 2014). Men didn’t prefer educated women, as they tend to form their own opinion and thus can’t be suppressed under the men’s rule. The women existence was viewed as a beautiful object. The woman in the poem wants to reject the society’s expectation and wants herself to be viewed as an individual. Even in the Disney movie when the Evil Queen asked the question, the mirror answered in a male’s voice. Now the question is whose opinion was the mirror basing the answer of was it on a male’s perceptive of which women would be considered beautiful. The evil was asking the question whose opinion was she getting the male’s perceptive upon the women beauty. Even now women struggle to accept their appearance. Television, magazines, and media portray beautiful model and seeing those images makes the women self-conscious. Ageing is inevitable but the concept is hard to digest since society always has expectation regarding women.
