Sylvia Plath: Poems Summary and Analysis of "Mirror"

Summary
In this poem, a mirror describes its existence and its owner, who grows older as the mirror
watches.

The mirror first describes itself as “silver and exact.” It forms no judgments, instead merely
swallowing what it sees and reflecting that image back without any alteration. The mirror is
not cruel, “only truthful.” It considers itself a four-cornered eye of a god, which sees
everything for what it is.

Most of the time, the mirror looks across the empty room and meditates on the pink speckled
wall across from it. It has looked at that wall for so long that it describes the wall as “part of
my heart.” The image of the wall is interrupted only by people who enter to look at
themselves and the darkness that comes with night.

The mirror imagines itself as a lake. A woman looks into it, trying to discern who she really
is by gazing at her reflection. Sometimes, the woman prefers to look at herself in candlelight
or moonlight, but these are “liars” because they mask her true appearance. Only the mirror
(existing here as lake) gives her a faithful representation of herself.

Because of this honesty, the woman cries and wrings her hands. Nevertheless, she cannot
refrain from visiting the mirror over and over again, every morning. Over the years, the
woman has “drowned a young girl” in the mirror, and now sees in her reflection an old
woman growing older by the day. This old woman rises toward her out of the mirror like “a
terrible fish.”

Analysis
In this short but beloved poem, the narrator is a wall mirror in what is likely a woman's
bedroom. The mirror is personified - that is, it is endowed with human traits. It is able to
recognize monotony, commenting on the regularity of the wall that it reflects most of the
time. Further, while it does not offer moral judgment, it is able to observe and understand its
owner (the woman) as she grapples with the reality of aging.

Compared to most of the others in Plath's oeuvre, this poem is not particularly difficult to
analyze. Though the speaker is a mirror, the subjects are time and appearance. The woman
struggles with the loss of her beauty, admitting each day that she is growing older. Though
the woman occasionally deludes herself with the flattering "liars" candlelight and moonlight,
she continually returns to the mirror for the truth. The woman needs the mirror to provide her
with an objective, unadulterated reflection of self, even though it is often discomfiting,
causing her "tears and an agitation of hands." The mirror is well aware of how important it is
to the woman, which evokes the Greek myth of Narcissus, in which a young man grows so
transfixed with his own reflection that he dies.

Some critics have speculated that the woman is vexed by more than her changing physical
appearance. They posit that the woman is observing her mind, her soul, and her psyche,
stripped of any guile or obfuscation. By seeing her true self, she becomes aware of the
distinction between her exterior and interior lives. In other words, she might be meditating on

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the distinction between a "false" outer self of appearance, and a "true" inner self. After Plath's
1963 suicide, many critics examined the writer's different facets, contrasting her put-together,
polite, and decorous outer self with her raging, explosively-creative inner self. Perhaps Plath
is exploring this dichotomy in "Mirror." The slippery and unnerving "fish" in the poem may
represent that unavoidable, darker self that cannot help but challenge the socially acceptable
self.
The critic Jo Gill writes of "Mirror" that even as the mirror straightforwardly describes itself
as "silver and exact," it feels compelled to immediately qualify itself. Gill writes, "as the
poem unfolds we see that this hermetic antonym may be a deceptive facade masking the need
for communion and dialogue." The mirror actually dominates and interprets its world, and
thus has a lot more power than it seems to suggest. It does not merely reflect what it sees, but
also shapes those images for our understanding. Gill notes that the poem is catoptric,
meaning that it describes while it represents its own structure; this is down through the use of
two nine-line stanzas which are both symmetrical, and indicative of opposition.

The second stanza is significant because it, as Gill explains, "exposes...the woman's need of
the mirror [and] the mirror's need of the woman." When the mirror has nothing but the wall to
stare at, the world is truthful, objective, factual, and "exact," but when the woman comes into
view, the world becomes messy, unsettling, complicated, emotional, and vivid. Thus, the
mirror is "no longer a boundary but a liminal and penetrable space." It reflects more than an
image - it reflects its own desires and understanding about the world.

Overall, "Mirror" is a melancholy and even bitter poem that exemplifies the tensions between
inner and outer selves, as well as indicates the preternaturally feminine "problem" of aging
and losing one's beauty.

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Analysis

Two stanzas that reflect each other, mirror images you could say, that
contain no obvious end rhymes or steady beat to the lines. From this we
can suggest that there is no closure or certainty or order.
Rhyme tends to secure the lines, anchor them in a familiar sound, but
here the poet has chosen to end each line with a different word, virtually
unrelated in sound or texture. It's free verse yet with so many periods
(end stops, full stops) and limited enjambment, the text looks more like
dialogue from a play.
Personification
Mirror is a personification poem, that is, the poet has given the mirror a
voice, a first person voice, so the first line:
I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
is the mirror speaking. It is direct, objective and open. It has a
personality. This device allows the mirror to address the reader (and any
individual) at a personal level. You may know of a similar mirror in the
fairytale Sleeping Beauty, where the vain Wicked Queen looks in to her
mirror to ask 'Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?'
Metaphor
In the first stanza the mirror declares - I am not cruel, only truthful -/The
eye of a little god, four cornered. So the mirror becomes the eye of a
little god, metaphorically speaking.
And at the start of the second stanza - Now I am a lake - is also a
metaphor, as the mirror becomes deep water.
Simile
The final few words - like a terrible fish - constitute a simile.
Further Analysis - First Stanza
This poem is all about appearances and the search for the self. The fact
that the mirror is the voice and has the starring role is a little odd, but

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Sylvia Plath wanted to show just how powerful an object the mirror is in
people's lives.
In particular, she wanted to highlight the issue that some females have
with their image and the inner turmoil that can be caused as the aging
process gathers pace. The poet's own struggle for a stable identity only
adds to the idea that the face in the mirror must stay young, pretty and
perfect.
Lines 1- 3
The opening lines introduce us to the passive rectangle of silver, the
glass, the shiny surface which only tells the truth and has no other
purpose. Mirrors have no prior knowledge of anything; they simply are.
Note the use of the verb swallow which suggests that the mirror has a
mouth and can digest images instantly, whole, like a creature. It's as if
the mirror is saying - To me you are food which I need to satisfy my
insatiable appetite. There are no blurry lines; love or judgement has
nothing to do with it. I will swallow you. End of story.
Lines 4-6
This objective theme continues as the mirror reinforces the idea of
neutrality - it simply tells the story as it is, no fuss, no elaboration, no
fabrication. And it is this quality - truthfulness - which allows the mirror
to declare itself as the eye of a little god; an all seeing minor deity
holding disproportionate power.
To strengthen its position within the room, the house, the host's mind, it
does little but meditate on the opposite wall. Like some open eyed
staring sage the mirror sits contemplatively.
Lines 7-9
The wall is pink, speckly, and is now an integral part of the mirror's
heart, suggesting that this silver eyed god has gained a feminine side to
its persona. Pink is associated with girlie things - but the connection isn't
that clear - there are uncertain faces coming between it and the wall of
pink.
Is the mirror losing its grip on its own reality? Are the ripples of time
starting to affect the smooth surface?

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More Analysis - Second Stanza
Whereas the first stanza concentrated on the exact truthfulness of the
mirror, the ability to reflect precisely, the second stanza sees a transition
- the mirror becomes a liquid, it gains depth and a different dimension.
Lines 10-12
With god-like medium-shifting power, the mirror becomes a lake,
metaphorical water. In it is reflected the image of a woman - the poet,
any woman? - and she is bending over as one would over the surface of
a lake.
This woman is uncertain of herself and needs to find out who she really
is. But can a person truly find out who they are merely by peering into a
lake? Don't forget, this type of water can swallow any image it comes
across.
Didn't Narcissus look into a similar lake and was so overcome with his
own beauty that he fell in and drowned?
The woman isn't interested in beauty it seems, perhaps she's more intent
on learning about her emotional responses to her former self?
Candlelight can't help her cause, it's a deceptively romantic way of
looking at things, and the moon likewise, governs only madness and
haunting of the blood.
She can't dwell on the past.
Lines 13-15
Nevertheless, the mirror sees her back which is what the eye of a little
god would do, and holds the image, as always.
The woman weeps, which pleases the mirror, perhaps because the tears
replenish the water in the lake, or maybe the mirror is happy because it
has done its job of faithful reflection and so feels rewarded.
But the woman is clearly upset, because the past holds such powerful
memories, not all positive. This part of the poem is crucial, for we
discover the mirror's aim - to disturb the woman.
The deity has control of the human, which is how the traditional stories
often pan out.

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Lines 16-18
So, we know the mirror believes that it is important to the woman, and
so it appears - she looks at herself each morning, so reliant has she
become. The revelation, hardly a shock, is that the woman's younger
self is dead, drowned by her own hand. Replacing the girl on a daily
basis is the face of an old woman, surfacing like a terrible fish.
Imagine the horror of facing the mirror each morning and confronting
an inner demon, which is what the poet intends to convey. The innocent,
romantic, crazy girl floats in the water, all life gone. And out of her
there rises from the (emotional) depths a hagfish, a monstrosity.