MIRROR by Sylvia Plath

In Sylvia’s Plath’s poem, ‘Mirror’, the poet uses several literary devices and
diction in order to highlight the major issues of finding one’s true self as well as
embracing your body for what it is and not constantly trying to change it. It
specifically targets the insecurities held in the hearts of many women as well as the
common misconception that as you age, you get ‘ugly’.
The poem is narrated from the point of view of a mirror found in a woman’s
room meaning that the poem is an extended personification because of course, a
mirror is an inanimate object. In the first three lines of the poem, we understand that
the mirror shows you exactly what you look like and is not biased due to their like or
dislike of you since it has ‘no preconceptions’. In other words, the mirror is a Tabula
Rasa, since it is essentially a blank slate and has no memory from before allowing it to
provide a proper image. The mirror’s unbiased nature is further revealed in the
metaphor, ‘The eye of a little corner, four cornered’, since God judges us all equally
and fairly, God is not biased to any one person. So the mirror compares itself to being
God’s eye since all it sees past all the facades and looks straight at the original image.
In line 4, a common saying can be used to express what the mirror is saying, that is,
‘The truth hurts’, so while the mirror is showing the truth, those using it think that it is
just being unnecessarily mean to them. From lines 6 to 9, the mirror becomes almost
affectionate when speaking about the wall. This may be the poet speaking to us about
her own struggles, suggesting that even though that part of her heart is always present,
she may have lost a sense of who she really is because she constantly has to change
her beliefs in order to fit in with those people in the society surrounding her. It may
also refer to how much change scares Plath.
In the second stanza, the mirror moves to a lake where a woman is peering to
see her reflection. This is an allusion to the famous greek myth of Narcissus, the man
who only stare at his reflection until he finally committed suicide. In line 12, the
moon and candles are referred to as liars because when an individual is in the dark and
only the glow of the moon and candles, it is believed that they look prettier since the
yellow glow only accentuates certain attributes of the person. In the remaining lines of
the poem, it is understood that the woman is constantly aging and sheds many tears
over her face but instead of living in the moment, she was consumed by her need to be
pretty and possibly aging faster because of the products and stress faced. It also
suggests that the woman is approaching her death and it will suddenly snap her up
‘like a terrible fish’.
This poem allows us to understand that one should not focus on their
appearance too much and instead focus on our lives, because everyone is beautiful in
their own way and shouldn't be pressured by society into thinking that they aren't
‘pretty enough’. It is a message to all those women out there to be themselves and
embrace their natural beauty.