Grade 11 Week 3 &4 July Memorandum

The Mirror by Sylvia Plath

1.1.1 a) Speckled wall b) faces c) darkness d) woman e)dissatisfied

f) candle g) moon h) young i ) scares 

1.1.2. B 

1.1.3. a) Figuratively

b) “Swallows” is personification of the mirror as it accepts anything that comes in front of it. 

1.1.4 a) Personification 

b) The mirror’s ability to reflect anything is compared to the eye of a little god that is able to see anything. 

c) It is appropriate as it creates imagery in the mind of the reader. The reader can easily relate the mirror’s
effectiveness in reflecting objects with the effectiveness of gods in seeing everything. 

1.1.5 A sombre tone since the mirror does not hide the reality of becoming older. No matter how often the
woman comes to check her reflection, she cannot stop the ageing process. 

1.1.6. Many people are very concerned about how they appear (seem) to other people. They try to disguise
(hide) unpleasant parts of themselves or their personalities from others. They do not always want other
people know the truth. 

1.1.7. The light of both the candle and the moon are gentler and dimmer than daylight and therefore distort
what we see. In the same way, the image of ourselves in the lake is not as harsh or ‘exact’ as it is in the mirror.
A mirror cannot disguise or hide anything. 

1.2.1 A room with a pink speckled wall and in a lake. 

1.2.2. a) The mirror is not harsh on what it reflects, it is also not biased. It reflects exactly what comes its way.


b) “liars” 

c) She turns away and looks for a softer, gentler reflection of herself using the moonlight or candlelight. 

1.2.3. a) Metaphor 

b) The speaker compares the disappearance of the woman’s youth to someone drowning. 

c) it is effective as it implies that over the years the woman has watched her reflection in the lake change. It is
no longer youthful. It is as if that young girl is now dead and drowned in the lake. 

1.2.4. a) Simile. Every time the woman looks at her reflection in the lake, she sees that she is ageing. She
realises that getting old cannot be stopped. Getting old is compared to a frightening fish that is hunting her
from the lake. It will eventually catch her and eat her. In the same way, growing old and dying cannot be
escaped. 

1.2.5. a) Personification 
b) The heart is a symbol of emotion and love. It seems as if the mirror sees a deeper connection between itself
and the wall opposite. However, the connection is never certain as there is always something that comes
between them, that is, faces and darkness. 

1.2.6. Time and Ageing - One fact that all human beings share is that we all grow old. Beauty and youth are
temporary. Women are taught they are beautiful only when they are young. Society puts a lot of pressure on
women, in particular, to work hard at remaining youthful. Growing old is a reminder of time passing. 

1.2.7. The society in which we live values beauty and youthfulness. We rarely tell people something negative
about themselves because we don’t want to hurt their feelings. Women especially have a lot of pressure put
on them to look a certain way. 

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