Mirror

716 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Symbolism essays

In the first stanza, the "I am not cruel, only truthful" phrase reveals the mirror's personality and charter. Unlike humans a mirror cannot judge her with opinions. Sylvia Plath uses onomatopoeia to give the mirror human characteristics. On line five she writes "The eye of a little god, four-cornered" which shows that the mirror is given God-like powers over the women. It becomes almost an obsessive relationship between the mirror and the women because she looks to the mirror for comfort only to confronted with the truth about your youth wasting away.
The mirror triggers conscious and unconscious memories of her life faithfully. On line thirteen it reads "I see her back, and reflect it faithfully" once again showing that truthful charter of the mirror. Regardless of the fact she hates her reflection the women becomes dependent on the mirror, and on line fifteen you can see that relationship were it says "I am important to her. She comes and goes." The phase "I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions." Shows that a mirror is not capable of showing anything else, then what is put in front of it. The mirror shows no color and has no preference.
Although the mirror revels reality the women still clings to objects that blind her from the truth. In the second stanza, the phase "Then she turn to those liars, the candles or the moon" shows that the woman is attempting to hide her flaws behind the darkness. It is very ...

Show More
Related

  • Examples Of Metaphors In The Raven

    355 Words  | 1 Pages

    Mirror: a live entity. The movie shows that the mirror is alive and covered with gold draped. The portrayal of unsecure feelings of the Queen could be the identity of the mirror. It is because only the Queen can see the mirror alive. It shows the progress of the Queen and her fate in the story.

    Read More

  • The Lady in the Pink Mustang

    1003 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...es her. The imageries of pink Mustang signifies her social class, while “Road” indicates her location as nowhere within a community. The commodification of her body means it can be touched in ways derogatory to her dignity whether she likes it or not because it is a saleable commodity that doesn’t belong to her. Her silver painted nipples identifies silver coins. Silver coins represent monetary value put on her body. Silver painted nipples also mean the attractive way in which a product is packaged. The poem also depicts the defiance of women against how she has been treated. She identifies man as the one that kisses away himself piece by piece till the last coin is spent. However, she cannot change the reality of her location, and temporal placement.

    Read More

  • A Different Mirror

    346 Words  | 1 Pages

    Ronald Takaki is one of the foremost-recognized scholars of multicultural studies and holds a PhD. in American History from the University of California, Berkeley. As a professor of Ethnic Studies at the same university, he wrote A Different Mirror: a History of Multicultural America as a fantastic new telling of our nation’s history. The book narrates the composition of the many different people of the United States of America.

    Read More

  • Marge Piercy’s Barbie Doll

    604 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the second stanza, Piercy describes the girl as healthy, intelligent, and strong (7-8). Yet these positive equalities alone, could not keep people from criticizing her, so the girl feels inferior. “She went to and fro apologizing,” which demonstrates her collapse of confidence with the people she is surrounded with, who kept putting her down (10). She gives in to the hurtful things people say about her: “Everyone [kept] seeing a fat nose on thick legs” (11). The girl thus lets people push her in the direction of society’s standard of beauty, instead of affirming her own unique beauty.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Monopolies

    834 Words  | 2 Pages

    Back in John D. Rockefeller’s day the business moves he established that created a monopoly were highly intelligent and immoral. He was the first person to build a monopoly setting guidelines for future business leaders. Nonetheless, Microsoft ignored the regulations established under The Sherman Antitrust Act, in 1890 and committed a monopoly but finally settled to make it easier for competitors. Monopolies have been happening since the 19th century to the 21st, but remained unfair form hundreds of

    Read More

  • From the Hazel Bough

    710 Words  | 2 Pages

    This stanza begins the encounter. It sets the scene saying it is a lazy street. He begins to describe the woman's beauty, pointing out her hazel eyes and tiny feet.

    Read More

  • The Destruction of the Minke Whale in Mobe Dick by Herman Melville

    1196 Words  | 3 Pages

    Handwerk B. Whale hunting to continue in Antarctic sanctuary. National Geographic Daily News [Internet]. National Geographic; 2010 June 25 [cited 2014 Jan 23]. 18 paragraphs. Available from: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/06/100625-whaling-whales-ban-iwc-japan-hunting/

    Read More

  • Essay On Eyewitness Testimony

    1191 Words  | 3 Pages

    Loftus’s work and the studies that followed have demonstrated that an individual’s memory of an event can easily be distorted by post-event information, which is provided through questions that the researcher or police officer in case of a real life crime might ask the witness. But not only researchers’ questions have been found to distort memory. Several studies have indicated that when witnesses discuss an event together they can mistakenly incorporate elements of each other’s memories into their own memories (e.g., Gabbert, Memon, & Allan, 2003; Paterson & Kemp, 2006). ...

    Read More

  • Commercial Whaling

    812 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the world today, we know that whales are majestic creatures with amazing lifestyles that we don’t completely understand. We also know that however large they are, they are in danger because they have been over hunted and over used by human beings. Today through Commercial Whaling, the whales of the oceans have been put at risk and their population continues to decrease. Countries such as Japan, Iceland, and Norway defy the rules set by The International Whaling Commission under the pretense that they’re whaling for scientific reasons, when in reality they are whaling for commercial reasons of profit. Commercial whaling is a problem in countries around the world, most prominent are the Japanese, and other countries are Iceland and Norway. Over time the status of the whale population has declined because of the increase of technology in whale hunting.

    Read More

  • Man in the Mirror

    346 Words  | 1 Pages

    Written and composed by Siedah Garret and Glen Ballard. Performed by Michael Jackson, Featuring Siedah Garret, The Winans and The Andrae Crouch Choir.

    Read More

  • How Is Love Presented In The Lady Of Shalott

    1825 Words  | 4 Pages

    In this poem The Lady of Shalott was faced with a curse that would not even allow her to steal a glance out of her window, and the only way to view the world was through her mirror. She attempted to keep herself busy and distracted by weaving a web of beautiful colors and looking at the distorted images her mirror provided her with. Over time her strength that kept her safe wore thin and she grew tired of being held in solitude in her castle. Through watching Sir Lancelot, she fell in love and desired his attention so she left her web to pursue him. The Lady of Shalott pursued the knight, although she knew even a glance would mean certain death, but in her final moments she was happy and she sang of her happiness until her last moments breathing. The Lady chased unattainable love and faced death to find a sense of being whole and being loved. She tried to ignore her desires, but in the end she lost her life for the sake of love and only received the knight’s attention once her blood was frozen and her eyes were dark and

    Read More

  • Mirrors by Sylvia Plath

    975 Words  | 2 Pages

    The author applies sight and personification to accentuate the mirror’s roles. The declaimer of the poem says “I am silver and exact [and] whatever I see I swallow” (1, 20). The purpose of these devices is to convey the position of the mirror in the poem. As an inanimate object, the mirror is incapable of consuming anything but the appearances of entities. Furthermore, the glass’ role accentuates an inner mirror, the human mirror which does not forget instances of misery and contentment. According to Freedman, the mimicking image emulated by the mirror elicits “… a look for oneself inside” as observed from the life of the elderly woman in the sonnet (153). Moreover, as the woman looks into the lake, she commemorates her appealing and attractive and pleasant figure as a young girl. As time passes, the inevitability of old age knocks on the door of the woman, readily waiting to change the sterling rapturous lady perceived by many. One’s appearance can change; it is up to an individual to embrace it or reject it.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Parturition By Mina Loy

    731 Words  | 2 Pages

    This, in fact, is an example of “dynamic decomposition” of which the speaker claims she understands nothing. The ironic contradiction of form and content underlines the contradiction between the women’s presentation of her outer self and that of her inner self. The poem concludes with the line “’Let us go home she is tired and wants to go to bed.’” which is a statement made by the man. Hence, it “appears to give the last word to the men” but, in reality, it mirrors the poem’s opening lines and emphasises the role the woman assumes on the outside as well as her inner awareness and criticism. This echoes Loy’s proclamation in her “Feminist Manifesto” in which she states that women should “[l]eave off looking to men to find out what [they] are not [but] seek within [themselves] to find out what [they] are”. Therefore, the poem presents a “new woman” confined in the traditional social order but resisting it as she is aware and critical of

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis Of Maya Angelou's Phenomenal Woman

    1436 Words  | 3 Pages

    It is said that when we look in the mirror, we see our reflection; but what is it that we really see? Some people look through the glass and see a totally different person. All across the world identity is an issue that many women have. Woman today must be skinny, tall, thick, fair skinned and have long hair in order to be considered beautiful. Maya Angelou feels otherwise, as she gives women another way to look at themselves through her poem "Phenomenal Woman".

    Read More

  • Killing the Whales

    1552 Words  | 4 Pages

    In 1986, The International Whaling Commission (IWC) implemented a moratorium to stop commercial whaling. Many people believe that this would save the whales and end forever the industrial slaughter that had decimated the many different species. Being an animal lover and just getting back from Florida for over a year, I realized how beautiful and important the ocean and the animals that live in it are. In Florida I saw many different types of ocean species, but I have never seen a whale in real life. And that made me think. How protected are these animals? I have watched television programs about entire fleets of ships, and even a helicopter, out following whaling ships trying to sabotage their efforts in order to save as many whales as possible. What are the loopholes that these whalers are slipping through to still be able to kill these majestic creatures?

    Read More

More about Mirror

Open Document