Mirror by Sylvia Plath, 789-790.
Why Silvia Plath wrote a poem about a mirror?
Sylvia Plath was born on 27 October 1932, at Massachusetts Memorial
Hospital.
She was an excellent student in high school. Her first poem appeared
when she was eight. Once graduated from high school, She entered Smith
College in 1950 on a scholarship.
On 24 August 1953, she attempted suicide swallowing sleeping pills.
Sylvia was readmitted to Smith College for the spring-semester 1954
after receiving electro shock therapy treatment for her recovery. She
graduated with honors from Smith College winning a Fulbright
scholarship at Cambridge, England. There she found Ted Hughes and got
married with him on 16 June 1956. The year of 1958 was very stressful
for their relationship. On the last day of school she found her
husband cheating on her with a young student.
In April1960, Frieda Rebecca (their first child) was born.
Later that year Plath became pregnant again and in February she had a
miscarriage. She also had an appendectomy, which left her stitched &
hospitalized for a number of weeks. On 17 January 1962 Plath Nicholas
Farrar (their second child) was born. Late in September the married
couple decided for a legal separation. In October Plath wrote over 25
poems and they were the best. In November she and her children moved
to London where they had no telephone and the heat was no enough for
the cold. Plath spent most of her time in London very lonely. The
winter from 1962 to 1963 was recorded as one of the coldest in London
ever. Sewer pipes froze and there was plenty of ice and snow on the
ground. She and her children got sick leading her to a depression. On
11 February 1963, Plath took her own life. She placed her head in a
gas oven and died of gas intoxication.
Why Silvia wrote a poem about a mirror?
Silvia wrote this poem the same year she committed suicide. The reason
why she wrote a poem about a mirror is because at that time she was
doing a deep introspection and she did not like what she saw, she was
afraid of growing older. She also mentioned her fear of growing older
in another journal that she wrote.
Quotations for support:
When Plath was young she looked at the mirror and see herself
superficially; she did not look deep into herself:
"I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike" (789).
But as Plath ages, She begins to look into herself deeper than just
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