Sylvia Plath’s “Mirror”: How a Woman Matures

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Sylvia Plath’s poem “Mirror” is about a women maturing with time and her mirror is witness to her aging and her journey to finding herself. The mirror serves as a vivid portrayal of women’s life and stride through a very reliable persona, the mirror. Along her required journey she is faced with obstacles, such as herself and time ticking. All through life’s inconsistencies the mirror is the only one that does not hide her truth but reveals it to her even though she may not want to face reality. This poem is a representation of the idea that beauty lies in the hands of the beholder. The mirror only reflects the image to the woman, but it is the woman herself who is judging.

The form of this poem is divided into two stanzas, one when the woman is youthful and later when she has matured; “But it flickers" (7) here she is saying that the mirror flickers because her transition in age is foreseen. Throughout the years the young girl is only going to get older and the mirror can only anticipate her aging day after day of her constant visits. Also when the mirror says “Faces and darkness separate us over and over”(8) mean that when one is young one tends to meet new people and start relationships that eventually influence one. The second part that refers to darkness maybe interpreted as a young woman who is out of her room constantly, maybe mingling, meeting new people, or in school. Her not being in her room would mean lights off hence the darkness. The location of the mirror is very important because depending where the mirror is located, the young girl can have more privacy and can act herself as we see later on in the poem. The mirror is definitely located in her room because what other room may be pink with speckles but a young g...

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...sitions into adulthood and later matures into an older woman. She spends more time thinking in the past, reminiscing on her feelings and circumstances, and concludes that she is the face that replaces the mirror’s darkness each morning. The reader can assume the old women is staying home more looking at the mirror more frequently and finally confronting that uneasiness that had once been there for lack of some self confidence and feeling beautiful. In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old women (17). Plath purposefully mentions the young girl “drowning” meaning her youth has passed and the terrible fish which represents her new identity mature and older; because both words correlate and it makes the poem fit together. When she can finally appreciate herself she is a “terrible fish”. Fish usually don’t have a good aging look to them they are quite ugly.

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