Introduction: “Mirror” by Sylvia Plath
“Mirror” by Sylvia Plath, first appeared in 1971 as part of her posthumous collection Crossing the Water, shows the themes of self-reflection and the unembellished truth of self-perception, captured through the metaphor of a mirror. The poem explores the honesty with which the mirror reflects the images before it, embodying an impartial perspective that is “not cruel, only truthful.” This introspective honesty, coupled with Plath’s poignant, clear language, has made “Mirror” a popular choice in educational texts. The poem’s contemplative tone and its exploration of personal identity resonate deeply, making it a powerful tool for teaching themes of self-awareness and the human condition. As the mirror states: “I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.” This line encapsulates the mirror’s function as an object of true reflection, devoid of human biases and emotions, which appeals to both students and scholars for its deep psychological insight and artistic expression.
Text: “Mirror” by Sylvia Plath
I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful‚
The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.
It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long
I think it is part of my heart. But it flickers.
Faces and darkness separate us over and over.
Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,
Searching my reaches for what she really is.
Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.
I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.
She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.
I am important to her. She comes and goes.
Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.
In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman
Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.
Annotations: “Mirror” by Sylvia Plath
| Line | Annotation |
| I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions. | The mirror describes itself using the properties of being “silver” and “exact,” suggesting purity and accuracy in reflection. “No preconceptions” implies its objectivity, free from biases or emotions, much like an impartial observer. |
| Whatever I see I swallow immediately | The use of “swallow” metaphorically describes how the mirror absorbs or takes in everything it reflects without hesitation or judgment. |
| Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike. | This line emphasizes the mirror’s unbiased nature, reflecting things as they are, unaffected by personal feelings of “love or dislike.” |
| I am not cruel, only truthful‚ | The mirror clarifies its purpose: it is not “cruel” in its honesty but merely “truthful,” highlighting the often harsh nature of truth. |
| The eye of a little god, four-cornered. | Likening itself to a “little god,” the mirror suggests a powerful, all-seeing quality within its limited, “four-cornered” frame. |
| Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall. | “Meditate” implies a contemplative, almost thoughtful observation of the opposite wall, suggesting a constant and focused attention. |
| It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long | The description of the wall as “pink, with speckles” adds a personal touch to what the mirror observes daily, suggesting familiarity and perhaps monotony. |
| I think it is part of my heart. But it flickers. | The mirror anthropomorphically feels a connection (“part of my heart”) with the wall it faces, yet this connection is unstable (“flickers”), symbolizing moments of disconnection or change in perception. |
| Faces and darkness separate us over and over. | “Faces and darkness” interrupt the mirror’s view, representing how human presence and absence (darkness) cyclically affect what it reflects, emphasizing the transient nature of human life. |
| Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me, | The transition to a “lake” introduces a new reflective surface, deeper and broader in scope. The “woman” represents introspection and self-examination. |
| Searching my reaches for what she really is. | This line illustrates the woman’s quest for self-discovery and truth about her identity through the reflective surface of the lake. |
| Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon. | The “candles or the moon” are described as “liars,” suggesting their light distorts reality, unlike the truthful reflection of the mirror or lake. |
| I see her back, and reflect it faithfully. | The mirror/lake continues to reflect the woman accurately, even as she turns away, symbolizing the persistent, unchanging truth it offers regardless of her actions or focus. |
| She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands. | The woman’s “tears and an agitation of hands” indicate emotional turmoil and distress faced upon confronting her true self in the reflection. |
| I am important to her. She comes and goes. | The mirror’s importance is highlighted by the woman’s repeated visits (“She comes and goes”), indicating a reliance on the mirror for self-reflection and understanding. |
| Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness. | This line suggests a routine, where each day starts with the woman looking into the mirror, using it to replace the unknown (“darkness”) with her own image, symbolizing self-confrontation and the search for personal identity. |
| In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman | The mirror reflects the passage of time, showing the woman’s transformation from “a young girl” to “an old woman,” signifying the inevitable aging process and the changes in self-perception and identity over time. |
| Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish. | The “terrible fish” is a stark, unsettling image that concludes the poem, possibly representing the fear or dread of aging and mortality that rises in the woman as she confronts her reflection day after day. |
Literary And Poetic Devices: “Mirror” by Sylvia Plath
| Device | Example from ‘Mirror’ | Explanation |
| Allusion | Reference to “a little god” | Alludes to mythical beings with omniscience, enhancing the mirror’s role as an unbiased and all-seeing entity. |
| Anthropomorphism | “I am important to her.” | The mirror is given human-like importance, suggesting an emotional significance to the woman. |
| Assonance | “I am silver and exact.” | The repetition of the ‘a’ sound in “am” and “and” adds a rhythmic quality and focuses attention on the mirror’s description. |
| Caesura | “I am not cruel, only truthful‚” | A pause in the middle of the line, brought about by punctuation, emphasizes the mirror’s defense of its honesty. |
| Consonance | “I think it is part of my heart. But it flickers.” | The repetition of the ‘t’ sound highlights the rhythm and internal conflict of the mirror’s thoughts. |
| Enjambment | “Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.” | The continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, which enhances the flow and reflects continuous thought. |
| Hyperbole | “In me she has drowned a young girl” | Exaggeration to emphasize the transformative and consuming power of the mirror’s reflections over time. |
| Imagery | “Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.” | Visual imagery depicting the constant staring of the mirror, which adds to the theme of introspection and reflection. |
| Irony | “Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.” | The candles and moon, which usually symbolize truth and guidance, are ironically called “liars,” contrasting with the truthful mirror. |
| Metaphor | “Now I am a lake.” | The mirror compares itself to a lake, suggesting depth and the ability to reflect more than just surface appearances. |
| Metonymy | “The eye of a little god, four-cornered.” | The “eye” metaphorically stands for the mirror itself, emphasizing its ability to see and reflect truth. |
| Onomatopoeia | “But it flickers.” | “Flickers” uses sound to convey the visual intermittence of the light or image, adding to the sense of instability. |
| Oxymoron | “terrible fish” | Combines contradictory terms, enhancing the unsettling and surprising nature of the woman’s reflection as she ages. |
| Paradox | “I am not cruel, only truthful” | This statement juxtaposes cruelty with truthfulness, highlighting the complex nature of facing reality. |
| Personification | “The eye of a little god, four-cornered.” | Attributes human characteristics to the mirror, enhancing its authority and ability to reflect truth. |
| Repetition | “over and over” | The phrase emphasizes the repetitive nature of the interactions and the constant separation between the mirror and the faces. |
| Simile | “like a terrible fish” | Compares the old woman’s rising image to a fish, conveying its unexpectedness and perhaps her horror at aging. |
| Symbolism | “she rewards me with tears” | Tears symbolize the pain and realization of truth as reflected by the mirror, underscoring the impact of honest reflection. |
| Synecdoche | “Faces and darkness separate us” | “Faces” represent whole people, emphasizing how individuals and their absences affect the mirror. |
Themes: “Mirror” by Sylvia Plath
- The Search for Identity: In “Mirror” by Sylvia Plath, the theme of the search for identity is poignantly explored through the interactions between the woman and the mirror-turned-lake. The poem delves into the depths of self-exploration, with the mirror stating, “Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me, Searching my reaches for what she really is.” This reflection is not just literal but metaphorical, suggesting the woman’s quest to discover her true self. The mirror, a symbol of objective reality, presents an unfiltered view of the woman’s appearance and, by extension, her inner self. It shows how the woman confronts and sometimes recoils from her own reality, oscillating between recognition and denial, as seen when she turns to “those liars, the candles or the moon,” preferring their flattering but deceitful light to the stark truth of her reflection.
- The Nature of Truth: Plath’s “Mirror” encapsulates the theme of truth through the lens of an inanimate object that reflects only what it sees, emphasizing the poem’s central motif: “I am not cruel, only truthful.” The mirror describes itself as “exact” and “unmisted by love or dislike,” indicating its impartiality and the inevitability of aging and self-recognition it presents. This unyielding adherence to truth confronts the subjective perceptions of the human experience, challenging the characters within the poem—and the readers themselves—to accept the often harsh realities of life and self-perception. The mirror’s repeated meditation on the opposite wall and its detailed observation underscore its role as a passive observer, committed only to the truth, however unwelcome it may be.
- Aging and Mortality: Aging and mortality are central themes explored in “Mirror.” Plath personifies the mirror and later a lake, which reflect back the life changes of the woman observing herself. As the poem progresses, the narrative shifts from the wall the mirror often reflects to the woman who “comes and goes.” In a powerful metaphor, the mirror states, “In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman / Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.” This imagery reflects the woman’s grappling with her own aging, as she sees her youthful self ‘drowned’ and her older self emerging. The relentless passage of time and its physical manifestations on the human body are rendered with both a literal and emotional accuracy that is unmistakable and poignant.
- The Role of Perception: The theme of perception—how we see ourselves versus how others see us—is woven throughout “Mirror.” The poem highlights the duality of the mirror’s role: an object of factual reflection and a symbol of personal perception. The mirror’s claim, “Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall,” suggests a constancy in its reflection, a permanence that stands in contrast to the human tendency to see what we want or fear in ourselves. This idea is further explored in the transformation of the mirror into a lake, providing a deeper, more expansive reflective surface. Here, the woman’s interaction with the mirror, shifting between facing it and turning away, encapsulates the human struggle with self-image, influenced by both internal desires and external pressures. The contrast between the steady, unchanging mirror and the flickering, unreliable perception of self highlights the complexities of understanding and accepting one’s true nature.
Literary Theories and “Mirror” by Sylvia Plath
| Literary Theory | Application to ‘Mirror’ | References from the Poem |
| Feminist Theory | This theory can examine how the poem reflects the societal pressures on women to maintain youth and beauty, and the internal conflict these pressures cause. | “A woman bends over me, / Searching my reaches for what she really is.” This line shows the woman’s struggle with her identity, which can be interpreted as a critique of how women are often valued for their appearance over their other qualities. |
| Psychoanalytic Theory | Focuses on the unconscious mind, and can interpret the mirror as a symbol of the true self that the conscious mind might be unwilling to accept. | “In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman / Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.” These lines can be seen as representing the confrontation with the unconscious self, a realization of aging and mortality. |
| Structuralism | Analyzes the underlying structures of a text. The mirror’s reflections can be seen as a structure that organizes the text’s meaning around themes of truth and perception. | “I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.” This description of the mirror sets up a structure of objectivity and reflection, which is central to understanding the themes of the poem. |
| Deconstruction | This theory would explore the instability of language and meaning in the poem, examining how the text undermines the idea of a fixed identity. | “Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.” This line suggests the unreliability of appearances and challenges the notion of truth, which the mirror initially seems to represent unambiguously. |
Critical Questions about “Mirror” by Sylvia Plath
- How does the mirror’s perspective influence the theme of self-perception in the poem?
The mirror in Sylvia Plath’s “Mirror” serves as both a literal and metaphorical lens through which the theme of self-perception is deeply explored. As an inanimate object, the mirror offers an unbiased, unemotional reflection of what it observes. It describes itself as “silver and exact” and claims to have “no preconceptions,” which emphasizes its role as an objective observer (Plath, lines 1-2). This objectivity is central to the poem’s exploration of how individuals confront their true selves. The mirror’s reflections force the woman to face her reality, stripped of any self-deception that might be offered by “those liars, the candles or the moon” (line 12). This unflinching honesty of the mirror makes the reader question the nature of self-perception and whether true self-awareness is possible without such objectivity. - What does the transformation from a mirror to a lake signify in the poem?
The transition from a mirror to a lake in “Mirror” expands the scope of reflection both literally and metaphorically. Initially, the mirror is confined to a room, reflecting the mundane “opposite wall” and the activities within its “four-cornered” view (Plath, lines 6, 5). However, when the mirror becomes a lake, the reflection becomes deeper and broader, symbolizing a more profound level of introspection. The lake allows the woman to “search [the] reaches for what she really is” (line 10), indicating a deeper, more existential exploration of self. This transformation suggests a shift from superficial self-awareness to a more profound understanding of one’s identity and place in the world. It raises questions about the depths to which we can know ourselves and the fluid, often unsettling nature of personal identity. - How does the poem address the theme of aging and mortality?
Aging and mortality are addressed through the evolving relationship between the woman and her reflections in the poem. Initially, the mirror reflects the woman as she is in real-time, but over the years, it captures her transition from a “young girl” to an “old woman” (Plath, line 17). This reflection is not merely physical but is laden with the emotional weight of seeing oneself age. The line “Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish” evokes a sense of dread and inevitability associated with aging and mortality (line 18). The metaphor of the “terrible fish” highlights the horror with which the woman confronts her aged self, suggesting that the awareness of mortality can be both profound and frightening. Plath’s depiction of this encounter emphasizes the relentless passage of time and the changes it brings, underscoring the poem’s contemplation of mortality. - What role do external sources of light—like candles and the moon—play in the poem compared to the mirror’s reflections?
In “Mirror,” the external sources of light such as candles and the moon play a contrasting role to the reflections provided by the mirror. The mirror accuses these sources of being “liars,” which implies that unlike its own truthful reflections, these sources distort reality (Plath, line 12). This distinction highlights the theme of truth versus illusion in the poem. While the mirror prides itself on presenting things “just as they are,” the candles and the moon provide a softer, more flattering light that deceives the woman about her true appearance and possibly her life (Plath, lines 3-4). This dichotomy raises critical questions about how truth and illusion affect our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. It suggests that while comforting, illusions can prevent genuine self-awareness and acceptance of reality.
Literary Works Similar to “Mirror” by Sylvia Plath
- “Lady Lazarus” by Sylvia Plath
Similarity: Like “Mirror,” this poem also explores themes of identity and self-perception, with the speaker using powerful imagery to confront and reveal deep personal truths. - “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot
Similarity: Eliot’s poem mirrors Plath’s work in its introspective tone and the theme of self-analysis, where Prufrock, much like the woman in “Mirror,” examines his life with a critical and often disillusioned eye. - “Anorexic” by Eavan Boland
Similarity: Boland’s poem delves into themes of body image and self-perception, similar to “Mirror,” showcasing a struggle with identity through the physical self. - “A Woman Speaks” by Audre Lorde
Similarity: Lorde’s poem addresses themes of self-identity and the quest for self-definition, resonating with Plath’s depiction of a woman’s reflection on her true self in “Mirror.” - “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy
Similarity: Piercy’s poem critiques societal standards of female beauty, echoing “Mirror’s” exploration of the pressures and challenges faced by women in confronting their own images and societal expectations.
Representative Quotations of “Mirror” by Sylvia Plath
| Quotation | Context | Theoretical Perspective |
| “I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.” | The mirror introduces itself, emphasizing its objective nature and ability to reflect without bias. | Structuralism |
| “Whatever I see I swallow immediately” | This line highlights the mirror’s capacity to absorb and reflect images instantly, symbolizing its role as an impartial observer. | Psychoanalytic Theory |
| “Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.” | The mirror claims its reflections are unaffected by personal feelings, focusing on its truthful nature. | Feminist Theory |
| “I am not cruel, only truthful” | The mirror defends its blunt honesty, suggesting that truth can often be perceived as cruelty. | Deconstruction |
| “The eye of a little god, four-cornered.” | The mirror likens itself to a deity with complete observational power within its bounds, enhancing its authoritative presence. | Cultural Criticism |
| “Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.” | The mirror’s constant observation of the wall suggests a deep, reflective quality, akin to contemplation or meditation. | Existentialism |
| “Now I am a lake.” | The shift from a mirror to a lake introduces a deeper, more expansive medium for reflection, suggesting a more profound level of self-exploration. | Symbolic Interactionism |
| “A woman bends over me, Searching my reaches for what she really is.” | The woman uses the lake (formerly the mirror) to search for her true identity, reflecting the struggle and desire for self-understanding. | Feminist Theory |
| “Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.” | The woman looks away from the truthful reflection to less reliable sources of light, which suggests a reluctance to face the stark truths about herself. | Psychoanalytic Theory |
| “In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.” | The mirror/lake reflects the passage of time and the changes in the woman’s identity from youth to old age, capturing the inevitable transformation and its emotional impact. | Existentialism |
Suggested Readings: “Mirror” by Sylvia Plath
- Freedman, William. “The Monster in Plath’s” Mirror”.” Papers on Language and Literature 29.2 (1993): 152.
- Hammer, Langdon. “Plath’s Lives.” Representations, vol. 75, no. 1, 2001, pp. 61–88. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.1525/rep.2001.75.1.61. Accessed 10 Feb. 2025.
- Axelrod, Steven Gould. “The Mirror and the Shadow: Plath’s Poetics of Self-Doubt.” Contemporary Literature, vol. 26, no. 3, 1985, pp. 286–301. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1208027. Accessed 10 Feb. 2025.
- ALBAN, GILLIAN M. E. “Medusa as Female Eye or Icon in Atwood, Murdoch, Carter, and Plath.” Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal, vol. 46, no. 4, 2013, pp. 163–82. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44030714. Accessed 10 Feb. 2025.