The
poem “Mirror,” by Sylvia Plath is an honest piece of literature. The poem takes
an inanimate object and gives it not only life, but emotions and feelings. The
title of the poem is “Mirror,” as you take a deeper look into the meaning you
can find it indirectly illustrates emotions of a disheartened woman. The most
obvious thematic idea found in this poem is truth. Sylvia Plath enhances the
thematic meaning through the usage of several poetic devices.
The
poem incorporates many thoughts difficult to identify after reading only once. When
I read it a few more times the mirror and the lady took on a deeper meaning.
Sylvia Plath uses poetic devices in order to truly express her thoughts. One
poetic device used is personification. Personification is a poetic device which
gives animals, ideas, or inanimate objects human traits or abilities. The poem
gives this mirror, traits which define what it is to be human. At the same time
unlike humans the mirror does not judge the lady. That is the beauty of
personification; though the mirror is given human traits it is not fully human.
Humans are dishonest and opinionated; the mirror is truthful and only reflects
the truth. In the poem the mirror is referred to in the first person. “I am not
cruel, only truthful.” In this line Sylvia suggest that a mirror unlike other
things in life depict an honest and straightforward image of oneself. It is
interesting because there is so much truth to that line. Although some mirrors
can change an image’s appearance. The mirror which is referred to in the poem
is a normal mirror reflecting only what is put in front of it. Evidently this
mirror does not contradict or alter the image in any way making it “Only
truthful.” As the poem progresses other characteristics are given to the mirror
that allow this imamate object to be compared to other humans.
A simile is a poetic device that makes a comparison between two objects using a
specific word such as "like", "as", or "than". The
first stanza is filled with personification giving the mirror the ability to
interact with the lady. The second stanza incorporates this lady into the poem,
the words slowly produce the message the poem is attempting to provide. As the
message is being developed the theme is ultimately tied together with a simile
in the last line of the poem. The last line of the poem is as followed, “Rises
towards her day after day, like a terrible fish.” This is a comparison of the
lady and a terrible fish, the word ‘like’ makes this comparison a simile. The
line is taken out of context and may seem irrelevant to the lady or her mirror.
This may be apparent, but the reality is quite on the contrary.
The
theme of this poem is truth, and how this lady is scared to except the truth
which she sees in her reflection. Hints of some sort of lost love are evident
in lines like, “Unmisted by love or dislike…” The poem also suggest the lady
has encountered people who have hurt her, one line says “She turns to those
liars, the candles or the moon…” I interpreted this line in that candles and
the moon often give off bad lighting. They can hurt your appearance and make
you look unattractive. The poem is saying that the lady ‘turns to those liars,’
in other words she believes the bad things people say about her. In her mind it
hurts her confidence similar to how bad lighting hurts one’s appearance. With
low confidence ‘day after day’ she looks at her reflection. I feel like she is
scared and does not have the confidence to go out there and try to find love.
This may be due to a past relationship that may have not worked out. So she
turns to this mirror as the only way to see who she truly is. The mirror in her
eyes acts as a significant other in that one can see themselves through somebody
they love, some what similar to seeing themselves in a reflection. The fact
that she only sees herself through this mirror is bad because it does not show
her anything besides what is on the outside. Love is an emotion which allows
people to express their inner beauty; a mirror can only express outer beauty. I
think time goes on and she gives up on love and begins to grow old. Instead of
growing old with someone you love who can comfort you and remind you of your
inner beauty, she grows old with only a reflection showing nothing but physical
features. She gets older and eventually is ugly on the outside, since she
cannot express inner beauty all she has is this reflection of an old face. She
has no other way to see herself because when you are alone you can only use a
mirror and like I said before a mirror only express the outer beauty the thing that
is not important. This lady does not realize that and this unimportant beauty,
or ugliness is all she has left.