Mirror by Sylvia Plath

Question 1

Context

Answer 1

• Written autumn 1961 at Court Green Devon, same period as Blackberrying.
• Plath and Hughes had moved to Devon in August.

Question 2

Form and Structure

Answer 2

Form

• A verse fable, in dramatic monologue form.
• The mirror is a cold, factual, unemotional observer of the female figure before it.

Structure
-9 line stanzas- Spenserian stanzas minus the rhyme scheme
Blank verse
-Effect is of a logical, controlled, critical voice delivering its observations with precision and clarity.

Question 3

Language Techniques

Answer 3

Symbolism
-The critic Freedman believes that, “Plath uses mirror as a symbol of female passivity, subjection, and Plath’s own conflicted self-identity caused by social pressures to reconcile the competing obligations of artistic and domestic life”

Imagery
-Recurrent mirror imagery implies Plath’s preoccupation with the notion of a divided self or the projection of two selves, the true self and an imposed version of the self, reflected through the mirror, moon, and finally the view of a patriarchal society which the mirror might also symbolise.