Mirror by Sylvia Plath Flashcards
Two personifications in Mirror?
“I am silver and exact. I have no perconceptions. Whatever I see I swallow immediately” the mirror gives no judgement but instead shows exactly what it sees.
“Now I am a lake”. They say that water has memories, the mirror referring to itself as a lake, a large body of water that if looked on is usually reflective, it could hold memories that this woman holds of the past. “A woman bends over me,//Searching for reaches for what she really is.” The woman is unable to come to terms with the fact that she is now old, searching for her youth, but the mirror only reflects what is in front of it and what it sees is an old lady.
Two metaphors in Mirror?
“I think it is part of my heart. But it flickers.” The mirror has faced this wall so long it seems to be a part of it as it would only reflect that surface. The fact that the mirror is pink and has been pink so long even into the old age of the woman could this be an attempt by the woman to latch on to something of the past and a semblance of her youth by keeping the wall in the room that colour. Seeing that the colour pink is a vibrant colour associated with youth. The flicking could be a reference to time moving.
“In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman”. The woman, she has been looking at the mirror since she was a young woman now her youth has passed and she is old.
One simile in Mirror?
“Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.” This is making a comparison to the woman’s reflection and her perception of herself as a terrible fish showing how much she disdains her reflection.
Theme of Mirror
Identity/Self-image
Loss of youth
Woman vs aging
