Sylvia Plath's

        Plathe’s second stanza is clearly engineered to reveal the darker aspects of reflection. In the second paragraph the perspective changes from a mirror to that of a lake. In doing so does the shift in message for it marks the change in reflection from exact to distorted. She is also able to clearly show this by utilizing a simple reflection of a woman: “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.” (Plathe lines 10-14) This example infers that the woman was firmly searching for a specific reflection and that displays insecurity and longing for something that might have passed due to age. This is especially true when taking into account “the candles or the moon” which are symbols of romance thus leading towards the suspicion that she was with or searching for somebody. The symbols of romance are crucial to the portray of reflection in that they are “liars” in that unlike the lake they can not give the lady the appearance she desires to see. The description can also be seen as critical because it can be inferred that the woman doesn’t accept or enjoy what she sees: “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.” (Plathe lines 14-18) This passage then solidifies Plathe’s critical message of aging as seen through the usage of words like “replaces the darkness”, “drowned a young girl” and “a terrible fish”. Which when combined together creates an extremely negative outlook on aging as something that not only destroys our reflection but also ones sense of identity, purpose, and confidence.

        The critical comparisons found in Sylvia Plath’s  “mirror” portray a distinctive attitude towards aging. Through contrasting the two separate stanzas the messages of desire, reality, individuality, fear, and insecurity are all demonstrated. Once the essence of Plathe’s attitude is unlocked in “mirror” the emotion behind the writing is seen as the motivation for a tone that displays intense longing or weariness towards life. This becomes epitomized throughout Plathe’s presentation as it utilizes age as a catalyst for the deterioration of the human spirit.