The first stanza clearly describes a mirror, and is told as it were, from the mirror’s point of view. The mirror reflects on what it sees, it reflects the truth of what it sees. This is shown in the line ‘I am not cruel, only truthful’. The mirror has been in the same place all its life and it ‘mediates on the opposite wall’. Then it is intercepted by a face, a face searching for something, time and time again. The face is constantly looking, searching for new signs of age approaching.
The mirror makes itself out not to be judgmental. The line ‘I have no preconceptions’ evidently shows this. This first line makes me think that Plath was referring to the mirror as a person she trusts, like a friend or a family member, because they know you from the inside, rather than just the outside, they rarely judge, and are mostly truthful, as well as critical, just like a mirror is. Plath probably felt alone and hunted at the time of writing this poem, and this makes her question those around her, who probably face her with a blank stare, and a mere reflection of herself (i.e. the mirror).
In the second stanza, there is a lucid likeness, yet also an obvious contrast to the first stanza. Unlike the first stanza, in which the mirror was the reflecting object, a lake is now the symbol that is used. Unlike a mirror, a lake is not exact – the ripples created by the elements distort and blur the images that we see. This could suggest that as Plath continues to age (which is the main theme in the poem), that she then continually starts to doubt herself and sees herself for something she’s not. It’s similar to when and anorexic person looks in a mirror – they see someone fat, when in truth they’re sickeningly thin. I think that what Plath is trying to convey is that she is starting to question herself, and that she doubts herself.
‘A woman bends over me. Searching for what she really is.’ This line backs up the aforementioned statement, of Plath questioning herself and doubting herself. I think that she is trying to tell people how uncertain she is about herself, and about how worried she is, but that she can’t actually find the words to say what she wants to. She probably feels alone and desperate for some company.
The following line(s), ‘Then she turns to those liars, the candles or moon. I see her back and reflect it faithfully’, show a romantic allusion, candles frequently being associated with fine dining, first dates and romance in general, as does the moon, people often believe that a ‘moonlight stroll’ is appropriate with a loved one, along a beach somewhere etc. This would suggest to me that Plath sees her lovers, her loved ones as liars and possibly traitors. It seems to me that she considers her loved ones to have lied to her and to have pretended to be someone that they’re not. Also, both objects, whilst giving light, do not give off very much light. This would suggest, again, that these loved ones may have hidden behind a mask of light for sometime, before coming out of the shadows and showing their true selves to Plath.
‘She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands’ is a line that shows the distress that Plath feels, whilst reviewing her past. The ‘agitation of hands’ shows Plath wringing her hands, not quite knowing what to do with them. The lake then seems to almost possess Plath, in a way that she feels the constant need to consult it, like some sort of fortuneteller. She feels she has to watch it every second of the day, as if old age will catch her if she doesn’t. These lines make Plath sound incredibly vain, yet it is probably not so at all.
The last two lines, ‘In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish’, have a profound finishing effect upon the entire poem. The lake is talking, and it is personified to feel that it is taking the responsibility of Plath’s misery. The line ‘In me she has drowned a young girl’ shows that the lake has seen Plath grow from young to ‘old’, and that the lake is troubled by the change it has seen. The ‘old woman’, rising towards that lake, ‘day after day’ again, suggests that that is all that the lake sees, day in, day out. ‘Like a terrible fish’ suggests that the lake, with all its fish in it, has recognized this face as a hideous, grotesque form of a fish, and shows it to possibly have a connection to the water, from all the time Plath spent by the lake.
Plath uses various literary techniques to enhance the poem. Obviously, as one of the main devices used, symbolism plays a big role in the poem. The mirror, the lake, the candles, moon and the fish all take their turns in symbolising different personas, as well as bringing forth allusions that connect the poem.
Plath’s diction and tone in the poem, as well as the rhythm show a slow, progressing tale, without much enthusiasm and vigour. The whole image that the poem gives off, after having read it through is a depressing one, like a mask that hides the poet’s true feelings. I think that Plath is trying to hide behind this, and finds that this is the only way she can express her emotions.
There is no sense of a ‘stream-of-consciousness’ effect. The poem is clearly laid out in two stanzas of nine lines each – this is ironic given that the other Plath poem we looked at ‘Metaphors’ had the line ‘I am a riddle in nine syllables’. Plath obviously relates the number nine to a lot of things in her life. Whether this was her lucky number, or her birth date, or a special number to her, I do not know.
The poem as a whole, I don’t think is particularly interesting. It doesn’t engage the reader, and it has no variation to it, unlike, for instance, the Thought-fox by Hughes, that uses enjambment to capture the reader’s attention. Plath uses no devices that specifically capture the reader’s attention, and this makes the poem as a whole very sombre, and almost boring. Personally, I don’t like Plath’s work anyway, but this poem in particular takes little interest from me, and I find it one of her lesser pieces of work.