English Commentary – Mirror by Sylvia Plath
In Mirror, Sylvia Plath explores the themes of physical appearance and aging. This is done by giving a voice to a mirror. This mirror then goes on to great lengths to assert its objectivity, allowing the reader to possibly question this objectivity as this is a quality that is overemphasized. Also the mirror acts as a metaphor for passing time as it constantly reminds the woman about her age, day after day. From this the themes of fear of death and of preoccupation with appearance are introduced.
The mirror starts by describing itself as having value, as it is “silver” (1) and, later on, “important to [the woman]” (15). These self-claims expose the mirror as having a high ego. However the mirror’s main assertions are its unparalleled qualities for truth; it is “exact” (1) with “no preconceptions” (1). In fact it not only has no time to create distortion as it “swallow[s] immediately” (2) anything it sees, but it is also unaffected by emotions (“unmisted by love or dislike” – 3; “I am not cruel” – 4 implies its lack of motivation). One of its final self-claims is even bigger than the rest as the mirror then sees itself as an “eye of a little god” (5). This does not exactly assert it’s qualities of truth but it does give the mirror a justification for authority, as well as reinforcing its egotistic attitude. From these first five lines of Mirror, Plath has not only taken time to repeat the mirror’s qualities, making the mirror’s voice seem harsh, but she has also reflected these qualities in the structure of these lines. This is achieved by composing them mostly out of simple sentences, creating frequent pauses, which do not overcomplicate the language thus allowing the argument to be properly presented. However the objective qualities of the mirror are hindered by the mirror having certain human qualities such as having a heart (8), it could then be said that Plath has given someone’s voice to the mirror. As Plath writes confessional poetry we could speculate that it is possibly her voice, as an act of self-criticism. Once Plath has set the image of the mirror, she recounts its relatively calm everyday life, with the occasional disturbance: “Faces and darkness separate us over and over” (9), which causes a “flicker” (8) in the mirror’s heart. This flickering may support the idea that the mirror’s voice is also that of Plath’s as this poem was written near to the time of her death, a period of mental instability – thus this flickering heart would represent mood swings and confusion. Thus it may be said that the fact-seeking nature of the mirror is Plath’s mean of looking at herself to seek her identity in a time of personal confusion.
