Sylvia Plath uses personification to describe the condition of the mirror. Although the mirror is the speaker in the poem, it retains much of the qualities that the real-life mirrors possess. The lines 3-4 “Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike. I am not cruel, only truthful-“ is where the mirror speaks of itself. In this poem, the mirror may have its humanlike qualities to “swallow immediately” (Line 2) or “meditate on the opposite wall” (Line 6), the common fact being that both are physical attributes. The mirror, however, can’t quite have its own feelings of thoughts, which is psychological. The mirror accepts that it is “truthful”, and being truthful is certainly a psychological feeling, but it can also be taken for inanimate objects as well. The perfect example is a mirror. Literally speaking, a mirror is as truthful as something can get, because mirrors can only reflect what is standing in front. The mirror in the poem can also only reflect back what it sees, which makes it very similar to the mirror that we know of.
The second stanza begins with describing a slight change in the mirror, and Sylvia Plath uses metaphors to describe this changed mirror. One of them is in the first line of the second stanza; “Now I am a lake.” Both mirror and lake reflects back the image shown, but quite differently. First of all, lake is something big. A mirror calling itself a lake indicates how much more and deep the mirror now understands about the world of Sylvia Plath. The lake also has waves and currents, which distort the reflection. This transformation indicates how the mirror has now started to have some thought of its own. The mirror is not anymore the innocent mirror back then when it was only truthful. Sylvia Plath searches for herself in this new mirror but she cannot anymore, because the mirror has changed and the image on the mirror has changed. Hence she goes to look for it from the liars. Another attractive metaphor used here was how Plath said that the liars were the candles or the moon (Line 12). Candles always flicker and never stay the same, and often turn off. The moon also always changes its shape, filling for fifteen days and shrinking for the next fifteen days. The common impression is that they both never stay constant. Unlike the mirror that always shows the truth, the liars say something different every time.
Sylvia Plath uses personification again in lines 13-16 to explain the intricate relationship the mirror has with Plath herself. The passage “I see her back, and reflect it faithfully. 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.” is very significant because it clearly explains how the mirror and Sylvia Plath feel about each other. At first when the mirror mentions that it is now a lake, and will not be so truthful anymore, Plath eventually abandons the mirror to look for herself from somewhere else. Then the mirror regrets its transformation because it realizes that its job is only to tell the truth and nothing more. So when Plath is once again disappointed from the liars and comes back to the mirror, this time, the mirror reflects faithfully. Then the following lines suggest how Plath appreciates the mirror for only telling the truth.
Sylvia Plath also uses simile to show how the mirror interprets Plath’s physical changes. “In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.” The image of young Sylvia Plath is now gone in the mirror, and the old woman is rising day-by-day, implying that the person being reflected – Plath – is getting older day-by-day. The terrible fish that rises probably mean the mother salmon that goes upstream in order to lay eggs, and ultimately die. This simile should symbolize death and thus illustrate how death is creeping upon Plath everyday.
By writing this poem, Sylvia Plath expresses her cynical disgust towards the people who act pleasant on the outside, although they are feeling the opposite in the inside. In a good way, it can be understood that the people are more emotional and know when to not hurt other people’s feelings, but Plath believes that one should never hide what they are feeling. The mirror in the poem is very important to Plath because the mirror has one quality that many people seem to lack, to be truthful. Unlike how people can be where they always sugarcoats things and flatters others to make themselves seem more pleasant, the mirror can only reflect the real truth, and that is what Plath really appreciates. What Plath tried to do by writing this poem was to ridicule the people who feel too ashamed to express what they really feel inside, and show that she will continue to be the mirror, being “not cruel, only truthful”.
