MIRROR - SYLVIA PLATH

Syliva Plath was born in Massachusetts in October 1932 to Otto Plath and Aurelia Schober Plath. Ariel, Colossus, and the Bell Jar, a semi-autobiographical book, is one of her most well-known works. Sylvia Plath continued her writing career in addition to her studies at Smith College. Sylvia was diagnosed with depression as a result of her depression and a history of suicide attempts. She committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning in 1963, at the age of 30.

Mirror

I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.

Whatever I see I swallow immediately

Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.

I am not cruel, only truthful‚

The eye of a little god, four-cornered.

Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.

It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long

I think it is part of my heart. But it flickers.

Faces and darkness separate us over and over.

 

Now I am a lake. 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 on 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.

In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman

Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.

 

Sylvia gave the reader the mirror's perspective by making the mirror the speaker. The poet begins the poem by describing the mirror and stating that he has no preconceived notions about the people in front of it.

"Whatever I see, I swallow right away."

A mirror, according to the proverb, will always reflect what it sees in an unbiased and just manner.

 

“The eye of the little god, four cornered.”
The god is always thought to be omnipresent, and it is assumed that the god's eye sees everything and anything on the surface, as well as possibly deep within. The poetess designated the mirror as the god's own eye.

“Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me”

Sylvia, the poetess, could be the subject of this phrase. Her conversation has shifted to the lake's reflection rather than the mirror. As she bends over to examine herself, her reflection can be seen in the lake.

 

“She turns to those liars, moon, and candles.”

Moonlight and candlelight are typically associated with softness or flattery. These sources would make you look 'beautiful' due to the soft and feminine lighting, which is why they are called liars. The mirror, on the other hand, would only show what it sees, the truth, which the person already knows.

“She would reward me tears”

This phrase is sad and heartbreaking because ‘she' realizes she is no longer attractive or young, and she dislikes the way she looks. She sobs as she realizes what has happened.

 

“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.”

Syliva concludes her poem in this paragraph. Her face is what replaces the darkness in the morning. This line can be interpreted in a variety of ways. When she looks in the mirror in the morning, full of misery and unhappiness, she sees the same dark and sorrowful emotions that had dawned.

“In me, she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman, Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.”

This line is self-explanatory. Syliva comes to the conclusion that every day she wakes up to find herself having grown beyond the age of a young girl and transforming into an old, terrible old woman.

CONCLUSION

Sylvia Plath expressed her fears and concerns about growing old and how she felt about it in this poem. The mirror was anthropomorphized, which means it was given human characteristics. The reason Sylvia changed from mirror to lake could be to demonstrate that the mirror is all around us and always accurately reflects who we are. This poem could be the result of her husband's tainted relationship, who had marital affairs with AssiaWevil, and she may have blamed her ageing and not looking good enough for this. This poem was written two years before her death, around the time Ted Hughes, her husband was rumoured to have cheated on her.