Reflections
The speaker in Sylvia Plath's poem "Mirror," is a mirror that is trying to express what it sees daily, and how sometimes the person that looks to the mirror for support does not like the way that he/she is perceived. The person to whom the mirror is reflecting may be used to false perceptions by other sources, but the "reflection" that the mirror gives is not prejudiced by the world of feelings or restricted by intellectual preconception. The mirror protects the person from any illusions about himself/herself, but this truthful mirroring can devastate the person when he/she honestly confronts the "reflection." Conflict with this "reflection" is a source of spiritual pain but it is necessary for the development of self-knowledge and self-acceptance. In order to appreciate this poem and interpret it accurately, each line must be closely analyzed. "I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions." (1) This line means that the mirror is silver and reflects a person exactly as he/she is. The mirror is not opinionated and is always truthful. Plath goes on to say: "Whatever I see I swallow immediately / Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike." (2-3) This line means as soon as a person looks into a mirror it
I am important to her. She comes and goes. Lines twelve and thirteen say, "Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon. / I see her back, and reflect it faithfully."(12-13) I believe that Plath is trying to get across to us that we may not always like what we see so we turn our backs and ask someone or something else to give us an answer, but it is most of the time a lie. The mirror always reflects what it sees faithfully without fault, we must come to face reality and accept ourselves for who we really are. She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands. In the second stanza, Plath compares a lake to a mirror. "Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me, / Searching my reaches for what she really is." (10-11) The mirror now sees itself as a lake to which a woman is searching for what she really is. I think the reason lake is used is because waters are rarely motionless in regard to disturbances, such as the wind, that are beyond the lakes' control. The woman continues to call upon the lake, because she is always getting a "ripple" in her perception and does not like it. She hopes that it will soon change, but she is going to have to figure out that the problem does not lye within the object, but within her, and she is going to have to fix this problem before she can get a "clear" picture.
Some common words found in the essay are:
Sylvia Plath's, looks mirror, Word Count, , unmisted love dislike, mirror lake woman, person looks mirror, mirror lake, eye little god, love dislike, plath goes, line means, day day, woman life, unmisted love, life fullest, reflection mirror,
Approximate Word count = 1098
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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