Explication of “Mirror” by Sylvia Plath

The poem’s purpose is to reflect on how people’s, particularly women’s perception of themselves changes with age. The tone shifts from light to melancholy between the first and second stanza.

The first depiction of reflection is through a mirror. With the mirror as the speaker, it portrays itself in a god-like manner describing itself as “silver”, with “no preconceptions”, and as the “eye of a little god”. This description suggests that the mirror, like a god, judges truthfully but is “not cruel”. With the light tone, the author depicts this as a positive aspect. Therefore, the mirror reflects an image that the author is content with. The “pink[…speckled]” wall could represent a child’s room, which is a “part of [its] heart” suggesting that the author will always be young at heart. The perception of one’s self through a mirror is clear, however in a lake it is permeable and ever changing.

Using a lake as a mirror symbolizes a change in the author’s or women’s perception of themselves which is reinforced by the shift in tone. Although it is unclear of who views themselves in the mirror, Plath specifies that a “woman bends over” the lake. This suggests that with age, women view themselves differently. This stanza of the poem is much darker than the first one. The lake criticized the light which the woman turns to for truth calling the candles and the moon liars. These two objects provide light in otherwise dark situations, suggesting that the lake upholds a godly manner like the mirror. To the lake, the woman provides it light because she “replaces the darkness”. This could mean that the lake is almost territorial of her. In a simile, the woman is compared to a “terrible fish” which suggests that she views her aging negatively- as if coming nearer to death every day. By personifying both the lake and the mirror, Plath makes the reflectors seem like the physical representation of the conscious of a woman.