Analysis Of Mirror By Sylvia Plath

Mirror Analysis Sylvia Plath was never one to shy away from dark subjects in her writing. As part of the Confessional Poetry Movement – also known as, “Poetry of the Personal” – most of her poems held subject matter that was not openly discussed in literature at the time. Plath, and other poets of the movement wrote about personal experiences, feelings about death, trauma, and depression. Sylvia Plath’s poem “Mirror”, is no different. The themes in this poem don’t really attempt to hide themselves. After reading, it is fairly obvious that it is written about a woman’s struggle with her appearance as she ages, and a search for self-worth, and meaning in life. These are conflicts almost everyone faces at some point in their life, including Plath. Actually, at the time this poem was written (1961), she had been married, and recently had her first child. I assume that Plath was having some of these scared feelings of being trapped, she had left her youth behind, and had nowhere to go. She once said, “I am afraid of getting older. I am afraid of getting married. Spare me from cooking three meals a day, spare me from the relentless cage of routine and rote. I want to be free.” These fears of aging are shown in “Mirror”. The first stanza beings with the line, “I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.” It is narrated in first person,

This ability to change shape at its own will is almost God-like, which would relate back to the line in the first stanza when the mirror calls itself “The eye of a little god.” The mirror then describes a woman looking into the lake, searching for her place in life. The setting of the lake seems to be referencing Narcissus. She is trying to show how people become obsessed with their own appearance, constantly needing to be looking at themselves. Similar to how Narcissus became obsessed with his own reflection in a lake, and eventually drowned because of