Summary Mirror IEB Poetry: the only notes you need to succeed
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Course
English Home Language
Institution
12th Grade
An in-depth line-by-line (and further!!) analysis of Mirror by Sylvia Plath. These notes helped me get 96% for English in my matric finals and I have no doubt that they'll help you too.
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Plath: regularly expressed her fear of ageing in her journals- universal theme.
1.I am silver and exact. I have no •“I” – personification - mirror is given the human characteristic
preconceptions. of the ability to talk [I am-religious:Yahweh]
-Repetition of “i” – shows pride of mirror. Almost arrogant.
•“Exact” – metaphor -like a machine. makes no errors (perfection)
-no preconceptions: mirror reflects what is shown
Perhaps mirror suggesting blvs itself to be valuable+important
since silver considered precious metal
Exact: suggests reflects accurately+precisely , but cld imply mirror
exacting- demanding
2.Whatever I see I swallow immediately •“See” & “swallow” – personification - the reflection becomes
part of the mirror. The mirror is constantly aware of
3.Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike. people/objects to reflect “immediately”.
- committed to show only the truth.
– unmindful/unaffected by human emotions
4.I am not cruel, only truthful‚ -justifies itself. Doesn’t soften truth even if painful
•“Only truthful” – personification - telling the truth
5.The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
Metaphor: an all-seeing minor deity (god)
having the ability to control objects/ people standing in front of it.
Almost makes it impossible to pass by without stopping.
•Lines 1-5: the mirror is given a cold, unfeeling personality
6.Most of the time I meditate on the - opposite wall- this is a permanent fixture; what the mirror
opposite wall. sees most of the time.
7.It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at – mirror has served its function for a long time
it so long
8.I think it is part of my heart. But it - mirror seems to now fall in love.
flickers. -Changes from an exact truthful machine to a feeling thing with
emotions
9.Faces and darkness separate us over •“But” – contradiction
and over. - “Faces and darkness” - At times there are people and nighttime
that cause mirror to no longer see the wall.
10.Now I am a lake. A woman bends over – metaphor - mirror reflects but now as a lake.
me, •“A woman” - specific face, not just plenty of faces.
-> woman is examining not only her outer features but also her
11.Searching my reaches for what she inner turmoil when she sees her ageing self in the reflection.
really is.
12.Then she turns to those liars, the -“Those liars” - contradictory to mirror’s exactness and truthfulness
, Zoe Pearson
candles or the moon. -> - not well lit, the reflection won’t be so true.
It gives a mysterious atmosphere. It lacks clarity and hides the truth
13.I see her back, and reflect it faithfully. -“reflect it faithfully.” - mirror not change
its role, reflects exactly what it sees
14.She rewards me with tears and an •“Rewards” – irony - the mirror feels that even if the woman’s
agitation of hands. angry it shows it has fulfilled its role.
” - the woman is upset about the reflection she sees.
15.I am important to her. She comes and -woman cannot stay away she has to see the ageing process in a
goes. hope that it has changed.
16.Each morning it is her face that -Metaphor:compares disappearance of woman’s youth to someone
replaces the darkness. drowning;
-over years woman has watched her reflection in lake change .
17.In me she has drowned a young girl, [no longer youthful – young girl is now dead +drowned in the lake]
and in me an old woman
•As the young girl drowns, an old woman rises closer to her every
day, her fate of getting older draws closer every day.
18.Rises toward her day after day, like a •Simile - “Like a terrible fish”- the woman is trapped in the lake of
terrible fish. time+ there is no beauty left, just ugly, monstrous looking fish.
,Zoe Pearson
Poem
Summary
1. Poem describes a woman seeing herself growing older and older in a mirror each day- or ,
more accurately, it describes a personified mirror looking on as the woman’s youth fades
2. The woman clearly resents getting older+losing her beauty and youth- 2 nb social currencies
for women living in a male-dominated society, esp in Plath’s time
3. The poem therefore illustrustes the anguish of aging, as the woman confronts her mortality
in the mirror each morning[ Women Powerful insightful meditation on ageing+death. ]
4. Poem written from perspective of personified mirror, which described nature of its
existence+that woner, woman who grows older older what its considered to be dutiful,
impassive+objective gaze.
5. In 2 brief stanzas- poem manages to examine essence of reality, the nature of
representation+appearances+search for identity+deeper sense of self
Structure
- Modernist style, free verse- no set rhyme scheme, irregular meter
- Lengths of lines varying+no repeating pattern of streed+unstressed syllables
- Use of repetitive phrases+enjambemnet gives poem sense of rhythm+cohesion
- Short sentences:Give a clipped effect: matter-of-fact tone, simple sent.->read as statements
The sentence structure assists in creating a picture of the mirrors personality.
Themes:
Truth and appearances, Time and Ageing:
-e poem exemplifies the tensions btw inner and outer selves, as well as indicates the preternaturally
feminine "problem" of aging and losing one's
[ALLUSION - NARCISSUS: greek mythology]
Statements
1. The mirror’s repeated insistence that it has no agenda or ‘preconceptions’ emphasizes the
fact that it is objective, forcing people to face the insistent, painful truth of growing older and
dying
2. Fact woman doesn’t recognse or doesn’t want to recognise her own reflection in the mirror
thus represents her own inability or refusal to accept the truth- to face her own mortality
3. On a slightly diff level, the mirror subtly evokes the unrealistic+unfair expectations forced
upon women by a patriarchal society.
4. Since the mirror allows the woman to carefully scrutinize herself, it perhaps represents the
pressure she feels to look a certain way
, Zoe Pearson
Info from Class
By identifying subject- suggests poem refers to object, mirror, yet first line subverts those
expectations- from perspective of mirror.
Title intriguing as prompts us to consider role mirror plays in our lives- our relationship to mirrors
around us+even what means relect/represent/imitate something
- Powerful, insightful meditation on ageing+death
- Poem examines the essence of reality, the nature of representation +appearances, +search
for identity+seeper sense of self
Swallow
- Repetition of I +internal rhyme support the sense of swiftness of action+absense of hesitation
- Verb swallow: presents surface of mirror as figurative mouth that consumes/devours
whatever appears bfr it.
- Powerful piece of imagery that gives mirror agency of living creature, challenges its claim to
impartiality+subtly subverts idea that reflecting something is a subtle act
- Mouth: sense of danger+threat, food for mirror?
- Something needs to be consumed, internalied+assimilated bfr reflected back
Mirror is ‘Not cruel’
- Irony is the same argument often presented by humans when hurt each toher’s feelings. Poet
making reference to difficult+delicate skill required to balanced truth+kindness.
- Mirror appears incapable of doing this
Little god
- Superiority, omnipresent,
- Calls into question the disinterested, neutral attitude of mirror in opening lines
- Supports idea mirror has more impact+influence on world than claimed
- Eye: Inverted previous role of reflecting world passively-> look out actively
Wall
- Typical symbols of restriction+obstacle, representing boundaries/barriers we erect btw
ourselves+world around us.
- Speckles: Suggest mirror studied wall close enough to perceive flecks+spots
- Same way person might regard freckles/blemishes of loved one
Mirror not impassively reflecting wall- examined, assessed, dvlp feelings
Terrible fish
- Mirror compares woman’s reaction to seeing her aged reflection as catching sight of
monstrous fish swimming up from depths of lake
- Striking image: communicates alien, unfamiliar+repulsive finds her appearance
- How aghast is at sight of herself+intensity of inability to reconcile self to ageing
Lake:
-powerful image, place of contemplation, sense of internal reflection- associated with cuncouncois
mind, lake has depth- sees behind surface, mirror gained depth+dimension, Narcissus
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