Analysis Of The Mirror By Sylvia Plath

Mirroring is a literary device used by Edgar Allan Poe to provide symmetry to his story “Ligeia” (Stroe). Ligeia is the story of a man whose entrance into the fantasy world has all of the suddenly been blocked. The characters that mirror each other are Ligeia and Rowena (Stroe). Additionally, Ligeia is a personified dark fantasy and Rowena is a representation of a bland, boring reality in which the narrator is unhappy living in. As Ligeia and Rowena interact with the unidentified narrator, they push him to the far boundaries of fantasy and reality. The narrator admits to the loss of his own sanity because of the interactions with both Lady Ligeia and Lady Rowena.

The poem the Mirror is about beauty standards. She talks about how, as a mirror, she shows exactly what she sees and she tells no lies. The narrator states, “I am not cruel, only truthful.” When the narrator becomes a lake, she can also only show truth and reflection of one’s self. The Mirror represents the truth of who we actually are, even if society has portrayed us as or forced us to be someone else.

The fourth stanza is the depiction of an open book. This symbolizes revelation of that which is hidden. However, like any book the judgment is based on the perception of the reader. For this reason, this becomes a moment of courage, where the revelation can be accepted by the outside world or rejected if the views are not in concordance.

So we ask ourselves, how does poetry gain its power? To answer this question, we examine the work of poets Harwood and Plath. ‘The Glass Jar’, composed by Gwen Harwood portrays its message through the emotions of a young child, while the poem ‘Ariel’, written by Sylvia Plath, makes effective use of emotions to convey artistic creativity and inspiration.

In 1963 on a cold winter day of February 11th, Sylvia Plath ended her life. She had plugged up her kitchen, sealing up the cracks in doors and windows before she was found with her head inside of her gas oven inhaling the dangerous fumes. She was only thirty years old, a young woman with two small children and an estranged ex-husband. A tragic detail of her life is that this is the second time she had tried to commit suicide. Plagued with mental illness her whole life, which is evident within her poetry. She would write gripping, honest portrayals of mental illnesses. Especially within Ariel, the last poetry book she wrote, right before she took her life. Although it’s hard to find a proper diagnosis for Sylvia Plath, it is almost definite that she at least had clinical depression with her numerous suicide attempts and stays in mental hospitals undergoing electroshock therapy. Sylvia Plath is now famously known for her writing and the more tragic parts of her life. Such as the separation from her husband, Ted Hughes, mental illness, etc… Plath may not have intended for her life and art to become inspiration to many people but that has become the end result. Sylvia Plath writing shows symptoms of her suicidal thoughts. To study specific moments in Sylvia Plath’s life, it can be connected to certain writing’s of her’s, such as “Daddy”, The Bell Jar, and “Lady Lazarus”.

Doesn’t everyone wish they could grow up faster when they are younger, but when they actually start to grow up, they just want it to slow down? Aging is a unique experience to everyone and each person deals with it differently. This theme of aging and how people see themselves can be seen both similarly and differently in “Mirror” by Sylvia Plath and “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost. These similarities and differences can be seen through each author’s tone, each poem’s structure, and each poem’s overall message.

A third example is the mirrors. The mirror represents seeing oneself clearly and their self reflection. One example of this is Montag reflects his life when he meets Clarisse which she made a big impact on his life. She changed way he see the world and, she asked him one question. “Are you happy.”

The Reflection of Victor Frankenstein and his creation Victor Frankenstein had the ability to love, to be loved, and to be accepted. He was well educated, and found the power to give life. The life he would create would not have what Victor have. He would not be a human or have the ability to love or be loved. He would be a monster.

Poetry is tricky because very few words are used in them. Authors use hidden meaning in their words to get the reader’s attention. The messages in the words are to be found by symbols which naturally do not mean what we think they mean but to an author it means something different. Understanding what poems are and how they are worded is the key to finding the hidden message.

mirror. Who are almost getting in the way so to speak of its life and

A mirror. Dust particles and grease covered the surface; my reflection could not be seen. I wanted to see how the mirror perceived me. Is it how I see myself? Or is it how others discern me? Rapidly, Katherine swept the filth of the mirror and I just looked straight ahead, mesmerised. Part of me concealed in the dark and the other half illuminated. In the reflecting surface, I saw a dishevelled and feeble figure. She stood there in a rusty brown skirt covered in bobbles and pilling and an oversized lilac cardigan. Her wrinkly hands which smelt of guilt had shook inconsistently causing me to shake

You can get quite lost when you look in the mirror, all you see is yourself, and you don't pay attention to what’s going on; this can lead to your own destruction. Vanity is a dangerous thing. When Guy De Maupassant wrote “The Necklace” and when Mary Howitt wrote “The Spider and the Fly”, they had this theme in mind. You can see their characters go throughout their stories and you can see how their vanity leads to harm.

The song “Mirrors” utilizes strategies that portray to true love, romance, and the reflection of oneself to express his deepest feeling toward his partner even though he is no longer around her physically. Throughout every chorus, the speaker repeats, over and over, how his partner is the other half of him to make him a full person. For example, in the first line of the chorus the lovable speaker states that, “I’m looking right at the other half of me.” Unlike most situations, this situation calls for both himself and his partner to look into the mirror. By doing so the speaker will see his partner’s reflection and his partner will see the speaker’s reflection.

The mirror is mentioned in Love After Love: “you will greet yourself arriving/ at your own door, in your own mirror”, suggesting that “the stranger who has loved you” is yourself at some other points in the journey of life. Last but not least, I drew a “love letters from the bookshelf” which later stretches into a “feast”. Both objects are taken from Love After Love. The ending piece of the poem, “Sit. Feast on your life.”, is a strong voice appealing that we should cherish who we are and accept our identity. I did not create any characters sitting by the long table in the drawing, echoing the last line in Invictus: “I am the master of my fate, / I am the captain of my soul.” In the feast for life, no one else is presented except for “me”. Once people realize the significance of self-awareness, they will be able to see through themselves and thus be better connected with the rest of the

“Mirrors, which scoop up the beauty that has streamed from their face and gather it back, into themselves, entire.”