“Mirror”: Reflections of Truth
In Sylvia Plath’s poem “Mirror”, the reader takes a look into the messages presented and compares them with the reflections that are cast in a mirror and images in a lake. When reading this poem, we discover that the speaker is the actual reflection that gives the interpretation of its views. The first interpretation is shown as a mirror on the wall “I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.” (1), second as the water in the lake because she states “Now I am a lake.” (10), and third through the eyes of an aging woman that is revealed in line 17 “In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman/ Rises toward her day after day…”
In the first stanza the reflection personifies the ability to
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Many descriptions make the reader see through the eyes of the mirror as if it were able to speak back to him or her. The reflection views its surroundings in a manner of a small child who has the ability to take in or ingest whatever information is presented without regard. Visual imagery plays an important role in this poem and the descriptions make the reader immediately understand the truths within a mirror. In the water, the reflection portrays the shadow of a woman as she soul searches for who she really is in life. “Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness” (16), because she can not find exactly what she is looking for in what she sees through the reflection. As a result, she reminisces about the lies that were told to her in the past, thinks about brief sensations with a flicker of doubt, and gazes through the shadows of the moon while she wanders about passing time aimlessly. She’s been faithful in her visits to the lake , because the candlelight and the moon shades and hides the appearance of her age and blemishes; the reflection has seen the young girl go away and now it sees an old woman.
So in reality, does the truth lie in the reflections that are cast through your own interpretation of what you see or from a mirror image? With careful consideration, a reflection can be manifested through one’s own image, and even though an image gives back the truth, the reflecting surface can be deceiving to one’s eye.
The mirror on the bedroom wall examines the public perception of her private life. Looking only at its reflection, the audience cannot tell the room is in a mess; the rosebush and the dirt trail are not apparent to the audience. In the mirror, only the back of woman’s head is evident. Her face and her emotions are hidden from the mirror. It appears as if she is doing an ordinary task; she could very well be sitting on the bed, reading a book. She turns her back to the mirror and denies it a true reflection.
A reflection is a recreation and counterpart of an image; something that is identical in an opposite way. As the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, stares into the walls of her isolated room, she begins to find a woman hidden among the patterns. She becomes invested in what these patterns mean and slowly starts to mimic the movements of the woman in the yellow wallpaper that surrounds her. The narrator’s so-called “nervousness” advances into insanity throughout the story as she becomes lost in this imaginary reflection she sees in her room. Gilman uses a progression of personification while describing the yellow wallpaper to show that the narrator is seeing a reflection of her own mental state, and attempting to
The imagery in the poem, specifically natural imagery, helps use the reader’s senses to develop a vivid depiction of the speaker’s connection to nature and dissatisfaction with the surrounding reality. The speaker’s continued use of the “moon” reflects her attribution of feminine identity and idolistic character to the moon. As opposed to referencing herself and her personal insomnia, she uses the imagery of the moon “beyond sleep” to convey her internal struggles with insomnia and her reality. Throughout the poem, the speaker also refers to shining, reflective surfaces, such as “a body of water or a mirror”, to describe the inverted reality in which the speaker experiences reciprocated love. Reflective surfaces often invert the image that is projected into them, seemingly distorting the true nature and reality of the projected image. The speaker’s reference to this reflective imagery highlights her desire to escape the burden of a patriarchal society and assume an independent and free feminine identity. Specifically, the use of natural imagery from the references to the “moon” and “a body of water” convey the speaker’s desire to take refuge within the Earth or in the feminine identity of the Earth, Mother Earth. Feminine identities are often related and associated with aspects of nature due to the natural cycle of the menstrual period and the natural process of procreation. The speaker takes advantage of these connotations to suggest Earth and natural imagery as an escape from the man-made terrors of male dominated society. In the second stanza, the speaker uses extensive imagery to develop metaphors conveying the speaker’s experience of jealousy of the moon
Metacognition is a complex notion that encompasses numerous mental processes in all areas of life. It is often simplistically described as “thinking about thinking.” However, there is no commonly recognized definition of metacognition. In his article “The Power of Reflection”, Stephen Fleming, a well-respected cognitive neuroscientist, agrees with the definition of metacognition given by John Flavell in 1970 as “our ability to evaluate our own thinking” (2). Fleming also accepts Flavell’s proposition that metacognition is “key to educational success”; indeed, the development of metacognitive thinking is vital in learning processes (1). Metacognition is a teachable concept, and has been proven to be crucial in education.
The use of symbolism and imagery is beautifully orchestrated in a magnificent dance of emotion that is resonated throughout the poem. The two main ideas that are keen to resurface are that of personal growth and freedom. Furthermore, at first glimpse this can be seen as a simple poem about a women’s struggle with her counterpart. However, this meaning can be interpreted more profoundly than just the causality of a bad relationship.
Emerson starts the poem off with a list of items that where hand made by someone that the speaker has a close relationship with. The speaker explains that they gave away most of the gifts to people who would enjoy them and never know the hours invested into them, except for a mirror surrounded by a hand carved wood frame. Then the speakers starts to describe the mirror and how the reflection allowed the mirror to stay in the speakers position; explaining that the reflective surface makes the mirror a backward window. Finally, the speaker depicts a time when they did notice the mirror, not because of the reflection, but darkening wood that the frame is made of, where Emerson reveals the theme of the poem.
Sylvia Plath is known as a profound writer, depicted by her lasting works of literature and her suicide which put her poems and novel of debilitating depression into a new perspective. In her poem “Lady Lazarus,” written in 1962, her mental illness is portrayed in a means to convey to her readers the everyday struggle of depression, and how it affects her view of her world, herself, and even those who attempt to tackle her battle with her. This poem, among other poetry pieces and her novel The Bell Jar, identify her multiple suicide attempts, and how the art of dying is something she has become a master of. Plath’s “Lady Lazarus,” about her trap of depression and suicide attempts, is effective and thought provoking because of her allusions to WWII Nazi Germany and the feelings of oppression and Nazism that the recurring images evoke.
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”.
Sylvia Plath was an American Poet who was renowned for poetry mostly in the United States. She, however lived a difficult and depressing life which led to a few futile suicide attempts, but ultimately led to a successful suicide attempt leaving her children to live on without a mother. This end result was due to a multitude of issues in her life from Sylvia’s sanity. She wasn’t the most stable child. Her marriage also played a role in her suicide. Her successes weren’t acclaimed until after her death, when a majority of her work was released. There were two major aspects to her life: her poetry and her sanity. These three combined make up a majority of Sylvia’s life.
is. Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon. I see her
Introduction: Conflicting perspectives are different points of view expressed and influenced by ones context and values. “Birthday Letters” by Ted Hughes is an anthology of poems challenging the accusation that he was responsible for his wife, Sylvia Plath’s death. The three poems The Minotaur, Your Paris, and Red are an insight into Hughes justification of the death of Plath using a very subjective and emotive poetic form. The poems possess many deliberate techniques such as extended metaphors, connotations, diction and juxtaposition to encourage the audience to accept his argument that he was not the one to blame for this world renown tragedy. The poem Daddy by Sylvia Plath also displays conflicting perspectives of the
These three lines are perfect examples of the imagery within the poem because they contain an image of a river with its small peeks and waves trembling and glistening in the afternoon sun. All the while it equates the natural beauty of the river to the beauty that the young man sees in the youthful maiden.
By just reading Sylvia Plath’s works of writing, it is apparent that she had an infatuation with portraying negative and brutal thoughts. For example, her poem “Daddy,” she clearly expresses her rage towards her deceased father. The poem is full of contradiction and the interpretation is up the reader. Pieces like this gives insight into Sylvia’s mental sanity, which was questioned at times. In her early
The next stanza moves on to talk about how Plath's apprehension stops her from bonding with he child with these lines: "I'm no more your mother / Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow / Effacement at the wind's hand." Here Plath (the cloud') is resenting giving birth to her image as it reminds her of her own inevitable mortality. The child is the mirror, which reflects the dissipation of the cloud.
What concepts, principles, or ideas that you have learned, do you think you will remember the most after you leave this class?