The Reflection Of Mirrors In Black Swan By Nina Sawyers

In Dr. Hyler’s article, “The Woman in the Mirror: Humanities in Medicine”. He contends the importance of studying the Humanities for physicians to be successful doctors.

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.

     Sure, some of us have this great confidence within ourselves about looking great, but that does not hold true for everyone. I understand the pain or disgust, or even disappointment one feels when they look in the mirror and say, “I wish I could change this or that about myself”. Although this piece is written about the author’s life, it holds meaning and connects with for many people; one only has to dig deep enough to find one. For me, it was to realize what is important in life can change, adapt and that we must explore our inner selves and find our own path in life.

"Life is for each man," states Eugene O'Neill, "a solitary cell whose walls are mirrors." In other words, one can fool himself, but a mirror reflects only the truth. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, mirrors are used as a literary device to convey a message. Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, Hester, and Pearl each judge themselves with mirrors.  Through the use of mirrors, The Scarlet Letter provides an insight into the faults, or lack thereof, of the four main characters.

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.

After reading “what the mirror said”, some readers may say that this poem was not written to embrace the woman’s beauty but to explain that she is confusing and hectic. A reader with this point of view would

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.

Anderson tells a whole story through one object; a mirror. Melinda refuses to look into her own reflection after the incident at the party, she is always hiding or covering her mirrors. Hiding her reflection symbolizes Melinda hiding her problems. Looking into the mirror, she stares right at her flaws, bringing her

Each person reacts differently to a mirror. Some prefer to primp and tidy their face while others take a quick glance and carry on. However, there are others who continuously stare into the eyes of their alternate-self. These people wonder, “What do I see?” They are the kind of people who desperately seek answers for their existence, and will not rest until their questions are resolved. The alternate-self is the true being. Although it remains as a reflection of the physical body it is also who we see on the inside. What one sees in his or her reflection equals the truth of their nature. For some we see an innate good, but for others it is the innate evil and horror of humanity. Victor Frankenstein may claim to be such a

In “Mirrors,” Lucy Grealy describes her experience of having jaw cancer, its treatments, and the resulting deformity of her face. At the early age of 9, Lucy Grealy was diagnosed with jaw cancer. Because of this, she had to have a large amount of her jaw surgically removed. Growing up, she was taunted by other individuals around her for not having a beautiful face. Her facial deformity kept her from having many friends and having a positive body image.

The major symbolism in this story is the mirror itself. “Then she saw against the grey background how her husband every spring was in straits for money to pay the interest for the mortgage to the bank” (Chekhov 1). It represents looking into the future. Nellie’s dreams take her back to her childhood dreams when she desired marriage. The mirror also warns Nellie about the problems that could happen in the

The choreography of Swan lake-The Kirov Ballet basically focuses on is the Revelations and Bacchanale. Revelation is the dance that I like the most, however, Baccanale is my least favorite dance. To me, the dance symbolizes the parson’s socialization in western civilization concerning roles of gender. In the past era, there was a gesture that was separated from full-embodiment and emotion, but with the passage of time, those gestures become more recognizable and meaningful. People move with the rhythm of the music, which is known as Dance. It is also known as art performance that contains organized and selected movements of the human body. There are several kinds of dance such as informal, professional performance, and ritual performance. The dance involves several moves of the body with the music in the specific space to express emotions, feelings of joy or an idea to get delighted by the body movements and also with the purpose to release energy.

In the film, Black Swan, the plot centers on Nina Sayers, a ballerina whose only goal is to play the role of the Black and White Swan in her company’s production of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake ballet. While she easily embodies into the innocence and grace of the White Swan, her shy and fragile personality does not fit the seductiveness and mysteriousness of the Black Swan. As a result, she struggles to become the opposite of who she is, worsening her issues with depression and anorexia.

The main character in the film Black Swan, twenty-eight year old female Nina Sayers, displays signs of numerous disorders through her abnormal behavior. Nina’s life is consumed by her occupation: professional ballerina/dancer. Nina resides with her mother and rarely socializes with others. She has difficulty concentrating, is restless, irritable, suffers from muscle tension, and sleep disturbances from nightmares. Nina also feels very uncomfortable in social and intimate situations. She appears to be unable to successfully interact with those around her. The interaction that Nina has with her fellow dancers appears to be strained and superficial. Nina exhibits behavior that indicates she views all other dancers as competition instead of

Black Swan is a psycho thriller film that narrates the life of a ballerina called Nina Sayers (played by Natalie Portman). She is a young, ambitious dancer working for a prestigious NYC ballet company. According to the movie, she was around twenty-some year old when the story begins. Even though the main point of the movie is how bad Nina wanted the lead role for a theater production called Swan Lake, the dark drama around the movie is built by the psychological illness of its protagonist. Nina’s disordered relationship with her roommate/mother Erica, played by Barbara Hershey, sets the stage for Nina’s psychological breakdown. In the movie, the role that Nina always wanted requires her to play both the black and white swans. Her innocent, almost child-like personality makes her a perfect hite swan; however, she was having trouble getting into the character of the white swan’s dark and seductive counterpart. This film brilliantly captures the brutal physical and emotional demands that ballerinas face in their short-lived career span.