Mirror

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1963

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Symbols & Motifs

Water

Water is a motif that underlines much of the poem. Its clearest incarnation is in the second stanza, where the mirror becomes a lake—a still body of water with unknowable fathoms. At this point the mirror has grown from a small ornament to its own multi-layered world, paralleling the growing significance in the woman’s life. As the fish begins to emerge, the lake holds all the depths of the internal self, unlike the flat simplicity of the bedroom mirror. Much like the person looking into it, the lake only reveals a very small part of itself; to get close enough to know it intimately would be to drown in it.

Earlier in the poem, hints of water as a central figure are hinted at in some of the language: “Whatever I see I swallow immediately” (Line 2) and “unmisted by love or dislike” (Line 3). The word choices “swallow” and “unmisted” bring to mind water in two different forms—the swallowing of water as it passes from one place to another, and the static suspended water of mist. The mist suggests a sense of deception or hidden things, suggesting that the truth the mirror so champions can be blurred by self-perception.

When the woman sits at the lakeside, she “rewards [it] with tears” (Line 14). This is another place where water is present, and in this case it is given in exchange—or, perhaps, in tribute. This gives the water a sacred significance, which harkens back to the mention of the mirror as “a little god” (Line 5). The woman feeds the lake by literally offering pieces of herself, which are then absorbed to become pieces of the lake, in exchange for the painful knowledge she seeks. The water that passes from her into the lake binds them together as one being.

Light and Darkness

A defining feature of a mirror is its ability to reflect light, and both the contrast and movement of light and darkness play a substantial role in the poem. In the first stanza, the speaker describes itself as “silver and exact” (Line 1), an image that immediately brings to mind a bright, metallic surface. Toward the end of this first stanza, the mirror describes the wall they love as “flicker[ing]” (Line 8)—this suggests a mental or emotional interruption as well as a visual one, as seen in the common phrase “a flicker of uncertainty.” It also suggests a flickering candle, a symbol incorporated later in the poem. The two beings are separated by “Faces and darkness” (Line 9), things that block the light between the mirror and the wall. Since a mirror’s natural inclination is to embrace and reflect light, darkness is its antithesis.

In the second stanza, the mirror acknowledges two sources of light: candles and the moon. There is a discordance between them, which emerges when the mirror refers to them as “liars” (Line 12). A notable distinction is that each is a source of light (while the moon is in actuality reflecting the light of another, it becomes its own self-contained light source at night), while the mirror has no internal light of its own. The mirror treats this ability to create light not as a strength but as an impurity. Without its own light source, the mirror is able to reflect back the truth as an unfiltered whole.

Toward the end of the poem, the speaker addresses the girl: “Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness” (Line 16). This is in contrast to the earlier line that equates faces and darkness as one obstacle. This suggests that the mirror has begun to rely on the girl’s own light, creating a symbiotic connection between the two characterized by the movement of darkness and light.

The Fish

Although the fish does not arrive in the poem until its very last line, it serves as the poem’s climax and its most memorable moment. Here it’s presented in direct juxtaposition to the girl whom the woman has metaphorically “drowned” (Line 17). The contrasted values here are of youth and old age; the woman has left her youth and beauty behind, and each day she comes to sit at the lake she sees herself becoming older.

However, other values are represented here as well. When the lake is viewed as a larger metaphor for the depths of the self, the “terrible fish” (Line 18) becomes a metaphor for the parts of oneself one wishes to keep hidden. Juxtaposed against the image of the young girl, it can be seen as a loss of innocence and an erosion of the façade of societal respectability. Through the lens of Plath’s lifelong struggles, it’s easy to see the fish as the inner self rising to the surface. This might stand for darkness, madness, anger, or fear threatening to break through a little more each day because a sense of safety and security—symbolized by the drowned girl—has been compromised.

The poem closes on an ominous inevitability not just of old age, but of the futility of attempting to bury one’s truest self. This teaches readers that, like the fish, these aspects of being will push their way to the surface no matter how hard one tries to keep them hidden.