"Mirror" by Sylvia Plath

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the poem "Mirror," by Sylvia Plath, analyzing it in detail. The writer describes the contrast between the two stanzas, a transformation from innocence and truth to maturity and dualism, and how the mirror reflects the woman's entire life from childhood to adulthood, climaxing with an allusion to her old age to come. The writer explains how this exposition of the woman's life shows us the embittered relationship that must exist beneath the surface between the mirror and its monologue's object.

From the Paper:

"While it is easy to see the personal, auto-biographical nature of this poem, it is important to note that this approach, specifically when applied to Plath's writing, may not actually yield the deeply held secrets that we suspect. Ted Hughes, her husband from 1956 until they separated in 1962, wrote about the "Fantasia of Sylvia Plath" in a letter to The Guardian in 1989. Hughes acknowledged the presence of some facts, but noted that Plath "fictionalizes herself in her writing". Other confessional poets, such as Anne Sexton, after famously exclaiming that poetry cured her mental illness, would also reveal that the confessional nature is not necessarily a perfect reflection, akin to the works of Van Gogh."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Freeman, William. "The Monster in Plath's 'Mirror'." Papers on Language and Literature, Vol. 108, No. 5, October, 1993, 152-69.
• Hughes, Ted and Christopher Reid. Letters of Ted Hughes. London: Faber and Faber, 2007. 552-556.
• Plath, Sylvia. "Mirror." The Oxford Book of American Poetry. Ed. Robert Lehman. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. 887.

More papers on "Mirror" by Sylvia Plath:

• Poem Review # 65646 : "The Mirror" by Sylvia Plath"
• Analytical Essay # 8463 : "Sylvia Plath's Poems"
• Analytical Essay # 62767 : "Plath's "Daddy" and "Mirror"

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