Review Of Mirror (Part 2)

Review of Mirror

The poem ‘Mirror’ written by Sylvia Plath belongs to the Modern Poetry of English Literature. The Protagonist in the poem is a mirror. The mirror takes different forms.  At one time, it is a looking glass hanging on a wall. At another time, it is lake. And then it changes to candles and moon. There is a common characteristic of all these. It is, they reflect the figure standing against them. There is also a woman standing the mirror trying to find her identity.

So the over roll idea is, the poem Mirror is about one’s identity and one’s refusal to accept it.

The themes discussed through the poem are,

·         The conflict between the reality and the illusions in the human world.

·         The feminist approach to the beauty as a significant thing.

·         The human tendency to escape of the reality and finding consolations in the illusions.

·         Inevitability of change and ageing with the passage of time.

·         The fear of ageing in woman.

·         Inevitability of   reality.

Techniques used in the poem are,

·         First person point of view

·         Personified form of the Mirror

·         Usage of symbolism

Mirror

Truthfulness

Reality

·         Usage of unexpected violent images

                           Mirror as a predator

                           Drowning image

                           Terrible fish

·         Reference to the time factor

·         Paradox- “love or dislike”

·         Allusion- Mythological allusion

·         Metaphor- “I am silver and exact”

                      “The eye of a little god”

·         Simile- “Like a terrible fish”

·         Technique of stream of consciousness- Plath’s consciousness is express through the poem.