"Mirror" By Sylvia Plath ,Short summary and analysis.

 Mirror

By Sylvia Plath 

I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.

Whatever I see I swallow immediately

Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.

I am not cruel, only truthful‚

The eye of a little god, four-cornered.

Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.

It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long

I think it is part of my heart. But it flickers.

Faces and darkness separate us over and over.

Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,

Searching my reaches for what she really is.

Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.

I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.

She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.

I am important to her. She comes and goes.

Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.

In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman

Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.

Short summary and analysis

* This poem describes a mirror and its owner who grows older as the mirror observes. 

* The mirror forms no judgments and merely swallows what it sees, thus reflecting the image back without any alteration. 

* It is only honest and assumes itself a four-cornered eye of a God that sees everything exactly as it is. 

* The mirror looks across the empty room and the pink speckled wall for so long that it becomes the part of the mirror’s heart. 

* The mirror imagines itself as a lake where a woman tries to discern itself by gazing at her reflection.

* Nevertheless, she cannot stop herself from visiting the mirror every morning. Over the years, the woman sees in her reflection growing older by the day. The woman struggles with the loss of her beauty.

* In this short poem, the narrator is a wall mirror that is personified and enriched with human aspects.

 * The mirror imagines working precisely and reflecting everything that appears in front of it.

 * It is silver in colour and does not have any feelings either hatred or love. The mirror clarifies this fact that if a person dislikes his reflection, this does not mean that the mirror is cruel. (Mirror is not cruel)

*It just reflects the image and shows their true appearance. The mirror keeps on looking at the wall in front of it and can find out the minutest flaws in anything.

* When a person stands in front of the mirror the opposite wall does not remain a part of the mirror. 

* The mirror relates itself to a lake, which is not only quiet but has depth also. 

The woman looks at herself in a lake to convince her physical appearance and charm. The mirror says that the moon and the candle are liars who falsely praise the woman’s beauty. 

* They praise her physical appearance because of their dim light overlooks any spots, marks or signs of ageing. 

* The mirror shows her the reality which is bitter for her. It gets tears and hatred in return for its truthfulness. The mirror is very important for a woman whose face is the first thing that comes in front of the Mirror after the dark night.

* The mirror has seen the transformation in the face of a young, pretty girl that does not exist now. 

* The signs of ageing are becoming prominent and her future appearance of an old, ugly woman is getting closer. The mirror compares her face with a fish as both are ugly and both dislike while looking at themselves. 

* The subject of the poem is time and appearance, although the speaker is a mirror. The woman feels sad for the loss of her beauty, deluding herself with the flattering candlelight and moonlight. Even though this is discomforting, she needs the mirror to provide her with an unadulterated reflection of self.

* Some critics have speculated that she might be observing her mind, her soul, and her psyche to become aware of the disparity between her exterior and interior lives.

Conclusion of Mirror

The mirror is a melancholy that exemplifies the tensions between inner and outer selves with respect to a woman’s sadness of losing her beauty.