Sylvia Plath utilizes personification and simile to illustrate women’s struggles with accepting the ‘flaws’ that come with aging. Through the usage of personification, Sylvia Plath describes the harsh truthfulness of a mirror. The mirror says, I have no preconceptions. What ever you see I swallow immediately Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike. I am not cruel, only truthful (Sylvia Plath 1-2).
The mirror doesn’t alter the appearance in its reflection; it has no bias. Sylvia Plath portays the pure honesty of a mirror. By saying, “I have no preconceptions,” she is illustrating the impartial view of a mirror. A mirror has no mind to have prejudices, therefore it is an example of personification. Since a mirror has no prejudice, it is …show more content…
It shows the speed in which the mirror reflects the truth to the woman, with no hesitation, making it harder for her to contradict reality. “Unmisted by love or dislike” describes the mirror’s unbiased reflections. The mirror saying “I am not cruel” proves that it has no intention for telling lies; its reason for truthfulness is purely just to depict the truth. The woman is in denial, she doesn’t want to accept reality. In the second stanza, the mirror becomes a lake. Plath demonstrates the woman’s struggle with self-acceptance by comparing it to a dead fish floating up to the surface of the water. “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” (Plath 16 – 18). The woman starts looking at the mirror more and more frequently because she is trying to look for something, anything, to prove reality wrong. The mirror, however, is still displaying the harsh truth: she is no longer a young but is now aging. The woman’s age and wrinkles start to become more and more distinct as time passes, it rises to the surface much like
The mirror doesn’t alter the appearance in its reflection; it has no bias. Sylvia Plath portays the pure honesty of a mirror. By saying, “I have no preconceptions,” she is illustrating the impartial view of a mirror. A mirror has no mind to have prejudices, therefore it is an example of personification. Since a mirror has no prejudice, it is …show more content…
It shows the speed in which the mirror reflects the truth to the woman, with no hesitation, making it harder for her to contradict reality. “Unmisted by love or dislike” describes the mirror’s unbiased reflections. The mirror saying “I am not cruel” proves that it has no intention for telling lies; its reason for truthfulness is purely just to depict the truth. The woman is in denial, she doesn’t want to accept reality. In the second stanza, the mirror becomes a lake. Plath demonstrates the woman’s struggle with self-acceptance by comparing it to a dead fish floating up to the surface of the water. “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” (Plath 16 – 18). The woman starts looking at the mirror more and more frequently because she is trying to look for something, anything, to prove reality wrong. The mirror, however, is still displaying the harsh truth: she is no longer a young but is now aging. The woman’s age and wrinkles start to become more and more distinct as time passes, it rises to the surface much like