Enter. look at mirror and touch your face and pull your skin.
I have been looking at myself in this small silver mirror, so much that I think it is a part of me. I sit in front of it in the powder room every day, gazing into a blank expression. I stare and see this woman, this woman who once held beauty and eyes full of mystery and secrets. But every single day it is fading, the beauty is fading, the eyes, which were once so full of emotion, are fading. I am becoming dull and lifeless, day by day. I sometimes wonder what this small prevailing object thinks of me, it is the one thing in my life that is truthful; unbiased in its reflection of the world and people. I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions. Whatever I see I swallow immediately …show more content…
Her use of diction and various forms of poetic devices such as personification and metaphorical language successfully deceive the reader and display her inner thoughts and opinions. Mirror demonstrates a unique outlook on the attitudes of aging, giving an objective perspective on the temporary nature and superficiality of beauty. Plath explores the woman’s addiction towards her appearance to emphasise man kinds loneliness and insecurity. The poem also expresses the problems associated with aging through terse comparisons between reality and desire. How this purpose was achieved in the poem will now be analysed in terms of the language, structure, speaker and techniques incorporated by …show more content…
In the first line of the poem, Plath describes the mirror as “silver” and “exact” with “no preconceptions”, ultimately presenting the mirrors view to be completely unemotional and detached. Moreover, the structural use of short, sharp sentences whilst describing the mirror emphasises the clinical tone as it is factual and has an impersonal reporting style. Plath further reinforces the clinical tone of the mirror through the lack of conjunctions in the first stanza. In my performance, I portrayed the woman to be very expressive and full of emotions in order to show the stark contrast between the objective mirror which is unmisted with emotions and the subjective woman. However, the language and diction changes in the second stanza, which creates a tonal shift. For example; “She rewards me with tears and agitation of hands” has a mournful tone rather than a clinical tone. There exists conflict within the language in this line, as tears are commonly associated with sadness and loss rather than rewards. The juxtaposition here thus instigates a dark, sardonic tone, which evokes sympathy in the reader for the woman. We understand that the woman is not pleased with her appearance but confused as to why the mirror is satisfied with the reward of
I have been looking at myself in this small silver mirror, so much that I think it is a part of me. I sit in front of it in the powder room every day, gazing into a blank expression. I stare and see this woman, this woman who once held beauty and eyes full of mystery and secrets. But every single day it is fading, the beauty is fading, the eyes, which were once so full of emotion, are fading. I am becoming dull and lifeless, day by day. I sometimes wonder what this small prevailing object thinks of me, it is the one thing in my life that is truthful; unbiased in its reflection of the world and people. I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions. Whatever I see I swallow immediately …show more content…
Her use of diction and various forms of poetic devices such as personification and metaphorical language successfully deceive the reader and display her inner thoughts and opinions. Mirror demonstrates a unique outlook on the attitudes of aging, giving an objective perspective on the temporary nature and superficiality of beauty. Plath explores the woman’s addiction towards her appearance to emphasise man kinds loneliness and insecurity. The poem also expresses the problems associated with aging through terse comparisons between reality and desire. How this purpose was achieved in the poem will now be analysed in terms of the language, structure, speaker and techniques incorporated by …show more content…
In the first line of the poem, Plath describes the mirror as “silver” and “exact” with “no preconceptions”, ultimately presenting the mirrors view to be completely unemotional and detached. Moreover, the structural use of short, sharp sentences whilst describing the mirror emphasises the clinical tone as it is factual and has an impersonal reporting style. Plath further reinforces the clinical tone of the mirror through the lack of conjunctions in the first stanza. In my performance, I portrayed the woman to be very expressive and full of emotions in order to show the stark contrast between the objective mirror which is unmisted with emotions and the subjective woman. However, the language and diction changes in the second stanza, which creates a tonal shift. For example; “She rewards me with tears and agitation of hands” has a mournful tone rather than a clinical tone. There exists conflict within the language in this line, as tears are commonly associated with sadness and loss rather than rewards. The juxtaposition here thus instigates a dark, sardonic tone, which evokes sympathy in the reader for the woman. We understand that the woman is not pleased with her appearance but confused as to why the mirror is satisfied with the reward of