The mirror becomes a lake in the poem “Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me, searching my reaches for what she really is.” The lake is the mirror showing the Sylvia Plath the answer of who she really is in life. She then stops looking at the lake and leaves “Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.” This is interesting because the Sylvia looks to other things to see who she really is even though she just saw who she is. The moon is similar to the mirror because the both reflect objects and they are both silver. The moon however does not show the whole truth like the mirror does. The woman goes to these things to “Lose herself” which is only momentarily works and is lost when she sees the lake again. The candles and the moon let her feel as if she were young again. The lake tries to give the woman the answer she seeks even when she walks away “I see her back, and reflect it faithfully. She rewards me with tears and agitation of hands.” The lake knows that it has done the right thing in showing the Sylvia Plath who she is. Sylvia Plath cannot bear the truth and begins to cry; she constantly wants something else to make her feel good about herself, she longs to be young. “I am important to her. She comes and goes. Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness. She goes back to the lake for answers every morning and the lake is pleased to see her. The poem ends by the lake saying “In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.” This shows Sylvia Plath’s dislike of how old she looks. Sylvia Plath has been looking in this mirror every day for a long period of time, and she is realizing that she is getting older and she cannot do anything about
The mirror becomes a lake in the poem “Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me, searching my reaches for what she really is.” The lake is the mirror showing the Sylvia Plath the answer of who she really is in life. She then stops looking at the lake and leaves “Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.” This is interesting because the Sylvia looks to other things to see who she really is even though she just saw who she is. The moon is similar to the mirror because the both reflect objects and they are both silver. The moon however does not show the whole truth like the mirror does. The woman goes to these things to “Lose herself” which is only momentarily works and is lost when she sees the lake again. The candles and the moon let her feel as if she were young again. The lake tries to give the woman the answer she seeks even when she walks away “I see her back, and reflect it faithfully. She rewards me with tears and agitation of hands.” The lake knows that it has done the right thing in showing the Sylvia Plath who she is. Sylvia Plath cannot bear the truth and begins to cry; she constantly wants something else to make her feel good about herself, she longs to be young. “I am important to her. She comes and goes. Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness. She goes back to the lake for answers every morning and the lake is pleased to see her. The poem ends by the lake saying “In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.” This shows Sylvia Plath’s dislike of how old she looks. Sylvia Plath has been looking in this mirror every day for a long period of time, and she is realizing that she is getting older and she cannot do anything about