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Mirror Summary: A Reflection on Identity and Self

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Summary of Mirror

The article is about Mirror Summary, a beautiful creation of the author. In this poem, the poet Sylvia Plath has personified a mirror. A Mirror as a speaker defines its presence and its owner, who grows older as of the mirror watches. The mirror narrates his tale – it tells us about its appearance, qualities, and importance. This poem is unique and interesting as Sylvia discusses minute details and highlights the various attributes that a mirror possesses.


Detailed Summary of Mirror

The mirror says that it is silver in color and, and is exact and truthful. It doesn't hate anyone and reflects everything which appears in front of it. The mirror is unbiased. It does not have any feelings of love or hatred. It considers itself as a four-cornered eye of a God, which sees everything for what it is. The mirror clarifies this fact that it just reflects the image as it is. The mirror shows our true colors and appearances. It feels that the wall is a portion of itself, but the faces and spells of gloom separate them.

It looks at it intently, and so, it can make out the minute pink spots on it, which means that the mirror is so accurate that it can find out the smallest flaws in anything that appears in front of it. It says that this feeling of the mirror that the opposite wall is a part of itself gets troubled whenever a face or darkness comes in between them. 

The mirror equates itself to a lake and says that like a lake, it also has depth. A woman looks into the mirror to ascertain her appearance and beauty. Sometimes, the woman favours appearance at herself in candlelight or moonlight, but these are "liars" because they cover her real look.

The mirror has seen the change in the woman's appearance over the years. Her face of a young, pretty girl does not exist, but the mirror remembers it. The mirror gets the woman's cries and disgust in return for being true because her future appearance of an old, ugly woman gets closer to her, and it seems to be there in the mirror.

The mirror plays a significant role in a woman as she often looks at her image in it. Every morning as the sun rises, she looks at herself to ascertain her beauty. Her past image of a pretty young girl no longer exists, but it is there in the depth of the mirror. That woman's future image of an old, ugly woman gets nearer to her with each passing day. It is there in the mirror, and one day, she will see it in the mirror.

 

Conclusion of The Mirror

The mirror poem highlights the perspective of the Mirror as an object and how it feels when people hate him for showing them the real version of themselves. The Mirror always remains honest to the person who looks himself into it and the mirror never gives them any false hope or cover their flaws. It also describes how people get tense and upset over their looks and blames Mirror for not showing them their beautiful image. But Mirror being their true friend, always remains by their side and show them what is real. Overall, the "Mirror" is a sad and bitter poem that exemplifies the tensions between inner and outer personalities, as well as indicates the supernatural womanlike "problem" of ageing and dropping one's beauty.