5.1

Mirror / Sylvia Plath

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© Everett Collection Inc/Alamy

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 —

5 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 a part of my heart. But it flickers.

Faces and darkness separate us over and over.


10 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.

15 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.

Unlike the Evil Queen’s magic mirror, notice how the mirror in the first stanza, as well as the lake in the second, claim that they are not cruel, but truthful, and reflect the image of the woman faithfully. The woman reflected in this mirror may not be happy with what she sees (“tears and an agitation of hands,” l. 14), but at least she has the truth. So, these are two contrasting ways of trying to define one’s identity: the Evil Queen looks outward to others, while the woman in the poem looks at herself by using a mirror that is “silver and exact” (l. 1).

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OPENING ACTIVITY

One way to define identity is to ask yourself, “How do I view myself and how do others view me?” Explain how each of the following factors affects how you view yourself and how you think others view you:

  • your gender

  • your age

  • your race, culture, and/or religion

  • your socioeconomic status

To begin considering the essential questions of this chapter, make a list of personal attributes or experiences that you have had that you feel make you unique—as many as you’d like. Then categorize each item in a chart with the following headings (feel free to add other categories):

Physical Traits Clothing/Jewelry/Etc. Interests Experiences Family/Friends













































Now, choose one item from your list that has been mostly affected by looking outside of yourself (as the Evil Queen was affected by looking into her magic mirror) and one item that has been mostly affected by looking at yourself (like the narrator in Plath’s poem was affected). Write a paragraph that explains how the chosen items reflect your identity and explore the inner and outer forces that have shaped that identity. Focus especially on the role that society (including your school, city, geographical area, religion, and so on) has played in shaping your identity.