Lesson Four - Mirror

Lesson Four - "Mirror"
Duration - 2 blocks (2 x 80 min + homework)

"In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman / Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish." - Sylvia Plath, "Mirror"

While we may not be able to control what happens to us in life, we certainly are in total control of how we respond. That may help us in our quest to determine our own destiny.

Consider the impact significant events have on an individual's ability to determine their own destiny?

"Mirror" is a poem that can easily resonate with many women. In it, a personified mirror un-judgmentally reflects a woman's changing appearance over the years. Here, the mirror admits the extent of its influence - the woman has had to face the truth of aging by looking at herself in the mirror's truthful face each day. What is most haunting about the poem is, in fact, the mirror's disinterested tone, which reminds the reader that time and truth do not care about our vanity and depressing concerns. Ultimately, we are left to our own devices when we want to find happiness in the face of tragic forces like time and death. These forces are particularly difficult for a woman in a patriarchal society, since a woman is defined so much by her beauty. In lines like these, the power in Plath's writing helps what could be a novelty poem become a harsh depiction of hopelessness and loneliness in the face of time.