“Mirror” by Sylvia Plath
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Oksana Veres
Period 4
English 9A
Plath’s Life
• Born: October 27, 1932 in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts
• Died: February 11, 1963 in London, England
Family
• Her father, Otto Emil Plath, was a professor and German
immigrant & mother, Aurelia Schober Plath, was his former
student, 20 years younger than him
• Otto died in 1940 when Sylvia was 8 years old
• Married Ted Hughes, a fellow student she meets at Newnham
College later on in life
Schooling
• Attended Smith College where she studied vigorously
became infatuated with academic achievement and social
success
• Later went to Newnham College in Cambridge, England
Influence/Inspiration
• Her father’s death significantly impacted her
poetry
Depression & Anxiety
• Suffered from anxiety and recurrent depression
throughout her life influenced her dark sense of
poetry
• Went to electroshock therapy, but increased her
anxiety
• August 1953 – failed attempt at suicide
• Her husband was unfaithful & they got divorced
• Moved away from him with her 2 kids to London
• Continued to suffer with depression & anxiety till
committing suicide in 1963
Theme
• Plath tends to write about herself; on her personal
experiences
Common Themes
• In her poems, themes often revolve around:
- Death (her father’s death, wanting to die, etc.)
- Victimization (she felt like a victim to the men in her
life: father, husband, etc.)
- Patriarchy (wrote about how women weren’t treated
fairly in the 50s/60s
- The beauty of nature
- The self (personal demons, internal struggles, etc.)
Continued…
Theme of “Mirror”
• Aging is inevitable
This poem’s theme is similar to others Plath has
written because it is about identity/searching for
oneself, a common topic in her work.
• She writes so much about her personal life,
based from her anxiety & depression
anticipating the future is a huge component of
anxiety
Poetic Devices
• “I am silver and exact. I have no
preconceptions.”: personification –
personifying mirror with human
characteristics/ability
• “Whatever I see, I swallow immediately.” :
metaphor – a mirror can’t actually swallow
something, Plath is describing how a mirror
shows every part of you
• “I am not cruel, only truthful” : oxymoron –
Plath uses cruel & truthful as if they were
opposites, although they’re not