Presented By : Chahak Aggarwal X-G Roll no. 10

1. Presented By : ChahakAggarwal X-G Roll no. 10

2. About The Author Sylvia Plath • Sylvia Plath was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 27, 1932. She spent part of her short life in England, and married the English poet Ted Hughes • Tragic death runs in Sylvia Plath's family. When she was just eight years old, her father died of complications from diabetes, which could have been prevented if he had sought treatment earlier. • Perhaps in part because of this death, Plath struggled with depression throughout her life, which she ended herself in February of 1963, after she and her husband, poet Ted Hughes, separated, leaving Plath to care for their two children.

3. About the Poem Plath's poetry carries us into the mind of a woman surrounded by such tragedy – yet her poems are as beautiful as they are dark. The poem we're looking at here, "Mirror," was written in 1961, roughly two years before Plath's suicide. But it wasn't published for another ten years, when it appeared in Plath's book Crossing the Water, which Ted Hughes arranged to have published posthumously. It's tempting to read "Mirror" as a reflection of Plath's difficult life, but the poem has merit aside from its author's biographical intrigues. This poem has a mind of glass – sharp, clear, and unforgettable – and would be compelling no matter who wrote it.

4. In "Mirror," Sylvia Plath gives us the point of view of the mirror – actually a mirror in the 1960s, a time when the meaning of Plath's reflection, and women's reflections in general, were rapidly changing. The feminist movement was becoming more prominent just as Plath herself was beginning to experience motherhood and to enter middle age. But one doesn't need to be a female to enjoy this poem. More than giving us this glimpse into a life and a historical time, this poem makes the mirror come alive, swallowing the reader into its clear pool. This poem will make you wonder, the next time you look in the mirror, what is rising up on its surface, coming towards you. This poem lets us look out and see, through the silver and piercing eyes of a mirror, an aging woman, and to see a time when the definition of what it meant to be a woman was changing

5. ‘ ‘ The Poem Iam silver and exact. I have no preconceptions. • 1. The above lines personify the mirror showing us some of its human characteristics . The first line describes the mirror , which is silver in colour and gives an exact reflection of what it sees. • 2. The mirror does not have pre-conceptions . The mirror doesn't change what it shows, based on it's understanding of who you are – it just shows what it sees. So, while this mirror may be personified in the poem, it doesn't, like most people, let what it has seen before affect what it does in the present.

6. ‘ ‘ Whatever I see I swallow immediately Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike. I am not cruel, only truthful – The eye of a little god, four-cornered. • In the second line “Swallowing everything” is a metaphor for reflecting everything. The substitution of "swallowing" for "reflecting" makes this mirror seem human. It appears hungry to us. 4. We now get a dash connecting line 4 to line 5. It seems to denote a comment from the mirror, explaining the previous line further. The mirror, in line 5, is comparing itself to the eye of a "little god”. The word "god" isn't capitalized in this line , it could refer to any god, even one in the guise of a mirror. “ four cornered “ ( rectangular or square ) helps us complete the image of the eye in the shape of a mirror • 2. The next line is giving us more information about how the mirror is swallowing what it sees . 3. In the 4 line , the mirror seems to realize that it's coming off as a little harsh, because it just shows what it sees and takes nothing else in account. So it explains that it's not cruel, just truthful.

7. ‘ Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall. It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so longI think it is a part of my heart. But it flickers. Faces and darkness separate us over and over. ‘ This line tells us in a roundabout way that the mirror is facing a wall. 2. The wall is speckled and pink. The color pink makes the wall seem feminine; this mirror is probably in a girl's bedroom or bathroom. We see that the relationship between the wall and the mirror isn't as constant as we thought: the wall flickers. 3. Here we see why the wall flickers – because of faces and darkness. The faces come to look in the mirror, and when they leave, they turn the light off, leaving the mirror to reflect nothing but the darkness.

8. 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 With the new stanza, our poem switches: we're now no longer hearing from a mirror, but from a lake. The poem moves on to show what the lake is reflecting: a woman. 2. The woman isn't only trying to see the reflection of her face, she's hoping to see something deeper: what she really is. She's searching the depths of the lake, perhaps looking not only into her reflection, but also into the waters beneath it. 3. This woman, we find out, isn't very happy with her reflection in the lake, so she tries to find a kinder reflection under the light of a candle or the moon , whom the lake calls “liars” . The lake is proud of its honesty and reflects her faithfully.

9. She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands. I am important to her. She comes and goes.Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness. She's not satisfied with the lake at first glance, but eventually turns back to it. But the lake seems upset that the woman is rewarding it for its faithful reflection by becoming more distressed. She shows her distress by physically disturbing the lake; her tears drop into it, and her hands stir up the water . 2. This lake is proud, saying it's important to the woman it reflects. The lake gives proof to back up how important it is – it says the woman visits each morning, so that the lake then reflects the woman's face instead of the dark of the night.

10. In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old womanRises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish. These lines are my personal favourite in this poem . • Now, the water becomes not just a calm mirror, but terrifying. In these two lines, drowning and rising in the lake metaphorically describe aging. • The young girl who used to look into the lake is gone, having grown into a woman. The woman's reflection is changing and aging. She sees herself growing into an old woman. • These final lines, we understand what's so haunting and pressing about looking into this lake for the woman in the poem. In her own reflection in this lake, beautiful youth is sinking and terrible old age is rising.

11. BIBILOGRAPHY