Question

how does Sylvia Plath effectively use personification in her poem - the mirror?...
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Answer 1

“Mirror” (by Sylvia Plath) uses a couple of different figures of speech in it to get its point across.  The entire poem is told by the mirror itself, meaning that personification is used throughout the poem because most mirrors lack the ability to talk (excepting, of course, the mirror is Snow White).  The author’s use of the mirror as the main character gives an interesting perspective to the poem describing the aging of a woman, presumably the owner of the mirror.  The mirror calls the candles and the moon “liars,” which is not only an example of personification (I’ve never heard of a candle or moon telling a lie, or speaking in the first place), but also a fascinating assertion.  It implies that the appearance one sees by candlelight or moonlight may not be a true reflection, as shadows may soften features that would otherwise appear hawk-like, for example. The mirror also seems to give away the woman’s feelings about herself as she searches for “what she really is” and “rewards [the mirror] with tears and an agitation of hands.”  It appears that either the woman doesn’t like what she sees in herself or she didn’t find what she was looking for, but toward the end of the poem, Plath gives us another option for the woman’s agitation in the form of aging.  “In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman/Rises toward her day after day,” this indicates that the woman’s youthful days are over and now she sees only that “terrible fish” of a reflection everyday.