The mirror plays a significant role in the life of the woman. comment on the statement with reference to the poem 'mirror'.
Answers
The mirror surely plays a significant role in her life. It was in the mirror she used to admire her beautiful young face during her younger days. But in her old age it is the mirror that tries to make her realize the reality of life.
According to the mirror, it is an ‘important’ part of the woman’s life. She looks into it ‘Each morning’, as the mirror informs the readers. Despite peering into it each day, the woman does not find any consolation in the image that stares back at her. Instead, she sees an increasingly aging image of herself in it, which upsets her so much that she cries and even subjects the mirror to the ‘agitation of (her) hands’. The imagery suggests that the mirror affects the woman not just on a visual level but also at an emotional level. Thus, the mirror occupies a rather important place in the woman’s life.
On the psychological front, the mirror informs the woman, rather ‘faithfully’, about the gradual loss of her youth and beauty. Her youth has ‘drowned’. It seems to be distressful for her, for she ends up crying about what has been lost, never to be found or regained again. The ‘terrible fish’ shows just how she feels about herself- ugly.
On another level, the mirror offers her a peep into her own being. The woman seems to be at war with herself, almost like a fish out of water. The glimpse of her own self is not pleasing. It is as if she carries the burden of some guilt, which comes into the limelight each time she looks into the mirror. Some critics have also interpreted it as the woman’s inability to come to terms with the difference between her socially acceptable outer persona and her rebellious but suffocated inner self. She sees her helplessness in the mirror.
In any case, the mirror is not a source of happiness for the woman, but she continues to view herself in it each day, probably expecting a miracle of sorts.