The Expectations Of Aging In Sylvia Plath's Mirror
As can be seen during this performance, Sylvia Plath challenged the roles and values of her time through her decisions and her poems. Despite being raised in a unitarian family, she embraced the heathen and metaphysical. From the outside it looked like she met societies expectations of a woman but the double in her poems revealed what Sylvia really thought of these expectations. Plath’s poem Mirror is a notable example of this doubling. It combines all her opinions and displays them in full view while deceiving the reader through her use of diction and various forms of poetic devices such as personification and metaphorical language. Mirror demonstrates a unique outlook on the attitudes of aging. It is an objective perspective on time, humanity and most importantly on beauty. More specifically the temporary nature and superficiality of beauty. It emphasizes the loneliness, and insecurity that awaits us through mankind’s nonstop addiction with reflection and expresses the problems associated with aging through terse comparisons between reality and desire. How this purpose was achieved in the poem will now be analysed in terms of the speaker, structure, language and techniques incorporated by Plath. …show more content…
We as the readers learn that it is the inner person that one must cultivate on her own, defining oneself by one’s own values, not as a reflection of the values of others. Plath has achieved this purpose primarily through the speaker, structure, language and techniques integrated throughout the poem. I found that personally, the tonal shift brought upon by language, as well as structural elements was the most significant factor in attaining the intended
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1994 Words | 8 PagesM.H. Abrams’s The Mirror and the Lamp: romantic theories and the critical traditions is one of the most influential books in the field of western criticism. It was published in the year of 1953. The title of the book refers to the two contradictory metaphors used to portray the artist – one comparing the artist to a mirror which reflects nature as it is or perfected whereas the other compares the artist to a lamp that illuminates the object under consideration. Professor Abrams in his book illustrates the transition of the perspective of the theorists on the artist from one to the other and the ramifications of the latter in aesthetics, poetics and practical criticism. The essay “Orientation of critical theories” is the first chapter of this book.
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Feminism In Sylvia Plath's Poetry
922 Words | 4 PagesSylvia Plath is considered to be one of the most significant female poets known not only to Americans but also to the whole world. Her death in 1963, followed by an unfortunate and short life did not end her input and influence inliterature, she became an icon to the female literary society. Sylvia's outstanding style of writing and themes which she portrayed in her works such as death, seeking for an identity or oppression on women in a patriarchal society began the feminist movementin America and changed the role of women. This topic is of a great importance because they way that Sylvia Plath was expressing her feelings and showing her negative view on a patriarchal society and oppression on women was a giant leap in the world of a women's liberation movement.
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