With what hope does the woman keep coming back to the mirror every day?
With what hope does the woman keep coming back to the mirror every day?
She returns every day hoping to see the young girl she once was, though the mirror faithfully shows her only her ageing, changed self instead.
Marking Scheme
- 11 mark for mentioning that she hopes to see her younger self or recapture her lost youth.
Hint
The poem says 'in me she has drowned a young girl'. What does this young girl represent, and what does the woman hope to find each morning?
Quick Oral Answer
The woman comes back to the mirror every day hoping to see the young girl she once was. She desperately searches for her lost youth in the reflection, but each time she only finds her aging self staring back at her.
Analysis & Explanation
This question tests understanding of the woman's psychological motivation in 'Mirror'.
Concept
- The woman returns to the mirror each morning hoping to glimpse the young girl she once was, since 'in me she has drowned a young girl'.
- This hope is tragically futile, as the mirror shows only the truth of continuing age, rewarding her 'faithfully' with 'tears and an agitation of hands'.
Common mistakes (परीक्षा में सावधानी)
- Confusing this hope with vanity or a wish to look beautiful — it is specifically about recapturing lost youth and identity, not cosmetic beauty.
- Keep the 1-mark answer crisp; avoid lengthy interpretation.
Real-world
- This mirrors the universal human longing to hold on to one's past self despite the passage of time.
Common Mistakes
- 1Writing that the woman hopes to look beautiful or attractive, when the poem specifically frames her hope as wanting to see the young girl she once was, not beauty in general.
- 2Confusing the woman's hope with acceptance. She has NOT accepted aging; she is in denial and keeps returning to the mirror hoping for a different outcome each day.
- 3Giving an answer that is too vague, such as 'she hopes to see herself', without specifying that she hopes to see her YOUNGER self, which is the critical detail for earning the mark.
Interesting Facts
Psychologists have identified a phenomenon called 'mirror anxiety' or 'spectrophobia', which is the fear of seeing one's own reflection. Plath's poem is considered one of the most powerful literary portrayals of this kind of age-related mirror anxiety.
Sylvia Plath wrote 'Mirror' when she was only 29 years old, yet the poem captures the perspective of an aging woman so convincingly that literary critics consider it one of her most empathetic works, transcending her own young age.
The theme of searching for lost youth in a mirror appears in Oscar Wilde's 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' (1890) as well, where the protagonist's portrait ages while he remains young, presenting the reverse of what happens in Plath's poem.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Does the woman ever find what she is looking for in the mirror?
No, she never finds the young girl she hopes to see. Instead, each day the mirror shows her an older version of herself, and Plath describes an 'old woman' rising toward her 'like a terrible fish', symbolising the horror of unstoppable aging.
What does the phrase 'searched my reaches for what she really is' mean?
The mirror compares itself to a lake, and 'my reaches' refers to its depths. The woman peers deeply into the mirror trying to find her true identity and her former youthful self, but the mirror can only show her current, aging face.
Why does the woman cry when she looks in the mirror?
The woman's tears and agitation of hands reflect her emotional distress at seeing her aging face. The gap between how she remembers herself (young) and what the mirror shows (old) causes her deep sorrow.