Elusive Objectivity

Since the primary symbol and speaker of Sylvia Plath's "Mirror" is a vehicle of literal and physical reflection, the idea of objectivity becomes central to the poem. The poem begins with a focus on precision, exactness, and neutrality. The first line, "I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions" (1) is the reader's first indication that whomever is speaking is allegedly detached from the emotional world. After establishing what it is, the mirror goes on to emphasize what it is not, saying, "I am not cruel, only truthful, / The eye of a little god, four-cornered" (4-5). The speaker, this time through negation, once again asserts that it is free of the influence of emotion. It is at this point in the poem that readers may recognize the speaker as an inanimate object. Furthermore, the speaker foreshadows the notions of "preconceptions" and "cruelty" in this first...