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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A five page look at Sylvia Plath’s poem “Mirror” and Sharon Olds’ “The Death of Marilyn Monroe,” in terms of both poets’ observations on the nature of identity as opposed to appearance. Plath argues that as many times as we return to the mirror to see our reflection there, it is not ourselves we are seeing -- we are merely seeing something similar to what others see. Olds continues this argument by asserting that if others feel they know us by our outward appearance, they are wrong, because the outer shell is not us.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_KBplath.doc
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
work, who their friends are. But too often we assume these characteristics complete that persons personal definition; we never think much about the individual inside. The meaning of Sylvia
Plaths poem "Mirror" and Sharon Olds "The Death of Marilyn Monroe," challenges us to look beyond the obvious and find the person beneath. In "Mirror," Sylvia Plath assumes the persona
of two reflective objects -- first a mirror, and then a lake -- and describes the search of a woman for her real identity through her external appearance. The mirror,
Plath says, is "exact" -- it returns to the viewer her exact replica, without giving a clue to what the person is like underneath (Plath, mirror.html). Nonetheless, people, and by
implication women especially, return over and over again to check this outside image as a gauge of their true selves. Because none of us is as flawlessly beautiful as we
think we should be, or perhaps our appearance does not conform to the medias idea of what constitutes beauty, we look in the mirror to be reassured and are instead
only given more cause for uncertainty. The mirror is "not cruel, only truthful" -- in other words, it does not enter into the social dialogue about what does or does
not constitute beauty; it only reflects back the physical parameters of what it sees. The fact that occasional "faces" disturb its contemplation of the wall on the opposite side of
the room show its dispassionate attitude toward humanity; it imbues the wall -- "pink, with speckles" -- with more personality than any of the people it reflects. In the second
stanza, the narrators persona has changed from a mirror to a still lake, which has similar mirror-like properties, with a significant difference; people can pass through the waters surface as
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