What disturbs the mirror's contemplation of the opposite wall?

In s
poem , the reflecting surface is also afor a reflective or contemplative state. By itself, the
mirror, which Plath describes as the four-cornered eye of a god, has no preconceptions,
showing only the truth, without cruelty. Most often the mirror contemplates the speckled wall it
faces, which demands no answers from the mirror.

Here, Plath alludes to the
magical mirrors in Snow White and other fairy tales, which were tasked with
answering important questions such as Whos the fairest of them all? In Plaths poem, the mirror
suggests it doesnt like answering questions, which is why the silent, undemanding wall has
become a part of its heart. The wall treats the mirror as what it is, expecting no magic,
which makes the mirror fall in love with it.

However, the mirrors
contemplation of the wall is disturbed by both faces and darkness. Out of the two
interruptions, it is the face of a womanprobably its ownerthat ruffles the mirrors honest
quietude the most.

Now I am a lake. A woman bends over
me,
Searching my reaches for what she really is.
Then she turns to those
liars, the candles or the moon.
I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.
She
rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.

Unlike
the wall, which asked nothing of the mirror, the woman wants something momentous from it. She
treats the mirror as a lake, a three-dimensional body which hides answers. From this lake, the
woman wants to fish out selves, both lost and ideal. However, the mirror is just a
two-dimensional mirror. It may be god-like, but it is bound by its nature, which is to show the
truth. It can only reflect what is in front of it, but the woman doesnt like what she sees,
rewarding the mirror with tears.

With the aid of liarsthe forgiving light
of candles and moonthe woman hopes the mirror can work some alchemy, but the mirror fails her.
At another level, we can also say that the woman sees in the mirror what she
wants to see, which is herself as inadequate. Thus, the mirror reflects
both the womans external and internal realities. What the woman wants is to retrieve perfection
and the past, which the mirror suggests is impossible. At the same time, she dreads the future,
her eventual mature self, rising up to meet her.

I am
important to her. She comes and goes.
Each morning it is her face that replaces the
darkness.
In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman
Rises
toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.

Through
the metaphor of the mirror, Plath also comments on the unrealistic beauty standards to which
women have been subjected through the ages. Just like with the Queen in Snow
White, the woman in the poem is forced into believing youthful beauty is her only
source of power. In the quest to appear young and pretty, the woman develops a toxic
relationship with the mirror, depending on it to validate her existence. If only she could
accept the truth of aging and the inherent beauty of growth, she would be as objective as the
wall, and the mirror would show her a brighter reality.