Tuesday, January 29, 2019

In "Mirror," what is the speaker's tone?

The persona that Plath
creates in this wonderful poem is shown to speak in a tone that perfectly represents its
character. The mirror tells us that it is "silver and exact," and it seems to speak in
a rather clinical voice that presents its view as being somewhat detached and completely
unemotional. This can be shown through the short sentences and the very matter of fact way in
which the mirror reports to us what it sees:

I am silver
and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just
as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.

There is therefore
almost a clinical tone to the way in which the mirror speaks and how it describes the woman that
spends so much time looking into it. There is no pity or sadness expressed through the speaker's
tone, only a factual and unemotive reporting of what happens.

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