With these drawings, we get a third Sylvia Plath.” One of Plath’s biographers, Andrew Wilson, author of Mad Girl’s Love Song (2013) is not surprised by the divergent reactions.

Sylvia Plath’s mirror is a metaphor for the struggle between the true self and what is internalized between herself, her mother, other women, and the collective images men have of women.

Sylvia Plath was an American poet of the mid-20th century who killed herself at age 30. She was married to British poet laureate Ted Hughes, but the poem does not portray relationship or love.

Sylvia Plath’s mirror is a metaphor for the struggle between the true self and what is internalized between herself, her mother, other women, and the collective images men have of women.