Treatment of women

Passivity

Silence

Oppressed

Hurt

Denial

Self-examination

Change

Regression

Hidden potential / fight

1) Oppression / hurt / passivity / silence

2) Denial
3) Fight
 The poem The Other Side of the Mirror by Mary Elizabeth Coleridge explores the treatment
of women in the Victorian Era and its effects, through a womans self-examination in the mirror which
reveals that she has regressed into a state of inescapable silence and passivity. She largely seems to
be in denial or disbelief of her current oppressed and hurt state, yet there remains an underlying and
hidden sense of fight that is suggested within her. One distinctive feature of this poem would be how
the speaker explores the above by examining her physical state, reflected in the mirror, and how it
relates to her metaphysical state.

The poem firstly critiques societys expectations of women at the time. The speakers hair is
compared to an aureole a circle of light and brightness, especially used in paintings, that usually
surrounds something that is considered holy. This could be a reference to societys perceptions and
therefore womens inclination to maintain an image of purity. However, this supposedly pure and holy
image is described as thorny, and associated with hard[ness] and unsanctified distress. This then
points to the damaging nature of womens attempts to live up to those images, as the word thorny
implies that the aureole is in fact full of short, sharp barbs that could scratch or otherwise injure and
cause pain to the women who are depicted as having such an aureole in societys eyes. The irony of
these lines also lies in the fact that the aureole, a supposedly holy image, is associated with
something unsanctified. This shows that the expected image of women is in fact nothing holy at all,
but rather is something damaging.

The damaging effects of these expectations can be seen in the way they have now affected
the speakers own ability to speak up, even when she has the opportunity to. There is a juxtaposition
of the contradictory phrases Her lips were open and not a sound / came through, which are
written in close proximity to each other and separated merely by a single hyphen. The placement of
these opposing phrases together highlights the irony of the situation that even though physically, she
may supposedly have the innate capability to open her mouth, she does not have the actual capacity
to raise her voice. It becomes apparent that she is unable to verbalise the pain she feels from some
hidden hideous wound, which bled in silence and secret. A transferred epithet is also used in the
phrase speechless woe, and the transferring of the idea of speechlessness to something inanimate
like a woe thus highlights the extent of the speakers speechlessness. The repeated sibilant s
sounds in silence, secret, sigh and speechless also mimic a shushing sound, typically used to
keep someone quiet, thus once again pointing to the silence that has been forced upon the speaker.
It is also interesting to note the speakers use of the ambiguous phrase parted lines of red, which
could either refer to her open lips, or her hideous wound.
 The speakers description of her eyes, which possess the dying flame of lifes desire, as
lurid highlights how seeing a woman with ambitions for their life is rather unnatural, reinforced by
the fact that the speakers hope was gone. However, the use of the word dying, which is in present
continuous tense, suggests that perhaps this flame will continue to burn, no matter how small, for
some time to come and that the speaker will continue to have a part of her that is constantly fighting
against the restrictions she faces. This is reinforced by the lines in the same stanza that follow these 3
lines, which details how the speaker possesses a strength that could not change nor tire. This is also
delivered through the description of a leaping fire being kindled, implying that while the fire is still
small now, it has the potential to be stoked to become a full, roaring flame, thus highlighting the
potential that the speaker still possesses within her. The use of the word leaping also suggests
action, which is in stark contrast to the passivity that has been seen of the speaker thus far, again
pointing to her potential.

However, the speaker ultimately seems to be or desires to remain in a state of denial about
her situation, as evidenced by the last stanza as well as other telling phrases from elsewhere in the
poem. In the last stanza, she urges the vision she sees in the mirror to be set free, and to pass nor
ever more return, suggesting her desire to be rid of such a pitiful reminder of what she has regressed
to. This is reinforced by her use of the words shadow and ghost to refer to the vision in the mirror,
which are both intangible things and thus can escape her notice on a daily basis, implying her desire
to ignore her current state. Yet, her very use of the words shadow and ghost, the former being
inescapable as it will appear every time there is light of some sort and the latter continuously haunting
her, suggests that this vision is very much true and real and cannot be avoided. She is only able to see
this ghost of a vision when she is distracted when her focus is not entirely devoted to her ignorance
of the vision. Even then, her eventual acknowledgement of the fact that she is, in fact, the vision in
the mirror, is whisper[ed], as though she is unable to fully verbalise this recognition of hers.

This denial is also delivered through the fact that it is the ghost who heard [her] confession,
and not the speaker herself. This implies a distance that the speaker attempts to put between herself
and her confession of her current regressed state. This is reinforced by the first stanza, where the
speaker has to consciously conjure up [the] vision in order to see it, implying that she cannot see it
on a normal basis, perhaps because she does not want to. This is also reinforced by her use of the
indefinite article a when she refers to herself and her face in the mirror as a woman and a face.
This suggests that not only is she so deep in her denial that the image is unfamiliar to her, and thus
the use of the indefinite article, but that she is also perhaps trying to distance herself from what she
sees in the mirror, as pointed out similarly above.
 In conclusion, this poem The Other Side of the Mirror portrays a womans recognition of the
regression she has undergone as a result of the oppression of her speech that she has gone through,
and her denial of being in such a state despite evidence to suggest that she does have some hidden
fight within her still.