217. The Lipstick on the Mirror

Personification is used on the mirror in the poem. "Mirror" is capitalized in the poem, as if it were a person, and it can also speak. In reality, the mirror is not actually speaking to women, but they feel like it is. But by looking at themselves in their mirrors, they are asking the same question as the "Wicked Queen". By putting on all the expensive things to make themselves look good, they are trying to get the mirror to tell them that they are the best looking. In the poem, it is not even the mirror that is speaking either though. It is the image in the mirror, which is the woman who is looking at herself. So that means, she is just telling herself that she is "the fairest of them all". More than once, the location is described as "the realm" as if it belonged to the people who are being idolized. But they are in control, and can dictate what girls will look like and what they spend money on based on themselves.

The phrase at the end is also an allusion from "Snow White". It makes the idea of the buying expensive things for beauty seem and childish, like a fairytale is. The author gives a long description of all the ways that women try to look better, and all the things they buy while "Industries sprang up like bramble" By giving so many things, it makes the reader feel like it is more than neccessary and that it all does not have to be there.

The queen is described as Wicked and is always called, "the Wicked Queen". This is showing how the author views the way people use the mirror and try to be the most beautiful.
Descriptions of the queen and the things she uses for beauty are made to be negative, such as, "the Wicked Queen's/ Essence was suffused like a scentless gas." The poem starts off with a series of questions all about how great the queen's appearance was and how expensive it was.
"Girls throughout the realm/ would lap it up..." The wording of these lines give it a negative tone. To the reader, "lap it up" makes it sound as if they were falling for a trick. That is because it is a trap, to have to try and look just like the rich and famous people.

In this poem, I saw how this is just like our society is. Everyone wants to be like the famous people and have what they have when they should just be happy with what they have and who they are. If women are always trying to attain perfection, then they will surely be dissapointed because, they will not alway look the way they want. I see this poem as being very true about how the "fair and rich" dictate what people will try to be like. They buy things based on these types of people and let others make money off of it. People spend too much time in front of the mirror worrying about appearances.