Mirror
The mirror as a recurring image in Taylor's writing of self-confrontation - the reflective surface that returns the speaker to herself. The motif holds both the act of looking (acknowledging what is seen) and the act of refusing to look (declining the confrontation). Distinct from Glass (fragility, transparency, breakability), the mirror's force is its reflective capacity rather than its material vulnerability. Sibling to the broader 'mirrors and reflection' register Taylor returns to across the catalogue - mirrorball, the bathroom mirror, the reflective surface that names the self.
The mirror carries the charge of the self-confrontation the speaker either chooses or refuses. The image's force often lies in the verb attached (staring, avoiding, smashing, dancing in front of) and in whether the speaker meets her own eye. The mirror's refusal is the song's structural irony in Anti-Hero: the speaker names the act of not looking inside a song that is itself the most sustained looking she has put on record.
Appears in 7 songs
“I'll show you every version of yourself tonight”
“I'm a mirrorball”
The mirror is the song's focusing metaphor, the speaker IS a mirror, reflecting others rather than possessing a stable self. Uncle Jerry extensively explores the folklore of mirrors as symbols of wisdom, self-knowledge, vanity, deception, truth, illusion, the unconscious mind, and portals to other dimensions.
“I'll stare directly at the sun, but never in the mirror”
The mirror stands in for the self-confrontation the speaker declines on the page, even as the song's existence performs the looking she claims to refuse.
“Took a deep breath in the mirror, he didn't like it when I wore high heels but I do”
“I wish it wasn't 4 AM, standing in the mirror saying to myself, "You know you had to do it”
“I know delusion when I see it in the mirror”
“Took a deep breath in the mirror, he didn't like it when I wore high heels but I do”
“Seems the only one who doesn't see your beauty is the face in the mirror looking back at you”