Virginia Woolf - The Lady in the Looking-Glass

This writing deals with Woolf's personal vision of oneself and then the outside appearance that one gives off. Looking into a mirror for the first time, a baby will see itself and create a self-image.

"reflected the hall table, the sunflowers, the garden path so accurately and fixedly they seemed held there in their reality inescapably" This quote in the Looking Glass describes the looking glass to the reader, making the looking glass seem like a reality, that someone could get lost into, and it seems the reader is lost in the looking glass.

The old woman that the narrator is following while gardening is as described:‘The sun would beat down on her face, into her eyes; but no, at the critical moment a veil of cloud covered the sun, making the expression of her eyes doubtful" The narrator is judging the woman by the reflection in the glass, the reality of the situation is that the glass could not capture the true image, because of the complexity of glass, the cloud could have messed with the reflection, but someone who is looking only into the glass would not see any difference.

I see this narration as a little stalker-esk. The narrator is watching the woman as she lives her life, being satirical and judging the woman for what she sees through the glass.

The end conclusion of the writing says, "Here was the woman herself. She stood naked in that pitiless light. And there was nothing. Isabella was perfectly empty. She had no thoughts. She had no friends. She cared for nobody." Isabella, the woman, is not what the narrator has described her as all through the reading, really the glass gave tricks of light and shadows to describe the woman falsely.

In my own life How have I seen someone for what they truly were, was the first impression always accurate? I have looked at people through a figurative looking glass, giving them qualities they did not deserve or ask for. But that is a mis-judgment on my part, not theirs.