This may seem like a common trope, but it is what stood out to me the most.
First things first, we must understand that mirrors physically reflect light which in turn reflect the world around us. If we look at it spiritually, light has a symbolic attachment to wisdom, perception, and brilliance. So, in regards to this spiritual symbolism, mirrors reflect the utmost truth. They tell it how it is.
However, if we take a look at psychology, this concept of reflecting the truth is flipped entirely. Instead, mirrors from a psychological perspective symbolize the threshold between the conscious and unconscious mind. When one looks into a mirror, they see the depths of their unconsciousness – kind of like staring blankly at something – but that something is yourself. Your own entity. Therefore, it makes sense to say that the image that you see in your reflection can be symbolic to both your conscious and unconscious mind.
The symbolism of mirrors can be seen from different perspectives as well. In films, mirrors have been used to symbolize the concept of reflection. Obviously, these include both the emotional and physical thoughts, but mirrors are also used to convey delusion, juxtaposition, and distortion.
One example of such distortion is the infamous film, “Snow White”. The evil queen in the movie keeps a mirror to herself and asks it questions about who the fairest in the land is.
From a movie perspective, the mirror that the evil queen possesses is providing her with a false depiction of beauty. This in return distorts the evil queen’s ideas about herself and plays a key factor in how she views her self-esteem and behavior throughout the movie. The mirror is showing the evil queen her true self true her delusion. In short, the mirror symbolizes the vanity of whoever possesses it.
Although mirrors can lead to delusion from a film perspective, there are also many works that depict mirrors as symbolic of discovery and empowerment. “Rapunzel” is another famous movie which is about a kidnapped princess living with, who she thinks is her mother. There is a scene where Rapunzel puts on her crown for the first time, and she goes through this discovery that she is the lost princess.
Although some may argue that this scene was because of the crown, I say that the use of the mirror and its ability to reflect light would not have made Rapunzel come to this decision.
I found it ironic that, as I said before, mirrors are a reflection of light, and in “Rapunzel”, it is said that she is blessed by the sun. At the end of the crown scene, we see the mirror crack. These cracks on the mirror are a symbolism to Rapunzel breaking herself away from mother Gothel. Which is also relevant because broken mirrors symbolize a separation – an example of that is also how Rapunzel was separated from Eugene, and her family – all tying back into her empowerment through the symbolism of the mirror.
All of this comes back to the idea that mirrors symbolize different concepts from different perspectives – but they all don’t fail to yield the truth. No matter what perspective you look at, mirrors will always show you the true reflection of yourself – whether that be from delusion or empowerment – they will always show you your unconscious entity.