Short Fiction · Chapter
The Looking-Glass explained
On New Year's Eve, Nellie, a young woman obsessed with marriage, falls into a trance while gazing into a looking-glass.
What happens
On New Year's Eve, Nellie, a young woman obsessed with marriage, falls into a trance while gazing into a looking-glass. She envisions a future with her destined husband, which quickly descends into a nightmare of illness, desperate pleas to a reluctant doctor, and the harsh realities of poverty and death. She awakens to find the looking-glass shattered, realizing it was all a dream.
Themes in this chapter
Illusion vs. Reality
Nellie's vision through the looking-glass represents a seductive illusion of a perfect future, which contrasts sharply with the grim reality of suffering and death she later envisions. The shattered glass upon waking underscores the collapse of this illusion.
Suffering and Compassion
Nellie's desperate pleas for the doctor's help and her subsequent vision of her husband's death highlight the theme of suffering. The doctor's own illness and exhaustion raise questions about the limits of compassion and duty.
Characters to notice
- Elena
Nellie, the protagonist, is a young and pretty girl dreaming of marriage. She experiences a vivid vision of her future through the looking-glass.
Key passages
“The nonexistent but apparent vista of a long, narrow corridor with endless rows of candles, the reflection of her face, her hands, of the frame—all this was already clouded in mist and merged into a boundless grey sea.”
The imaginary scene of a long corridor with countless candles, along with her own reflection and the frame, faded into a vast, misty grey sea.
Describes the onset of Nellie's trance-like vision.
“Outside him, as on the grey background of the looking-glass, all was dark, empty, meaningless.”
Without him, everything in her life was as dark and meaningless as the grey background of the mirror.
Highlights Nellie's total dependence on her imagined destined partner for meaning.
“She saw the coffin, the candles, the deacon, and even the footmarks in the hall made by the undertaker.”
She visualized the coffin, candles, deacon, and even the undertaker's footprints in the hallway.
Part of Nellie's vision of her husband's death.