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Intro
An unnamed narrator visits the home of Isabella Tyson and observes Isabella and her surroundings through the reflection in a looking-glass. The narrator, whose gender, age, and relationship to Isabella are unknown, spends the entirety of the story sitting in Isabella’s drawing room. At the story’s opening, the house is empty, and the narrator observes Isabella’s furniture and decorations, noting the finery of her possessions. The narrator then puts their attention toward the hall outside and the garden path, noting that Isabella has gone into the garden carrying a basket. Because she is no longer in view of the looking-glass, the narrator turns to imagining what Isabella may be doing in the garden and pictures her picking something “fantastic and leafy and trailing.” The narrator lists the facts they believe they know about Isabella, including that she has not married, that she has traveled extensively, and that she has had many friends.
While the narrator is reflecting on Isabella’s life and what she might be doing in the garden, a postman arrives and leaves a stack of letters on the table. The narrator imagines Isabella reading them and sighing. The narrator then pictures Isabella standing in the garden again, getting ready to snip a flower and thinking about how she should visit her friends. The narrator compares Isabella’s mind to her drawing room, where many of the drawers are locked and off-limits, though this doesn’t stop them from imagining Isabella feeling sad about cutting the flower.
Isabella interrupts the narrator’s imaginings by appearing in the looking-glass, walking slowly back from the garden. As she comes closer and her reflection grows clearer, the narrator sees her in a new way. “Here was the woman herself,” the narrator remarks, deciding that Isabella is “perfectly empty” and that she actually has no inner thoughts and no friends. Based on this new perception, the narrator concludes that Isabella’s mail is not correspondence, but bills—a damning observation, given that she does not open them, suggesting she may not even have the money to pay for all her fine things. It is ultimately unclear which perception of Isabella actually reflects her reality—the reverent awe of this wealthy, highly-social woman, or the disdainful scorning of a lonely, aged, and perhaps financially ruined “spinster.” The story ends just as it opened, with the narrator saying, “People should not leave looking-glasses hanging in their rooms,” perhaps an indication that mirrors might not offer an accurate or useful reflection of reality after all.
