Rouge: A Novel

Mirrors are a prominent and layered motif in Rouge. Initially, the mirror appears in Mira’s childhood memory of Noelle telling her the “Beautiful Maiden” bedtime story. Mira reflects on a vanity table with a three-paneled mirror Noelle gave her for Christmas: “It was enough to have to see yourself once, let alone three times, remember? It was enough to have to open your eyes and see yourself at all. But mother loved this mirror” (5). With this, mirrors represent both vanity and self-hate in the novel. They are entrancing for those who think they are beautiful and repellent for those who do not.

Mirrors become increasingly supernatural throughout the novel. Seth comes through the mirror to groom Mira and therefore relates to the theme of The Insidious Nature of the Beauty Industry. They are a passageway from Mira’s childhood innocence to adulthood; Mira shatters the mirror after poisoning Noelle with the rose dust and becomes permanently scarred by the falling glass shards, symbolizing this moment as a permanent loss of innocence and rift with her mother.

Another reference to mirrors occurs when Mira and Lake are talking after their third treatment. Neither woman can remember the word mirror and decide to be each other’s “glassthing.