Love After Love Identity Quotes

If the speaker in “Love After Love” weren’t so persuasive, we would probably respond to this outlandish suggestion with a snort of skeptical amusement! Seriously—on your own, would you ever have thought to reflect on your identity by visualizing a visit with yourself? And even if you had, would you imagine the occasion as cause for “elation”? Yet, somehow, that speaker’s calm, confident voice hypnotizes us into playing the part that has been written for us, taking this whole surreal encounter on faith.

So here’s the feel-good payoff for our willingness to go along with the speaker’s far-fetched scenario: we smile back at ourselves. In spite of yourself, doesn’t that moment just warm the cockles of your skeptical, self-critical little heart?

Ah, we get it now: the mirror is a time machine! Realizing how confused we were about the person stepping out of the mirror, the speaker has helpfully identified that person as “the stranger who was your self.” So instead of splitting our current self in two (ouch!), we’re just dividing our self into past self and present self. As a way to reflect on identity, this strategy is a little easier to take… or is it?