INTRODUCTION

 

The poem I’m going to analyse is “Lady Lazarus” written by Sylvia Plath in 1962 and included in her volume "The Collected Poems" . I have chosen this poem because I have found Sylvia’s life and her mental problems very interesting.

Although at first, her poems don’t seem easy to understand, after trying to think as she did, we can feel her anguish and we can imagine how frustrated she felt with her life.

 

This poem talks about her experiences and her suicide attempts which are a reflection of her pained life.

 

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Sylvia Plath is one of the most famous contemporary poets. Her tragic life and her mental illness have characterized her poetry.

 Her personal problems have their origin in her father’s death when she was 8. After that, she tried to kill herself several times, but failed. Her mental illness got worse when her marriage with Ted Hughes broke apart. She became depressed and in 1963 she killed herself at the age of 30.

“Lady Lazarus” talks about her failure on commiting suicide and how she felt about the people who tried to save her.1

 

THE POEM

Lady Lazarus

   I have done it again.

   One year in every ten

   I manage it----

   A sort of walking miracle, my skin

   Bright as a Nazi lampshade,

   My right foot

   A paperweight,

   My face a featureless, fine

   Jew linen.

   Peel off the napkin

   0 my enemy.

   Do I terrify?----

   The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth?

   The sour breath

   Will vanish in a day.

   Soon, soon the flesh

   The grave cave ate will be

   At home on me

   And I a smiling woman.

   I am only thirty.

   And like the cat I have nine times to die.

   This is Number Three.

   What a trash

   To annihilate each decade.

   What a million filaments.

   The peanut-crunching crowd

   Shoves in to see

   Them unwrap me hand and foot

   The big strip tease.

   Gentlemen, ladies

   These are my hands

   My knees.

   I may be skin and bone,

   Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman.

   The first time it happened I was ten.

   It was an accident.

   The second time I meant

   To last it out and not come back at all.

   I rocked shut

   As a seashell.

   They had to call and call

   And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls.

   Dying

   Is an art, like everything else,

   I do it exceptionally well.

   I do it so it feels like hell.

   I do it so it feels real.

   I guess you could say I've a call.

   It's easy enough to do it in a cell.

   It's easy enough to do it and stay put.

   It's the theatrical

   Comeback in broad day

   To the same place, the same face, the same brute

   Amused shout:

   'A miracle!'

   That knocks me out.

   There is a charge

   For the eyeing of my scars, there is a charge

   For the hearing of my heart----

   It really goes.

   And there is a charge, a very large charge

   For a word or a touch

   Or a bit of blood

   Or a piece of my hair or my clothes.

   So, so, Herr Doktor.

   So, Herr Enemy.

   I am your opus,

   I am your valuable,

   The pure gold baby

   That melts to a shriek.

   I turn and burn.

   Do not think I underestimate your great concern.

   Ash, ash ---

   You poke and stir.

   Flesh, bone, there is nothing there----

   A cake of soap,

   A wedding ring,

   A gold filling.

   Herr God, Herr Lucifer

   Beware

   Beware.

   Out of the ash

   I rise with my red hair

   And I eat men like air.2

The title “Lady Lazarus” has a Biblical relation with the story of Lazarus3 who was a man resurrected by Jesus in the New Testament. 

In this poem, Lazarus it is shown as a lady, and this lady is an identification with the poet herself who felt "saved" too because all of her 

attempts to suicide failed. She is the main character of this poem, so in this story Lazarus is a lady, Lazarus is Sylvia Plath.

The speaker is Sylvia who expresses her feelings and tells us about her experiences and failed suicides. She presents herself to be a victim

who is oppressed by those who care for her.

The poem looks like a monologue that she wrote after her third failed attempt of suicide.  It is divided in 27 stanzas which are connected one after 

the other, the last line of each verse is the beginning of the next stanza. 

In the first stanza Sylvia starts saying that she has done it again, this means that she has attempted to suicide before, and this could be probably  

the second time . Now she is 30, but she had an attempt each decade, the first time, at the age of ten, was an accident ten and the second time 

it was supposed to be successful, but she failed again. These confessions are explained in stanzas 1, 12 and 13.

“I have done it again.

One year in every ten”

“The first time it happened I was ten

It was an accident”

“The second time I meant

To last it out and not come back at all”

She continues in the second stanza with a metaphor in relation with the Holocaust.

“Bright as a Nazi lampshade,

My right foot

A paperweight,

My face a featureless, fine

Jew linen”

She felt her life as the Holocaust, she was a victim of this torture of being saved again and again. She compared her with a Jew

oppressed and imprisoned by the Nazis, however her oppressors weren’t the Nazis, but the doctor who tried to save her and the people

 who were always taking care of her.  She compares them with the Nazis in the stanza 21: 

“So, so Herr Doktor.

So, Herr Enemy”

She addresses to the Doctor in German instead of in English, so it is clear the relation she does between Nazis and him. The Doctor has

the same behaviour the Nazis had, he is a tormentor.

Some analyses find this relation with the Holocaust like a wound, because the Holocaust was such a terrible event that many people finds this 

comparison no sense at all. According to the analysis of Chris Davis4 “Nobody knows how the victims of the Holocaust feel, especially an American

 from a middle class family.”He criticizes Sylvia Path because of this comparison. 

I think Sylvia did not want to offend anyone, she only wanted to express her feelings through that comparison because it was something that 

everyone knew and it was easier to understand her situation through an example.

But not only the Doctor was her enemy, she thought that God and Lucifer were her oppressors too.

“Herr God, Herr Lucifer”

Irony is an element present throughout the whole poem:

“And like the cat I have nine times to die” 

She hadn’t succeed with her latest suicide attempts and she identifies herself as a cat which can save his life because it has 9 lives.

“Dying

Is an art, like everything else,

I do it exceptionally well.”

She is a professional in the art of death, and it is actually an art for her, some people make art painting, singing or writing and she is 

an artist dying.

In stanzas 18 to 25 she expresses her anguish of being rebirth. While the people who love her thought these rebirths were miracles 

she felt them as a charge.

“A miracle!

That knocks me out.

There is a charge”

To conclude, the last two stanzas are a reflection of her threats, she is going to achieve her purpose of killing herself and her enemies

 won’t be able to stop her because at the end she will succeed.

“Herr God, Herr Lucifer

Beware

Beware

Out of the ash

I rise with my red hair

And I eat men like air”

According to the analysis of Jon Rosenblatt5, Sylvia “Using the phoenix myth of resurrection as a basis, imagines a woman who has 

become pure spirit rising against the imprisoning others around her: gods, doctor, men, and Nazis.”

CONCLUSION

It was so difficult for me to understand the poem at first because I knew it talked about her suicidal experiences, but I think nobody can 

imagine why people commit suicide. It is hard to understand why a young woman wants to disappear and torture herself in that way. 

I tried to feel like her for a moment, thinking as if I was feeling that desperation and after that, I could understand what she wanted to express. 

She felt dominated by everyone, without freedom to decide over her life, she was obliged to stay and nobody asked her what she wanted.

This poem is a testimony of her resentment of those who oppressed her and of her incapability to continue with her life.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1.           “Sylvia Plath (1932-1963)”Short Biography. Anja Beckmann. 18th May 2007 

        <http://www.sylviaplath.de/plath/bio.html>

2.           “Lady Lazarus” Neurotics poets. © 1997-2006 Brenda C. Mondragon. 18th  May 2007                                

      <http://www.neuroticpoets.com/plath/lazarus.shtml>

3.           “Lazarus”  19th May 2007                                                     <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazarus>

4.           “Lady Lazarus. Poetry Discussion” Chris Davis. Forum administered by Elaine Connell, author of Sylvia Plath: 

         Killing The Angel In The House 20th May 2007 <http://www.sylviaplathforum.com/ll.html>

5.           “On Lady Lazarus” Modern American Poetry. Jon Rosenblatt from Sylvia Plath: The Poetry of Initiation. 

        Copyright © 1979 by University of North Carolina Press. 20th May 2007 

         <http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/plath/lazarus.htm>