Before analysing any poem by Sylvia Plath it is necessary to make an incise about her life as her poems are autobiographical

POESÍA INGLESA DE LOS SIGLOS XIX Y XX

LORENA RAMOS

Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath

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 featureless, fine
Jew linen.

Peel off the napkin
O 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.
Gentleman , 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 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 on 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.

Before analysing any poem by Sylvia Plath it is necessary to make incise about her life as her poems are not only autobiographical but journey deeper into her inner psyche. There are three important issues in her life that will influence her poems – the death of her father when she was 8 years old, her marriage with Ted Hughes and her obsession to commit suicide. Her husband, the poet Ted Hughes, was accused of her suicide as he was very promiscuous and left her for another woman. However, Ted Hughes doesn’t seem to be the cause of her suicide. In my opinion, the beginning of her obsession to die starts when her father died. She probably never recovered from her loss as she has been all her life fighting against the idea of committing suicide. Evidence of the innocence of Ted Hughes is that she tried to kill herself before she even met him.

I have chosen her poem “Lady Lazarus” because, firstly it was written in October of 1962, just four months before succeeding in her third attempt to kill herself and secondly because of the simplicity of the poem structure she uses to express her complicated struggles with death and life. It was also apparent to me that the poem is composed by 23 stanzas of 3 verses each as at the moment she wrote the poem she had tried to commit suicide three times.

In lady Lazarus Sylvia Plath talks about her three attempts to commit suicide “ I have done it again/ one year in every ten / I manage it”. One year in very ten she tries to commit suicide, as last time was when she was twenty she was probably thinking again of doing it again : “this is Number Three. / what a trash/ to annihilate each decade” (lines 22-24). Here it seems that she rejects her will as she defines her uncontrollable desire for killing herself as trash.

She compares herself to a Nazi lampshade and her face to a Jew linen to emphasise the whiteness of her skin. “…my skin/ Bright as a Nazi lampshade” (lines 4-5) my face a featureless, fine / Jew linen (lines 8-9) This whiteness connotes paleness as when somebody dies. The words “Nazi” and “Jew” can be interpreted as a metaphor as like the Jews in the holocaust Sylvia Plath is a victim and Nazi are her unavoidable willing to commit suicide, therefore she is a victim of herself.

In the tenth verse “peel off the napkin”, napkin is probably a metaphor to refer to her skin. It is absolutely astonishing the cruelty she employs to describe her self-destruction. “O my enemy. / Do I terrify?” (lines 11-12) enemy here can be interpreted as her uncontrollable willing to kill herself, she wonders if she terrifies, meaning she doesn’t really terrify. However I would state she doesn’t really wants to die yet as she compares herself to a cat “and like the cat I have nine times to die” (line 21). We normally say cats have nine lives whereas Sylvia Plath seems to admire they have nine times to die.

Along the entire poem it is noteworthy the violence of Plath’s words and the verses from 25 to 32 have called specially my attention because of this feature “what a million filaments/ the peanut-crunching crowd/ shoves in to see” “them unwrap me hand and foot/ the big strip tease / gentlemen, ladies”.

She refers to a near-death accident from when she was ten “the first time it happened I was ten” (line 35), then she refers to a suicide attempt when she was twenty. She is probably conscious about the expectation of her suicide attempts because of her irony in describing death “dying / is an art, like everything else, I do it exceptionally well” (lines 43-45). She believes people see her attempts to commit suicide as a show, as they don’t really care for her, therefore in this poem she uses irony to refer to her death “ the peanut-crunching crowd /shoves in to see” them unwrap me hand and foot/ the big striptease” Sylvia believes that nobody can really understand how she feels “I guess you could say I’ve a call” “do not think I underestimate your great concern” (line 58). These verses can also be interpreted as a complaint to her husband for not caring about her as much as she needs it.

The last verse of the poem is quite meaningful as she identifies herself to Lady Lazarus, the biblical character that was resurrected by Christ, and she thinks she has been resurrected after her close- death experiences. Her subliminal message is that she might try to commit suicide again but she will resurrect again as lady Lazarus did as cats do because “as a cat “she has” nine times to die”.

Sources:

http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/plath/orrinterview.htm. Karen Ford and Cary Nelson.( 8-5-2006)

http://www.sylviaplathforum.com/ll.html . elaine@hebdenbridge.co.uk. (8-5-2006)
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/jan-june98/plath_2-18.htmlMacNeil/Lehrer Productions. (8-05-2006)

http://www.palgrave.com/pdfs/0333771265.pdf (9-05-2006)

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Academic year 2005/2006