Empowerment of Women in Sylvia Plath's Lady Lazarus and Eavan Boland's Anorexic
Although the title foreshadows an extrinsic approach, this essay mostly features intrinsic analysis. Eavan Boland's "Anorexic" seems descendent from Sylvia Plath's "Lady Lazarus": the two share common elements, yet have significant differences. An examination of the poems' themes reveals that self-destructiveness can serve as empowerment for women.
Plath explores Lady Lazarus' nontraditional view of suicide in her poem; (since Plath does not give the speaker of the poem a name, I will refer to her as Lady Lazarus). Lady Lazarus reveals her first suicide was accidental, but she reveals that her two subsequent deaths have been deliberate. This is
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In renaming her starvation arson, she both echoes Plath and familiarizes the reader with the severity of her intent: her self-opinion is elusive, but clearly she despises her body: "Now the bitch is burning.//She has learned her lesson" (15, 18). Likely a nod to Plath, Boland mostly uses three-lined stanzas; her conciseness can be considered symbolic of the reductiveness of anorexia, and the woman's desire to physically reduce herself. In identifying herself, the woman declares "I am starved and curveless./I am skin and bone" (16-17). This minimalist perception of herself is nostalgic of Lady Lazarus remaining as only ashes, wedding ring, etc: both of these woman are temporally proximal to self-inflicted death. Finally, Boland includes a religious reference, like Plath, only less overtly: the rib to which the woman compares herself and "the fall" suggests Adam and Eve.
Lady Lazarus declares she has nine lives, and that she will kill herself every ten years, asserting control of her fate and existence; "To annihilate each decade" (24) is to ensure her the freedom from her past to define her future self, to paraphrase Sartre. Plath's Nazi allusion is not well defined by the text, thus, this could be a subtle criticism of Adolf Hitler's manifestation of anti-nihilism, (his
'Hollow, ' written by Elissa Soave is a poem which evokes strong feelings of sympathy in me. The poem describes a girl or woman who is suffering from the mental condition, anorexia nervosa. The theme of this poem is the extreme mental and physical suffering endured by this girl due to this condition. The poet 's successful use of many poetic techniques helps add to the dark mood of the poem which also compels us to feel understanding and sympathy towards her.
Poets, Judith Wright, Sylvia Plath and Emily Dickenson all express their views on life and death, however, do so in varying manners. Through imagery, Wright and Plath both consider life’s beginnings, however, Wright considers it to be a beautiful gift, whereas Plath views birth as an empty burden. Subsequently, through structure Dickenson and Wright each acknowledge life, expressing how in some cases it is difficult, yet in other circumstances it is celebrated. Finally, through tone, Dickenson and Plath convey their views on death, yet differ in that Plath believes it is purifying and holds a sick fascination with it, while Dickenson instead holds a unique curiosity about it. Therefore, whilst each poet recognises the journey of birth,
Sylvia Plath is known as a profound writer, depicted by her lasting works of literature and her suicide which put her poems and novel of debilitating depression into a new perspective. In her poem “Lady Lazarus,” written in 1962, her mental illness is portrayed in a means to convey to her readers the everyday struggle of depression, and how it affects her view of her world, herself, and even those who attempt to tackle her battle with her. This poem, among other poetry pieces and her novel The Bell Jar, identify her multiple suicide attempts, and how the art of dying is something she has become a master of. Plath’s “Lady Lazarus,” about her trap of depression and suicide attempts, is effective and thought provoking because of her allusions to WWII Nazi Germany and the feelings of oppression and Nazism that the recurring images evoke.
In 1963 on a cold winter day of February 11th, Sylvia Plath ended her life. She had plugged up her kitchen, sealing up the cracks in doors and windows before she was found with her head inside of her gas oven inhaling the dangerous fumes. She was only thirty years old, a young woman with two small children and an estranged ex-husband. A tragic detail of her life is that this is the second time she had tried to commit suicide. Plagued with mental illness her whole life, which is evident within her poetry. She would write gripping, honest portrayals of mental illnesses. Especially within Ariel, the last poetry book she wrote, right before she took her life. Although it’s hard to find a proper diagnosis for Sylvia Plath, it is almost definite that she at least had clinical depression with her numerous suicide attempts and stays in mental hospitals undergoing electroshock therapy. Sylvia Plath is now famously known for her writing and the more tragic parts of her life. Such as the separation from her husband, Ted Hughes, mental illness, etc… Plath may not have intended for her life and art to become inspiration to many people but that has become the end result. Sylvia Plath writing shows symptoms of her suicidal thoughts. To study specific moments in Sylvia Plath’s life, it can be connected to certain writing’s of her’s, such as “Daddy”, The Bell Jar, and “Lady Lazarus”.
From the title, Plath gives us immediately the theme of the poem. The title is a reference to a man in the New Testament that had been dead for four days, and was raised to life by Jesus. Plath uses this literary allusion to establish right off the bat that she
Sylvia Plath was an American Poet who was renowned for poetry mostly in the United States. She, however lived a difficult and depressing life which led to a few futile suicide attempts, but ultimately led to a successful suicide attempt leaving her children to live on without a mother. This end result was due to a multitude of issues in her life from Sylvia’s sanity. She wasn’t the most stable child. Her marriage also played a role in her suicide. Her successes weren’t acclaimed until after her death, when a majority of her work was released. There were two major aspects to her life: her poetry and her sanity. These three combined make up a majority of Sylvia’s life.
After the affair Plath grew increasingly depressed and eventually committed suicide. He said that “Plaths death was inevitable, she had been on that track most of her life,” but he could not contend with the additional suicide of Wevill in 1969, which he said was “utterly within her power, and it was an outcome of her reaction to Sylvia’s action,” which led to Wevill’s suicide.” These past horrific experiences strongly affected Hughes future relationships and poetry.
She enforces this idea onto the narrator tirelessly regardless of actually considering her daughter’s outlook of the mother’s idea. This shows that the narrator’s mother has taken another extreme to be too involved and controlling her life. Next, is the time and age the speaker and narrator are from the poem, “Hanging Fire”, and the story, “Two kinds”, are currently in. For instance, in Lorde’s poem, the speaker says she is fourteen, and she has various ordeals to do. Due to constant pressure and confusion and the lonesome environment she lives in, she questions whether she would come out of it alive and how would people finally understand her. This depicts that the speaker is currently a teenage girl who shall live the moment to then eventually confront and solve her
There are several ways to look at the poem, Lady Lazarus and one of those ways is that it could be looked at suicide and also about someone who is obviously emotionally troubled with this self-fulfilling satisfaction in killing herself. It’s like a prophecy that needs to be fulfilled and she does so every so often; at least every decade. Also, the poem could be said to be about someone with a severe mental disorder which explains the radical behavior of the suicidal attempts every now and then and she takes pleasure in doing so.
"Lady Lazarus," the last of the October poems, presents Plath as the victim with her aggression turned towards "her male victimizer (33)." Lady Lazarus arises from Herr Doktor's ovens as a new being, her own incarnation, "the victim taking on the powers of the victimizers and drumming herself into uses that are her own" (33). Linda Bundtzen also sees the poem as "an allegory
Employing her essay with key terms like body image, anorexia, and bulimia among other disorders, the essayist has written her piece rife with appeals to pathos to define them; the essay’s introduction carries her readers into a girl’s mind who struggles with her appearance
Anderson’s novel is an intense look at mental and physical pain endured by teens with eating disorders. The plot is familiar enough, both in fiction and in real life. Our heroine, Lia, already ill, is sent on a vicious downward spiral into anorexia and self-harm by the news that her ex-best friend, Cassie, has died alone in a motel room from excessive purposeful purging. The desperation and self-hatred that this triggers are set against
Sylvia Plath’s life was one of a troubled woman. Her lack of sanity was deeply reflected in her works of writing. Her mental state was very much affected by her life experiences such as her feelings of betrayal towards her father and her instable marriage to Ted Hughes. Plath’s poetry, was a way to explore her mental anguish and share her fixation with death, due to her deathly depression. Despite Sylvia Plath’s crippling life, her poetry was constructed in such an artistic manner in which it touched the lives of many
How Sylvia Plath's Life is Reflected in the Poems Daddy, Morning Song, and Lady Lazarus
The poem Lady Lazarus by the late Sylvia Plath uses several different literary devices. However, one stands out more than the rest: Enjambment. The poem has an abundance of uses of enjambment; in fact, a majority of the stanzas in the poem include the device.