Sylvia Plath's "Lady Lazarus"

At the beginning of the poem she starts off by describing death, how it is vicious, swift, unbiased and unforgiving.

Beginning with the title, Plath takes a clear point of view as a Jewish person in the Holocaust. The Lazarus of Bethany, who was raised from the dead by Jesus, is the first allusion Plath incorporates. Lady Lazarus is a play on the Lazarus of Bethany, as Plath feels as if she has died several times from her failed suicide attempts, which she explains in the beginning of the poem. She believes she has tainted every decade of her life with an unsuccessful attempt, and can’t seem to go ten years without a new one. In the second stanza, she begins to introduce her allusions to the Holocaust and German Nazis, but not before she explains that she is

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”.

In her poem, “Lady Lazarus,” Sylvia Plath uses dark imagery, disturbing diction, and allusions to shameful historical happenings to create a unique and morbid tone that reflects the necessity of life and death. Although the imagery and diction and allusions are all dark and dreary, it seems that the speaker’s attitude towards death is positive. The speaker longs for death, and despises the fact the she is continually raised up out of it.

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.

Sylvia Plath displays many themes in her work; however she has the tendency to conceal and dig her themes, metaphors, and symbols deep in her poetic words, which leaves us readers left to decipher them. Plath is a poet that conveys quite compelling emotions through her work and is both prodigious and petrifying while still gloomy and relieving. Though there are many themes to revisit, the more significant ones evident in her writing will be explored. Mortality, journey, depression, and hope are the key themes that strike the heart of Plath’s poetry and will be further analyzed. Poems such as Blackberrying, Crossing the Water, Departure, Suicide off egg Rock, and Mystic, display a very strong

When observing how Sylvia Plath’s life affected her poetry, it is important not to overlook her distinguished poem ‘Lady Lazarus’. Plath uses numerous forms of imagery to establish her emotions of pain and agony. Throughout the poem, Plath brazenly associates her depression and oppression to the experiences of Holocaust victims. Her hatred of life is also represented through her use of the Holocaust as imagery:

She is objectified; she is no more than a mere spectacle to the ravenous assembly before her. People even are willing to “shove in to see” her in her worst conditions, utterly powerless. It is as if Lady Lazarus is put into her own world, a separate sphere of reality where she lacks any form of jurisdiction. Because of this objectification and dehumanization, Lady Lazarus is left feeling empty and used by the public as a source to feed their sadistic needs. However, this lack of power is juxtaposed with the last stanza (lines 82-84) where Lady Lazarus appears to have regained total control. Lady Lazarus has regained control indeed, but she has acquired control over death. This “life long flirtation with suicide” (Moramarco) further separated her from normal society by placing Lady Lazarus into an indefinable category of people who wish to gain power but are constantly committing suicide. Because of this, she is back with a vengeance to gain fulfillment for her isolation. She tries “eat[ing] men like air”, but her soul is still left vacant. Even though she appears to have amazing power, she is left even more empty than when she started her mission to end her isolation. Juxtaposition is also a major contributor to the style of “Tulips”. The narrator feels trapped and isolated in comparison to the vivacious community of vicious tulips that surrounds her. The narrator expresses her

Sylvia Plath uses a lot of allusions in her poem “Lady Lazarus” to add a deep and ghostly meaning to the words that she uses. These biblical and historical allusions also add an extremely angry tone of voice. Ultimately, these biblical and historical allusions show her message that almost dying is an event she likes to be a part of. For example, Plath uses a historical allusion to the holocaust in the beginning of the poem. The reference to the holocaust and other things create the main tone of death.

In Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy,” and “Lady Lazarus,” Plath displays her deepest emotions and concerns. Her beliefs completely contradicts her fathers so she has to deal with a lot of negative emotions throughout her life. Both of these poems were both written at the end of Plath’s life and really show her state of mind. Throughout her poems, we are able to see the motivation behind her feelings and her suicide attempts. “Daddy,” and “Lady Lazarus,” by Sylvia Plath are the closing notes to Plath’s grudges towards her father, her husband, and many other things.

In Sylvia Plath’s poem “Lady Lazarus”, Plath uses the horrific events of the Holocaust to symbolize the numerous deaths and rebirths of Lady Lazarus. Each death in the story is at the fault of a man and at the end of the story, Lady Lazarus rises from the ashes with a new vigor and devours all men to take back the reins of her life. Resurrection is an important theme throughout the poem and Plath uses both the name of Lady Lazarus, and more importantly, the nature of the mythical phoenix to emphasize this. The symbolization of the phoenix being reborn unravels the idea that Lady Lazarus invited these deaths with the knowledge that after each death comes a self-empowering metamorphosis.

It is difficult to make me uncomfortable. I feel that most individuals of my generation feel that way. Desensitized because of the information sensory overload that our symbiotic relationship with technology has created. The individuals, lack sensitivity. My generation as a whole, that’s another story. Somehow, my generation became the most desensitized at the same time it became the easiest to offend. This is why I love the poem “Lady Lazarus” by Sylvia Plath so much. In the midst of the 20th century Plath touched on topics of depression and suicide in such a shameless way that, it is capable of evoking emotion most modern forms of expression fail to reach. To do this Plath masterfully uses imagery that creates a sense of repulsion and dread that only work to add to the general tone of the poem. Additionally, the idea of a top 40 artist using holocaustic imagery to pontificate about how sad they were about the on goings at the club feels quite absurd, not to mention inevitable outrage of social justice warriors for the use of holocaust imagery in the first place. “Lady Lazarus” made me uncomfortable. It did so, because out of all of media that my generation has available to us, this poem is one of the most relatable and accurate depictions of a personal struggle with depression I’ve encountered. Nearly 60 years ago, Sylvia Plath, fearlessly used controversial imagery, and masterful metaphor and allusion to illustrate the personal, and subtle nuance of depression in a way

How Sylvia Plath's Life is Reflected in the Poems Daddy, Morning Song, and Lady Lazarus

Sylvia Plath lived from 1932-1963, dying at the age of 30. In her short life, however, she witnessed World War Two and the Cold War. Both of these events inimitably influenced her life and writing style, which can be observed in her works “Daddy” and “Lady Lazarus”, where she uses Holocaust imagery to draw connections between her life and the lives of the Jewish people held captive in concentration camps. Through her use of imagery she tackles personal and political issues encapsulating feelings of victimization, loss of individualism and fear for an impeding reoccurrence of a worldwide holocaust through nuclear buildup.

Some of the dark negative emotions Sylvia Plath shares in this poem can make anyone have sympathy on her feelings. Especially, when she writes,