Lady Lazarus Essay

Commentary on Lady Lazarus

Sylvia Plath uses dark imagery, disturbing diction, and allusions to shameful historical undertakings to create a morbid yet unique tone that reflects the necessity of life and death in her poem, Lady Lazarus. Even though the imagery, diction and allusions presented in Lady Lazarus are entirely dark and dreary, it seems, looking more closely at Plath’s use of poetic devices, as if that the speaker’s attitude towards death is a positive one. The speaker longs for death, and despises the fact the she is continually raised up out of it. Shown mainly through the word choice, images, allusions, this depressing tone emphasizes the speaker’s feelings about death. Immediately from the title of the poem, the theme
is made known. The title is a reference to a man in the Bible’s New Testament who had been dead for four days, and was raised to life by Jesus Christ. Plath uses this literary allusion to establish right off the bat that she is going to talk about death, and the seemingly inevitable rebirth that follows it. Although the biblical character Lazarus is never mentioned again in the body of the poem, the rebirth that he went through and the action that his name references is constantly mentioned. In the first stanza, the speaker states “I have done it again.
/ One year in every ten / I manage it-----,” (1-3). From the title, it can be inferred that “it” actually to a resurrection of some kind. This conclusion is subsequently corroborated by the listing of how the speaker is reborn, the stages in which life is brought back to her. The entire poem references Lazarus by mentioning how she comes back to life, not just once, but so far, three times: “I am only thirty. / And like the cat I have nine times to die. / This is Number Three,”
(20-22) Plath also uses allusions to the infamous Nazi’s throughout her poem, in conjunction with her biblical allusion to Lazarus and his resurrection. The speaker of the poem refers to her skin as being as “bright as a Nazi lampshade,” which itself is a disquieting image because it has been reported that some Nazi soldiers during the Holocaust created lampshades out of the skin of the Jews they had persecuted. (5) Plath successfully creates a perfect image of what the speaker’s skin looks like as she is reawakened from death, and still manages to tie in a disturbing historical allusion that conjures up horrible images of death.

Later on, towards the end of the poem, Plath makes reference to another set of Nazi actions and by doing so, she strengthens the image of death and destruction. In lines 73 to 78, the speaker declares: Ash, ash— You poke and stir. Flesh, bone, there is nothing there— A cake of soap, A wedding ring, A gold filling. These images and allusions to horrific crimes against humanity do an excellent job of creating an image of death as a horrible, painful thing.
Plath alludes to the burning of the Jews in large ovens, burning them down to ash, so that nothing was left but “gold fillings,” and a “wedding ring,” as well as makes reference to another disturbing slander about the Nazi soldiers and how they made soap out of the Jew’s departed bodies as well as lampshades. These terrible images are designed to paint a wretched view of death. Interestingly enough, these images and ideas that death is a horrible, bad thing runs contrary to the speaker’s actual feelings that death is a grand way to escape life, and in the end it is all she (the speaker) really wants to
do. Although Plath uses atrocious examples of death and uses the rebirth of Lazarus as the basis of the poem, the underlying tone presented is not one of joy. Unlike Lazarus, who was overjoyed to be back among the living, the speaker in Plath’s poem seems to harbor feelings of resentment for being brought back to life over and over again. The speaker states that she is reborn every ten years, and now that she is thirty, she has died and been brought back to life three times. But right after she mentions that this is her third rebirth, she states “What a trash / To annihilate each decade,” (24-25). The line presented is immediately followed by a description of her coming back to life. However that line is a big clue to what the speaker thinks about coming back to the living. The speaker refers to herself as “trash,” and almost suggests as something not worth bringing back from the dead. This same feeling is created again when, in lines 37 to 42, the speaker says: 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. By choosing the words such as “meant to,” and “had to,” connotations of reluctance are brought to mind. The whole feeling of these lines is one of a sever dislike for coming back to life, and a longing to stay deceased. These feelings seem anomalous because life is usually considered preferable over death by normal people. These feelings seem even more out of place because the reasons for wanting to stay dead are not exactly made clear, at least not at this point. So far the reader is only told about the rebirth of the speaker, and given a few clues that she really dislikes being wakened up for the third time, let alone at all. Finally, in lines 51 to 56, the reader gets a glimpse at why the speaker prefers to stay departed: 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. With the reference to the “brute,” there seems to be a man who the speaker is trying to escape from, but somehow cannot escape him. Even death offers no sanctuary from “the same face, the same brute,” (53). Later on, the man that the speaker tries to escape from is given a name, “Herr Docktor…Herr Enemy,” (65, 66). By giving him the German title “Herr,” which translates to mister, the images of the Nazi’s and their actions against the Jews come rushing back. The speaker makes it undoubtedly clear of the hatred she feels for this man that keeps bringing her back to life. She abhors him to such a degree that she lumps him together with the atrocities of the genocidal Nazis. Also, by referencing this man as “Herr,” it can be assumed that this man is the cause of the speaker’s death. Because his title is linked to the Nazi’s and their murders, it is a logical step that, like the Nazi’s, this man is killing her over and over again, as well as bringing her back to life, just so he can do it again. Although the deaths of the Jews were real, the deaths and rebirths of the speaker seem to be more symbolic than literal. She may be talking about an emotional death, where the “brute” may be killing her soul, and then restoring it, only to have it taken away again. However, this passive acceptance of the death and rebirth seems to come to a stop by the end of the poem when the speaker quite clearly makes a severe warning: Beware. Beware. Out of the ash I rise with my red hair And I eat men like air. (80-84) This last statement seems to inspire hope, mainly because of the allusions it makes, as well as the ideals that those allusions embody. When the speaker describes her rising up out of the ashes with her red hair, it recalls images of the mythical Phoenix, a beautiful red bird who died, burned to ash and out of the ashes rose up fresh and new, ready to take on the world and live life again. The phoenix inspires hope and embodies the ideal of second chances. By concluding the poem with a cloaked reference to the phoenix, the speaker sends a message that although her death and rebirth continue to happen, and that death may seem to be the better option, if she is forced to return to life over and over again, she will be as the phoenix emerging from the ashes, strong and assertive, and willing to make a stand. Ultimately, Lady Lazarus represents an extreme use of the 'light verse' technique. Lady Lazarus is also a supreme example of Sylvia Plath's skill as an artist. She takes very personal, painful material and controls and forms it with the utmost rigor into a highly wrought poem. If one would categorize a poem such as Lady Lazarus as 'confessional' or 'extremist’ then we highlight only one of its elements. It is also a poem of social criticism with a strong didactic intent, and a work of art which reveals great technical and intellectual ability.