Sylvia Plath Essay Lady Lazarus
__Lady Lazarus__
Sylvia Plath’s Lady Lazarus is an incredible metaphor of rebirth; the whole idea of a new life from death. Plath throughout her life was suicidal and many of her most famous works revolve around the ideas of death being a new beginning and a way of escaping enslavement from many various factors that bind us to life. There is nothing different about this poem from all of Plath’s other works. She as always represents her life troubles through a worldly event in this case the Holocaust.
This poem is also focused around the biblical story of Lazarus. Lazarus lived with his two sisters, Mary and Martha, in Bethany. Lazarus became ill and his sisters prayed to Jesus to save him. By the time Jesus came to save Lazarus he had been dead four days and his sisters doubted his power. Jesus raised Lazarus though, even with their lack of faith.
In this poem Sylvia sees herself as Lady Lazarus and is resurrected, but unlike the story she is experiencing this rebirth many times, and through suicide. She wrote this poem directing it towards her husband as a cry for affection. Plath saw her husband as her father (shown in Daddy) and thus craves his affection. The poem is a cry for help; Plath’s ways of saying love me before I go through this cycle again; love me before you kill me.
This poem can be seen in two perspectives, first the literal perspective which shows it as a cry for love in one point in time metaphorically the holocaust. The second is indicating a desperate plea for a heroic male figure, and the poem is representing her life’s depressions and her path to her death without this figure to save her.
This poem is written in three lined stanzas, each stanza adding metaphors and evidence to her true purpose of the poem. The first stanza opens the poem with the idea of an event happening more than once, and this event is not necessarily bad because she has achieved it again. This event she speaks of is her rebirth. The next three stanzas she jumps to
Sylvia Plath’s Lady Lazarus is an incredible metaphor of rebirth; the whole idea of a new life from death. Plath throughout her life was suicidal and many of her most famous works revolve around the ideas of death being a new beginning and a way of escaping enslavement from many various factors that bind us to life. There is nothing different about this poem from all of Plath’s other works. She as always represents her life troubles through a worldly event in this case the Holocaust.
This poem is also focused around the biblical story of Lazarus. Lazarus lived with his two sisters, Mary and Martha, in Bethany. Lazarus became ill and his sisters prayed to Jesus to save him. By the time Jesus came to save Lazarus he had been dead four days and his sisters doubted his power. Jesus raised Lazarus though, even with their lack of faith.
In this poem Sylvia sees herself as Lady Lazarus and is resurrected, but unlike the story she is experiencing this rebirth many times, and through suicide. She wrote this poem directing it towards her husband as a cry for affection. Plath saw her husband as her father (shown in Daddy) and thus craves his affection. The poem is a cry for help; Plath’s ways of saying love me before I go through this cycle again; love me before you kill me.
This poem can be seen in two perspectives, first the literal perspective which shows it as a cry for love in one point in time metaphorically the holocaust. The second is indicating a desperate plea for a heroic male figure, and the poem is representing her life’s depressions and her path to her death without this figure to save her.
This poem is written in three lined stanzas, each stanza adding metaphors and evidence to her true purpose of the poem. The first stanza opens the poem with the idea of an event happening more than once, and this event is not necessarily bad because she has achieved it again. This event she speaks of is her rebirth. The next three stanzas she jumps to