Sylvia Plath's "Lady Lazarus," Deconstructed
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Politics and Activism

Sylvia Plath's "Lady Lazarus," Deconstructed

Unpacking one of Sylvia Plath's most famous poems

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Sylvia Plath's "Lady Lazarus," Deconstructed
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Plath has long been my favorite author and poet. I have often read and studied her poetry, as well as her novel "The Bell Jar."I was first introduced to Plath my Sophomore year of high school, and I have read and re-read her novel, as well as studied her poems and life.I sympathize with Plath as she suffered from mental illness throughout her short life. She was battling depression and dancing back and forth with time in mental hospitals and having invasive and intense medical treatments for her depression, such as Electric shock therapy. Though I am not diagnosed with clinical depression I feel very moved, and can relate to her poetry and her life easily having severe GAD, as well as ADHD, and struggling with it my entire life. Disorders such as these are often very comorbid with depression.

Additionally, the medications I take can sometimes lead me to feel zombie like, and lead me to become very depressed, and/or numb. Plath’s style of writing and my knowledge of her experiences allowed me to feel understood in times when no one else could understand me. She also has a very distinct writing style that actually is relevant to certain aspects of my own writing style. I am very keen on her use of imagery, metaphors, and figurative language seeing that I also use a large amount in my own work as well. I have decided to explicate my all-time favorite poem by Plath, "Lady Lazarus."This poem is certainly an amazing poem, but one that you need to really think outside the box and read between the lines, in order to see that this is a poem about Plath’s struggle with her mental illness, and how she viewed her own life to be herself against the world.

To start out, the name sets the entire scene for the entire poem. In my first time reading Lady Lazarus I thought nothing of the title, but after closer consideration I realized that the title is usually a huge contributing factor to the poem. In the Bible, Lazarus was actually resurrected by Jesus back from the dead. Clearly there is a reason Plath is using Lazarus as a way to describe the speaker. Plath additionally uses names in a lot of her poems as a way to separate herself from her work. I will come back to explain the use of the name in the title later on.

I have done it again.

One year in every ten

I manage it—

The first stanza starts out with a sort of confession from our speaker, Lady Lazarus. Since Plath is using Lady Lazarus as a way to disconnect herself from her poetry, Lady Lazarus is actually a direct reflection of Sylvia Plath. Here the first stanza is referring to Plath’s various suicide attempts throughout her life. She’s saying she’s done it again so to say, she has made another attempt at taking her own life. When she says one year in every ten she has attempted to kill herself, she says this in a way that gives the impression that she doesn’t see this as a very big deal, it’s just something that happens every ten years or so, just like any other minor mishap in everyday life.

The background of this stanza describes her suicide attempts in more depth. Plath’s first attempt happened when she was ten years old, which she describes in the poem as being an accident. Her first documented suicide attempt was on August 24, 1953, after she had endured electroconvulsive therapy in an attempt to treat her depression, and she tried to take her life by overdosing on her mother’s pills underneath her home. Her second documented attempt was in June of 1962 when she drove her car off the side of the road into a river and admitted to trying to take her life when questioned by the police. Her last and lethal attempt was on February 11th in 1963 when, after sealing off the kitchen, she took a bottle of sleeping pills and stuck her head in the oven. All but the last attempt that ended with fatality is what “Lady Lazarus” is referencing in the first stanza.

A sort of walking miracle, my skin

Bright as Nazi lampshade,

My right foot

In this next stanza Lady Lazarus refers to herself as some sort of walking miracle. Why? It’s due to her last reference to suicide attempts; each has been nothing but an attempt, the only attempt that ended with fatality is clearly not being mentioned. So, it seems like Lady Lazarus is calling herself a walking miracle because with all of the attempts she’s made at taking her life she is still alive. Plath is insinuating that she really should be dead, and that maybe she actually wants to be dead. Additionally, Plath makes the first of many Nazi references in this stanza. When she refers to her skin being as bright as a Nazi lampshade, she is hinting at one of the many gruesome things the Nazis did to the Jews. They Nazis made lampshades out of the flesh of their deceased victims. This is this first instance in which we hear Lady Lazarus speak up about being a victim to society.

A paperweight,

My face a featureless, fine

Jew Linen.

Here Lady Lazarus is making a reference to Jews in Nazi Germany. Why? It seems as if Lady Lazarus is picturing herself as a Jew in Nazi Germany as a way to state that she is a victim, for her entire life she has been weighed down by the people oppressing her and treating her poorly. We aren’t sure exactly who Lady Lazarus is referencing but, we can assume it’s more than one person; most likely she feels attacked by society as a whole.

Peel of the napkin

O my enemy.

Do I terrify?

Lady Lazarus continues to reference Jews and Nazi Germany in this stanza. She makes the enemy out to be the Germans which figuratively speaking represents society, or possibly Plath’s father, who was of German descent and a Nazi sympathizer. Lady Lazarus sees herself as a victim, or a “Jew” in a concentration camp. In the time of Nazi Germany, the Jews would address an enemy and say “though I have fallen I will rise.” Here Lady Lazarus is continuing to represent to us the strong connection she feels with Jewish people. Lady Lazarus is stating that although society has oppressed her and beaten her down, she will get back on her high horse eventually, just like the saying in Nazi Germany. Also, just like Lazarus was resurrected from the dead, Lady Lazarus seems to be foreshadowing that she will, like each time before, rise again.

The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth?

The sour breath

Will vanish in a day.

Here Lady Lazarus gets very descriptive with her imagery, describing herself as a living corpse. I think that she’s trying to portray that though she may be alive and well, she still feels as if she is dead, or that she may as well be dead. Lady Lazarus forces us to feel the pain and suffering she feels in her life by portraying the way that life feels like death to her, and by making it clear that she’d rather be dead than live another day on this earth. She makes it a point to say that all these things, her teeth and the sour breath will vanish when she’s fully dead. Through reading the poem, it was here that I recognized, or rather paid more attention to, the structure of the poem. Plath has written the poem in “Tercets” (lines of three), with short quick sentences. This makes reading through the poem very quick, and it changes direction rather fast. One thing I like about the style in which Plath constructed this poem is that though the lines are short and seem empty at first there are many metaphors and hidden meanings throughout the poem. The lines are short but when you think about them in more depth you find that the poem is more than what it seems to be at first glance.

Soon, soon the flesh

The grave cave ate will be

At home on me

Lady Lazarus, in saying she’s half dead, explains that in coming close to dying so many times, that it feels as if her grave ate her flesh. Lazarus gives us this gory description of her as some sort of zombie or walking corpse, who is alive but has already started to rot before she has even been buried. This is yet another way to depict how Lady Lazarus feels about her life. She feels as if her life is rotten, decaying away and that it is painful to endure. I also noticed a lot of rhyme in this particular stanza. Because there is no specific rhyme scheme in this poem the sudden burst of rhyme in this stanza with words grave, cave, ate, flesh, me, and be make the poem feel as if it’s collapsing on itself, like death is slowly closing in on Lady Lazarus, or like her world is slowly caving in little by little as she approaches the end, and when she does, the flesh that was eaten by her grave will feel like home.

And I a smiling woman.

I am only thirty.

And like the cat I have nine times to die.

This stanza is a bit disturbing; we see clearly how mentally ill Lady Lazarus is here by the tone this stanza takes. She is smiling, but what does she have to smile about? Death is the only thing on Lady Lazarus’s mind right now, and it’s something that makes her happy, that eases her mind. Lady Lazarus makes her wish to die even more apparent when she describes herself as a cat. But instead of saying like the cat she has nine lives she says she has nine times to die, as if to say she will continue trying to take her life until she’s used all of her nine lives and death becomes permanent.

This is Number Three

What a trash

To Annihilate each decade.

Here is another reference to Plath’s various encounters with death, and her various suicide attempts. By number three she means her third attempt at suicide. This line leaves us with some ambiguity about whether or not Lady Lazarus is alive or dead. When Lazarus says “What a trash” she’s making a reference to her life, meaning her life is nothing but trash anyway, and each decade she lives on, each time she fails at dying she’s destroying yet another decade with her presence. This is clearly a very heavy and vexing topic, Lady Lazarus’ dark and depressed tone really rings in the readers’ mind, and she’s alarming with her frankness on her feelings about her life and suicide attempts. In this stanza it’s as if Lady Lazarus is asking why not annihilate something worth dying, like herself.

What a million filaments.

The peanut-crunching crowd

Shoves in to see

In this stanza Lady Lazarus starts to talk about herself as if she’s some sort of circus act, like she is the main attraction at the circus and the crowd is all gathered to see her put on a show. Lady Lazarus is suggesting here that her dying, pain, and suffering is what the crowd is gathered to see, that people find her mental illness and her attempts at suicide to be entertaining. When she describes herself as a million filaments, she is referencing herself as a million strands of fine linen. This describes Lady Lazarus as delicate and fragile, holding on by just a few strands. Here we get the image of Lady Lazarus being unraveled by society, only to be stitched back together each time.

Them unwrap me hand and foot--

The big strip tease.

Gentlemen, ladies

These are my hands

My knees.

I may be skin and bone,

Lady Lazarus continues on the topic of herself as an act of entertainment for people in this stanza. When she says “Then unwrap me hand and foot” the them is referencing society, saying that society provokes her and exposes her only so they can watch her suffer for their own selfish entertainment. “The big strip tease” is referencing Lady Lazarus as being the main event at a circus or carnival, or even a strip club. Being forced into an imaginary strip tease she loses all control of her own body as she becomes an object for a hungry crowd; a “peanut-crunching crowd.”

It’s interesting that Lady Lazarus seems to be in control of her precise, curt language, but this contrasts with the feelings of powerlessness that she has in being an object and victim to the crowd. Lady Lazarus casts herself not only as a circus spectacle but also as a holocaust victim. Lady Lazarus also seems to waver in her tone throughout the poem leading me to ask, who has the power in the poem? Is it society? Or is it Lady Lazarus?

Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman.

The first time it happened I was ten.

It was an accident.

Here Lady Lazarus talks about her various encounters with death, and how she miraculously comes back to life each time. This is where the title of the poem stems from. Plath uses “Lady Lazarus” as a way to remove herself from the poem even though the poem is in fact about Plath’s own experiences. She creates a character using a metaphor to reference her various non-fatal suicide attempts, suggesting she has the same ability Lazarus had when he was brought back from the dead. When Lady Lazarus talks about her first encounter with death, stating it was an accident, she is referencing Plath’s near death experience when she was ten years old. When Lady Lazarus says “Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman” she means to say that she is the same woman she was before, she did not undergo a change or miraculous metamorphosis. Lady Lazarus is stating she feels the same pain, she still suffers from mental illness, she is still trapped in the role she casts herself to be, and she is still the victim when she comes back to life.

The second time I meant

To last it out and not come back at all.

I rocked shut

The “second time” here refers to Plath’s 1st documented suicide attempt, in which she tried overdosing on her mother’s pills under her house. This states the true intent in which she took those pills, saying though Sylvia’s first encounter with death was an accident, the second, and the ones to follow, were made with intent of a fatal outcome. This stanza creates a hard image of Lady Lazarus curled up, trying to shut the world out, to turn to stone, and fade out of the world. This is very reminiscent of Sylvia’s 1st documented suicide attempt because she was under the crawl space of her mother’s house curled up in a dark, damp, quiet place. We can picture that Plath is trying to depict this memory using Lady Lazarus as an alter ego. This also makes me think that Plath had such disturbing and troubling thoughts haunting her mind that this thought, to kill herself and quietly go and become one with the soil and insects, actually eased her mind. It was as if she couldn’t find peace or happiness in the world, but she found peace and quiet in death.

As a seashell.

They had to call and call

And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls.

This stanza further elaborates on the concept of Lady Lazarus wanting to shut out the world. It’s like Lady Lazarus wishes she could just close herself off from the rest of the world like a seashell. She is also describing Plath’s first suicide attempt as well. The idea of a seashell all closed up connects with the idea of a dead and closed clam at the bottom of the sea amongst bottom feeders slowly decomposing. Lady Lazarus is referring to herself as nothing but worm’s food. This thought ties back into the earlier depiction of Plath’s first suicide attempt. Her location underneath her house paints a vivid picture of her desire to become one with the soil, to decompose with the earth. The “they” in this stanza refers to the people trying to save her. This could be family, friends, or even doctors. It’s referencing whoever continues to bring Lady Lazarus back to life. Here Lady Lazarus is stating that though she survived various encounters with death, she still was dead for a period of time. She was dead long enough for her body to start decomposing and be eaten by worms. This connects back to the thought of Lady Lazarus feeling dead even though she’s alive.

Dying

Is an art, like everything else.

I do it exceptionally well.

This stanza starts out with an enjambment after the word dying. This leads the reader to assume that Lady Lazarus is going to speak in a depressed tone, or portray her suicidal thoughts again. However, we see this is not the case when she uses art as a metaphor for death. Now why does Lady Lazarus compare death to art? She says “like everything else” so does this mean that she believes that life as well as death is an art? Basically Lady Lazarus is referring to herself as an artist. This could stem back to when she referred to herself as a circus act, so Lady Lazarus is an artistic genius at dying? Well not exactly, sure she has died various times, according to her previous statements, but each time she has come back to life. In reality Lady Lazarus continues to fail at dying, so she is actually quite bad at the act of dying. It seems that Lady Lazarus fails at dying due to the people who keep trying to bring her back. I think that Lady Lazarus sees the people saving her as doing it for the sake of the show. If they continue to bring her back she can continue to be a theatrical spectacle.

I do it so it feels like hell.

I do it so it feels real.

I guess you could say I’ve a call.

This stanza is a continuation of the previous stanza. Lady Lazarus says that she does it so it feels like hell, and so that it feels real. The “it” is obviously referring to suicide. I believe that she is attempting suicide in order to feel something, even if that something is pain. I believe that this has a direct correlation to Plath’s actual emotion, because often times people who suffer from depression can feel a lack of emotion or loneliness, like they are in a dream, or they can even feel completely numb and emotionless. I think that this is a direct reflection of how Sylvia Plath began to feel, especially due to her being in and out of mental hospitals and psychiatric treatment and enduring all of the harsh medical treatments such as electroconvulsive shock therapy. The combination of these were certainly enough to make her feel un-human, like her life was nothing but a medical experiment. It’s as if Sylvia felt like a lab rat due to her mental illness. This is completely understandable considering in her time mental illness was harshly criticized, stigmatized, and misunderstood more than it is in today’s society. Lastly here Lady Lazarus says she’s got a call, which doesn’t necessarily mean that she’s good at her “Art” or dying, but rather she is attracted to death, it has control over her, like a little voice in her head controlling her thoughts.

It’s easy enough to do it in a cell.

It’s easy enough to do it and stay put.

It’s the theatrical

Lady Lazarus moves back to the theme of her death as a performance. But instead, this time, she refers to her death as a theatrical performance, rather than a circus spectacle. She puts on a show for people, she’s the leading role in a drama to entertain people. If this is really how Plath feels, its no wonder she wants to escape and be left alone by the rest of the world.

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

Here Lady Lazarus talks again about her ability to come back from the dead and her inability to die. Again she makes it clear that even though she comes back to life she is still the same person she was before death. She refers to herself as the same brute, a beast or nonhuman creature, rather than agreeing with the person who shouts “a miracle”. It’s clear that she does not see her resurrection from the dead as a miracle, rather more of a burden or another failed attempt at peace. The second stanza here has a very violent tone; it’s as if Lady Lazarus is in a fight with the people stating she’s a walking miracle. Lady Lazarus is angry with them for saving her, she doesn’t see herself as a miracle. She sees herself as just another experiment, another show. Lady Lazarus is knocked out by that statement, to her it’s like a fist to the gut, because deep down she knows that they don’t really care about her life.

For the eyeing of 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

Like any other show, or performance, play, circus, etc. you need to pay for admission. Lady Lazarus suggests that there is a charge for her spectacle, people need to pay to see the show she puts on. In the second stanza she progressively gets more personal with the items she’s describing, as to say that people are one by one taking little pieces of her and she progressively becomes weaker, less human, and closer to death as she slowly loses pieces that make her complete.

Or a piece of my hair or my clothes.

So, so, Herr Doktor.

So, Herr Enemy.

The word “Herr” is a German word that translates to Mr. or Sir. Here is yet another instance in which we see bits of Plath shine through revealing the poem is in fact about Plath and Lady Lazarus is just a way to separate herself from the poem. Sylvia Plath was of German descent, so this explains why she would posses at least some German vocabulary. This additionally stems back to how Sylvia feels she has a close connection with the Jews in Nazi Germany, she feels victimized and besieged by society as the Jews were by the Germans. She imagines herself burning with the Jews. Additionally, it’s clear Lady Lazarus is no fan of doctors because they continue to bring her back to life each time she tries to take it. In Nazi Germany doctors preformed cruel and lethal experiments on Jews. This could be a direct reflection of how Plath felt about being institutionalized and becoming the subject of medical care to help her with her depression.

I am your opus,

I am your valuable,

The pure gold baby

Now Lady Lazarus is comparing herself to an “Opus”, a piece of musical work. This relates back to her feeling like a theatrical performance. She is reiterating the fact that she feels as if she is nothing more than art being exploited for entertainment. Then she says that she is our valuable, the pure gold that melts to a shriek. I think Lady Lazarus is insinuating that she is valuable, and worthy of happiness in relating herself to gold, but society fails to see how valuable she really is because they continue to write her off, classifying her as “psycho” and putting her on display. The word “melt” is an explanation of how Lady Lazarus feels victimized by society and doctors. They fix her up, “melt the gold” to make something new, not realizing they are hurting her in the process. You can melt gold and rework it into whatever you want, resell it, but it’s still gold, just like when Lady Lazarus said “The same place, same face, same brute.” She’s saying that they can dress her up, hospitalize her, give her shock therapy, but at the end of the day nothing changes, she’s still the same.

That melts to a shriek.

I turn and burn.

Do not think I underestimate your great concern.

The word shriek here is also another Nazi reference, Lady Lazarus is again sympathizing with the Jews and imagining herself burning with them. Another reason for all the Nazi references could be because Plath’s father was German as well as a Nazi sympathizer, so not only could the references be about society, but also about Plath’s father. Lady Lazarus paints a vivid picture in this stanza of her being a victim with no control over her own life. When she says “I turn and burn”, we can imagine her burning in flames, screaming in pain because she has no way out, because she is powerless in her situation.

Ash, ash--

You poke and stir.

Flesh, bone, there is nothing there--

This stanza makes me imagine doctors again, trying to fix Sylvia, to figure out the problem and patch her up again. When Lady Lazarus says “ash ash you poke and stir. Flesh bone there is nothing there” I can imagine Plath being locked away in an asylum with doctors constantly poking her with needles, running tests, administering shock therapy, and talk therapy. Plath explains that they continued to poke at her trying to find some sort of solution, and use her for further psychological discovery and knowledge even though nothing helps. It just further agitates and depresses Plath.

A cake of soap,

A wedding ring,

A gold filling.

The Nazi references continue through this stanza. It’s like Lady Lazarus is imagining a Nazi looking through a crematorium after she was burned alive amongst them, to see nothing. The Nazi’s actually did this after they cremated people alive. They searched for gold fillings, wedding rings and other valuable jewelry. Also, however vile it may be, they made soap from the ashes and remains of the people they cremated. They searched for anything left from the Jews that they could further profit from.

Herr God, Herr Lucifer

Beware

Beware.

Here we see the use of the German word Herr again to address god and the devil, Lady Lazarus has just been burnt alive and is now dead and sending her warning as if she’s haunting her enemies and warning them that there is more to come. This is interesting because it’s as if Lady Lazarus sees both God and Satan as her enemy. This also compares the doctor whom she addressed the same way, earlier in the poem. It’s like she’s trying to prove a point so to say the doctor plays a role of a god, a good man who helps people, but underneath the façade he is evil as Satan. The words “beware beware” make a sort of crescendo as if to warn about the Nazis, which makes sense because many people believed the Nazis were good people, that Hitler was a good man, and the Holocaust was a just act to save Germany, but the reality is it was a foundation based on evil and lies. The warning statement puts Lady Lazarus in a position of power in this stanza which leads the reader to wonder what’s to come, what is Lady Lazarus warning god and the devil about?

Out of the ash

I rise with my red hair

And I eat men like air.

This last stanza clears up the vagueness about Lady Lazarus’s warnings. Lady Lazarus once again rises from the dead after being burnt alive by the Nazis. The intriguing part is that unlike Lazarus, she did not need help to come back from the dead, she brought herself back. This further demonstrates the power Lady Lazarus now possesses. Lady Lazarus wavers in tone throughout the poem, switching nearly back and forth from a feeling of hopelessness to a feeling of power. In the last line, Lady Lazarus say she eats men like air, like they are nothing. Why does Lady Lazarus say this? This could be a representation of Plath, and a bitterness toward men; perhaps because of her father’s poor parenting, and early death, or maybe because of her husband Ted Hughes’ affair with another woman. Whatever the reason Lady Lazarus has once again dodged the grim reaper and rises back from the dead, angry, powerful, and out for revenge.

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