Analysis Lady Lazarus
Analysis Lady Lazarus
Analysis Lady Lazarus
1. The first setting is the circus. What a million filaments. The peanut-
crunching crowd shoves in to see. Them unwrap me hand and footThe big strip
tease. (Lines 25-29). ). In this quote Lady Lazarus portrays herself as a circus
attraction and feels that she is someone who is constantly gawked at and is
humiliated.
Suicide attempts: The narrator begins by saying she has "done it again." Every
ten years, she manages to commit this unnamed act. She considers herself a
walking miracle with bright skin, her right foot a "paperweight," and her face as fine
and featureless as a "Jew linen". Each attempt occurred in a different decade, and
she is now 30 years old. Now that she has been pulled back to life from this most
recent attempt, her "sour breath / Will vanish in a day," and her flesh will return to
her bones.
She address an unspecified enemy, asking him to peel the napkin from her face,
and inquiring whether he is terrified by the features he sees there. She assures him
that her "sour breath" will vanish in a day.
Die 9 times like a cat: She is certain that her flesh will soon be restored to her
face after having been sacrificed to the grave, and that she will then be a smiling,
30 year-old woman. She will ultimately be able to die nine times, like a cat, and has
just completed her third death. She will die once each decade. After each death,
a "peanut-crunching crowd" shoves in to see her body unwrapped. She addresses
the crowd directly, showing them she remains skin and bone, unchanged from who
she was before.
The first death occurred when she was ten, accidentally. The second death was
intentional - she did not mean to return from it. Instead, she was as "shut as a
seashell" until she was called back by people who then picked the worms off her
corpse. She does not specifically identify how either death occurred.
Dying as an art: She believes that "Dying / Is an art, like everything else," and that
she does it very well. By describing dying as an art, she includes a spectator to both
her deaths and resurrections. Because the death is a performance, it necessarily
requires others (The crowd could certainly be understood to include the reader
himself). In large part, she kills herself to punish them for driving her to it. Each
time, "it feels real," and is easy for her. What is difficult is the dramatic comeback,
the return to the same place and body, occurring as it does in broad daylight before
a crowd's cry of "A miracle!" She believes people should pay to view her scars, hear
her heart, or receive a word, touch, blood, hair or clothes from her.
In the final stanzas, she addresses the listener as "Herr Dockter" and "Herr
Enemy," sneering that she is his crowning achievement, a "pure gold baby." She
does not underestimate his concern, but is bothered by how he picks through her
ashes. She insists there is nothing there but soap, a wedding ring, and a gold filling.
She warns "Herr God, Herr Lucifer" to beware of her because she is going to rise out
of the ash and "eat men like air."
Title:
Lazarus was a biblical figure revived by Jesus after being dead for four days. So, just
jumping straight in to things, it is likely coming back to life, but we do not know if
this is literal or figurative.
Lines 3-6:
In lines three to six, Plath introduces the Holocaust imagery by calling herself a
Nazi lampshade. This could refer to the lampshades allegedly made from the skin
of Jews by Nazis to show the pain she suffers from whoever the Nazis are and the
brutality of these Nazis. She also clarifies what the it is in a way by calling herself
a sort of walking miracle. Apparently she has done some amazing feat. This stanza
includes a simile and the beginning of a metaphor which enjambs into the next
stanza. She calls her foot a paperweight, possibly referring to the fact that she cant
leave the ground and float away as a ghost would. She creates another metaphor,
again including Holocaust imagery. So here, we see that because she is personified
by a Jew, she is likely being repressed or terrorized by the Nazis, whoever they are.
In the next stanza, this metaphor continues, and she asks the Nazis that, if you take
away her face and look into her mind, would she scare you with her thoughts? This
likely represents her suicidal and depressed mind, asking those around her, the
Nazis, that if they really saw how she was, would she terrify them? This utilizes
rhetorical question. She elaborates on what might possibly terrify her enemy, the
fact that she looks the same on the outside, but is so tortured on the inside? She
uses rhetorical question once again. Her reference to sour breath makes the reader
wonder if she has been asleep, because that is generally the only experience we
have with sour breath, waking up after being asleep for a long time. Sleep is often
representative of death. The first section of Plaths poem displays the introduction
of Holocaust imagery and the hostile environment that this Lady Lazarus awakens
to.
Lines 16-18:
Lines 28-30:
In her next section, the speaker describes her view on death, and why she
believes she has such an affinity for it. She uses a metaphor to say that dying is an
art, which is odd coming from an artist and poet like herself. It just so happens that
dying is what she does best. She then creates a sort of child like rhyme, which is
vaguely reminiscent of a Dr. Seuss saying, I dont like green eggs and ham. She
uses a lot of simile. She also shows that she is tortured, saying that she wants it to
feel real and feel like hell, even though she is pretty sure she s going to come back.
The first two lines are still vaguely reminiscent of Dr. Seuss. She then creates more
imagery of a show, this time boxing, perhaps. She also show that those around her
never really change, they are all incredibly interested in her pain and her business.
The enjambment of brute amused shout strengthens the oxymoron and shows
how those around her enjoy her pain, and how much her pain increases even more
because of that. She creates more show imagery, as it is often usual in a circus to
make people pay to see the most freakish exhibits, of which she is one. She says
that they have to pay in order to view her in such a state. But with it really goes,
she shows how truly interested people are in her life. She creates the Holocaust
imagery again, by addressing her enemies as herr which means sir in German.
Here, her enemy is the doctor, who we can assume she doesnt like for bringing her
back to life all over again. She uses a few metaphors in lines 67 to 72, showing
how valuable she is to the doctor, because she makes him look good for performing
a miracle and is likely making the profits for eyeing her and selling pieces of her.
She creates more holocaust imagery here, as the Jews were often gassed or burned
to death. The last line is irony, showing that, as he is torturing her, his fake concern
is visible to her as it would not be to others.
In the next section, detailing the final resurrection, Lady Lazarus begins with
a horrifying scene, Nazis digging through the ashes of burned bodies, looking for
anything they could sell.
Lines 79-84:
However, in lines 79 to 84, the tone changes drastically. Now that her enemy has
burned her alive, she sees herself in a position of power, no longer the one being
viewed, but the one viewing, and she warns him of her return. She compares the
doctor, the herr of which she spoke earlier, to god and Lucifer, showing that the
doctor views himself as someone important enough to do the work that only god
should be doing. She warns him that she is going to rise, much like a phoenix would
with the color red. Death has given her a sense of power, and she is not to be
messed with because she is going to kill them before she can be resurrected again.
7. A paperweight,
8. My face a featureless, fine
9. Jew linen.
39.As a seashell.
40.They had to call and call
41.And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls.
42.Dying
43.Is an art, like everything else.
44.I do it exceptionally well.
54.A miracle!
55.That knocks me out.
56.There is a charge
72.Ash, ash
73.You poke and stir.
74.Flesh, bone, there is nothing there
75.A cake of soap,
76.A wedding ring,
77.A gold filling.