Analysis Of Lady Lazarus By Sylvia Plath

In the poem, “Lady Lazarus”, Sylvia Plath shows the story of a woman who seems troubled by her life. The speaker of the poem is very melancholic and talks about incidences where she attempted suicide. Lady Lazarus claims to die every decade and has already hit her third “death,” showing her age of thirty. The idea of revival is being played within the poem to cover the fact that she attempted suicide but failed. She may belittle herself at times throughout the poem but shows that she is a strong hearted woman. Plath creates a strong woman who develops suicidal tendencies from being viewed as insignificant, for attempting suicide and being a woman in a male dominated world, by using religious allusions, empowering similes, objectifying metaphors,

The title “Lady Lazarus” is a biblical allusion to Lazarus who was revived by Jesus after being deceased for four days. Although the speaker is not being risen from the dead, the speaker is reviving herself and coming back stronger with each failure or attempted suicide. Though it may seem as though her attempts are foolish, the way Plath uses the idea of revival throughout the poem, makes the speaker seem stronger and more empowered than anything. It makes it seem like the speaker can stand up to those who view her as insignificant for her foolish attempts. Plath writes, “Herr God, Herr Lucifer,” (79), which is another biblical allusion and, of course, that of the almighty god and that of the sinister devil. It is interesting that Plath uses the German word Herr (which is the English equivalent of mister) to give both God and Lucifer a male gender. In most references, God and Lucifer are mentioned as they are, God and Lucifer, without any gender specific designations. Plath may have done this, using two very spiritually powerful figures, to facilitate the strength males have over our female speaker who, in the next few lines, seems to challenge them in a certain