A Feminist Critique on Sylvia Plath’s Lady Lazarus Feminism is the belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes as well as the movement organized around this belief. (The American Heritage Dictionary).
Feminist literary criticism is a literary movement which was enlightened by the feminist theory or the political movement of feminism, it uses feminist ideologies and principles as a tool to critique literature. Feminist criticism is broader and does not only focus on literature. It was a product of the second wave of feminism, which was in 1960s Peter Barry, Beginning Theory An Introduction To Literary And Cultural Theory, third edition, Manchester University Press, P. 116) . The feminist literary movement mainly focused
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Plath might be referring to the times she has attempted to kill herself when she states in the poem ‘I have done it again, One year in every ten…And like the cat I have nine times to die, This is Number Three…’ and was brought back to life by the doctors. So, she considers herself to be Lazarus. But also, it can be that she thinks that’s how people view her, a walking miracle or a freakshow. Everybody is waiting for her to do it again (Sandra, N. (2014). The poetic rite of rebirth in Sylvia Plath 's “Lady Lazarus". Anafora, Vol 1, Iss 2, Pp 165-176 (2014), (2), 165.). In accordance to the poem, Sylvia Plath has tried to murder herself three times, ‘One year in every ten…’ which is referring to the time periods between each time she attempted suicide, ‘The first time it happened I was ten. It was an accident.’ In this line, she is speaking about the aforementioned swimming accident she had when she was ten. ‘The second time I meant To last it out and not come back at all.’ That line refers to when she took an overdosage of sleeping pills. The third time, however, is not mentioned in the poem (Sandra N.