Lady Lazarus Analysis

I have done it again.
One year in every ten
I manage it----

A sort of walking miracle, my skin
Bright as a Nazi lampshade,
My right foot

A paperweight,
My face a featureless, fine
Jew linen.

Peel off the napkin
0 my enemy.
Do I terrify?----

The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth?
The sour breath
Will vanish in a day.

Soon, soon the flesh
The grave cave ate will be
At home on me

And I a smiling woman.
I am only thirty.
And like the cat I have nine times to die.

This is Number Three.
What a trash
To annihilate each decade.

What a million filaments.
The peanut-crunching crowd
Shoves in to see

Them unwrap me hand and foot
The big strip tease.
Gentlemen, ladies

These are my hands
My knees.
I may be skin and bone,

Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman.
The first time it happened I was ten.
It was an accident.

The second time I meant
To last it out and not come back at all.
I rocked shut

As a seashell.
They had to call and call
And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls.

Dying
Is an art, like everything else,
I do it exceptionally well.

I do it so it feels like hell.
I do it so it feels real.
I guess you could say I've a call.

It's easy enough to do it in a cell.
It's easy enough to do it and stay put.
It's the theatrical

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

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

Or a piece of my hair or my clothes.
So, so, Herr Doktor.
So, Herr Enemy.

I am your opus,
I am your valuable,
The pure gold baby

That melts to a shriek.
I turn and burn.
Do not think I underestimate your great concern.

Ash, ash ---
You poke and stir.
Flesh, bone, there is nothing there----

A cake of soap,
A wedding ring,
A gold filling.

Herr God, Herr Lucifer
Beware
Beware.

Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air.

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I think it is important to note that in a story in the Bible, Lazarus died and Jesus brought him back to life.
As per the title of the poem, "Lady Lazarus", Plath sees herself as someone who continues to try to die, but is only brought back to life.

| Posted on 2009-03-09 | by a guest

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Sylvia Plath explains her three attempts at suicide then relates some of her experiences to the Holocaust and Jewish people. During the poem she spills out how her life has been torture, and how she's experienced horrible experiences.
Jacquie T.

| Posted on 2009-03-04 | by a guest

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I believe that Plath wishes to be fire based on the final line in which she says "Out of the ash I rise with my red hair And I eat men like air." She says her hair is red which is like fire and eat men like air just as fire does. Maybe it is because fire extinguishes itself by destroying what it is burning, and she would like to take with her in death all the men that have wronged her.
~Dillon W.~

| Posted on 2009-03-04 | by a guest

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Sylvia Path's poem lets her emotions poor out about how she feels about life. She, in her own way talked about how her body was as valuable as a paper weight, or Jewish linen. She stresses on the fact that she does not want anyone in the way of her plans. By constantly back to the Holocaust she informs the people that she feels as if she may be discriminated against as a psycho path and she can't see what shes doing wrong. As she talks about the phoenix rising from the ashes she was trying to represent her failed attempts to suicide. Pretty much saying how she may fail but she will just come back and try again. When she says she'll eat the men like air she is basically saying that men are nothing to her.
~Amanda Kutschke~

| Posted on 2009-03-04 | by kutschke

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Being that Plath was bipolar and mentally unstable she percieved suicide as a joy; a pleasure to attempt. She uses references from the Holocaust to convey her ideas on life. She views those that attempt to save people from death as if the were the Nazis during the Holocaust. The last stanza, a mythological reference, cleary states her opinions of those particular individuals. She views those who attempt to save lives as obtuse; uncaring individuals. KyleJ

| Posted on 2009-03-04 | by a guest

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She compares her life to hell. She also compares the things she does to feeling like hell. But honestly my question is how does one make something feel like hell or seem like hell? Like she knows what hell is or has been there.

| Posted on 2009-03-04 | by StephS

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Sylvia Path's poem lets her emotions poor out about how she feels about life. She, in her own way talked about how her body was as valuable as a paper weight, or Jewish linen. She stresses on the fact that she does not want anyone in the way of her plans. By constantly back to the Holocaust she informs the people that she feels as if she may be discriminated against as a psycho path and she can't see what shes doing wrong. As she talks about the phoenix rising from the ashes she was trying to represent her failed attempts to suicide. Pretty much saying how she may fail but she will just come back and try again. When she says she'll eat the men like air she is basically saying that men are nothing to her.

| Posted on 2009-03-04 | by kutschke

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This poem is sad and dark. its true intention is to state how the authors life is pointless and explains how she is attempting to kill herself for the third time. But the poem also has a darker side to it, the poem also has many references to the holocaust from talking about the gas chambers to the parts were, its about the lamps made of skin from Jews. In the end the poem shows a very mentally distributed person.

| Posted on 2009-03-04 | by timothy

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Sylvia Plath was a depressed poet. In her poem, Lady Lazarus, there is talk about her struggle with her life and her attempts of suicide. Also, tells of the mental struggle of Plath's life and how she was so depressed that she has attempted suicide multiple times. Plath compares her life to the Holocaust.

| Posted on 2009-03-04 | by MikeG09

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Throughout this poem Plath keeps reminiscing about the holocaust. There are many similes in which she refers to how the Jews were used as common items throughout the house. She states that her skin is like a Nazi lampshade this would show that when she died her skin would be made into lampshades for many to use. She feels as though her life has been diminished to nothing every decade as she states in the earlier stanzas. Overall this poem has an almost horrific tone as she states at the end that God and the devil(Lucifer) should beware because she is coming to either heaven or hell.
The last stanza states that she is going to be reborn from ashes. This relates to an astonishing bird known as a phoenix, this bird every so many years bursts into flames and then a young bird is reborn from the ashes of the first. This leads into the idea that she will live forever.

| Posted on 2009-03-04 | by CodyB

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This poem shows Plaths struggle with people as well as her constant mental struggle. This relation with her religion and the prosecution her people faced, not her personally, shows just how badly this struggle is. Attempting suicide seemed to be the only way for her to obtain happiness which is very unfortunate.
Jarrett D.

| Posted on 2009-03-04 | by JarrettD

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Sylvia Plath was a very depressed poet. She constantly tried to commit suicide to rid her of the gold digging men in her life. Men were her enemies because they only wanted her for her money. Lady Lazarus is a poem about Plath's third attempt at suicide. She uses several similes and metaphors in order to compare herself to Jews in concentration camps during World War 2. She describes herself as nothing but skin and bone, and she is only worth being used by Nazis. Her pale skin would be perfect for a lamp. Images that she describes can only bring the word "mawkish" to my mind. Overall, this was a very depressing poem which only included how little Plath's life really meant to her.
Jordan D.

| Posted on 2009-03-04 | by a guest

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I think Plath was psychotic. She seems to be one of those people who feels it necessary to battle something that has no point in being argued over, even if she doesn't have her heart into what side she chooses. She just does it to tell the world that it's possible to be battled over. Like even if the world thinks differently about something, She would argue it just to stick out and state a mind dazzling question. I guess we need more of those people in our world though. For example, she states that she hates or disapproves of the men who have saved her from Death's grasp. I think she just wants to be different. Like a cry for attention... but at the same time... she will always find something to argue.
Cory B!

| Posted on 2009-03-04 | by a guest

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The way that Plath looks at death is very interesting. She views those who try to save her as the enemy. It bothers her that the doctors make money from her suicide attempts. The reference to the Phoenix is also interesting. In death she will eat her enemies "like air." Matt M

| Posted on 2009-03-04 | by MattM

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I think Plath was psychotic. She seems to be one of those people who feels it necessary to battle something that has no point in being argued over, even if she doesn't have her heart into what side she chooses. She just does it to tell the world that it's possible to be battled over. Like even if the world thinks differently about something, She would argue it just to stick out and state a mind dazzling question. I guess we need more of those people in our world though. For example, she states that she hates or disapproves of the men who have saved her from Death's grasp. I think she just wants to be different. Like a cry for attention... but at the same time... she will always find something to argue.

| Posted on 2009-03-04 | by a guest

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This poem is full of anger towards the people that are trying to prevent Lady Lazarus from committing suicide. The comparison between her life and the holocaust shows that her emotions are different.

| Posted on 2009-03-04 | by EricW

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Sylvia Plath obviously hates herself. She views her body as a collection of objects (a Nazi lampshade, or a paperweight), mocking those horrified by her line of thinking. She wishes to die, attempting suicide twice before, and considers those wishing to save her her enemies. Comparing them to the Nazis - reinforcing the Nazi themes of the poem - Plath decries her doctors as simply using her to make a profit, describing a wedding ring and gold filling, both often picked from the corpses of Jews. Plath then laments about her anticipated failure to die, making an allusion to the phoenix that rises from the ashes and consumes her enemies, the men that wish to control her life like the Nazis controlled death.
Andrew Card

| Posted on 2009-03-04 | by a guest

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Sylvia Plath's poem details her feelings towards life and death. She describes her body in literal terms: as a Nazi lampshade, a paperweight, Jew linen. These terms reveal her material view of her body, a view that is cold and unsympathetic. She considers her saviors her enemies, only wishing to make money off of her repeated suicide attempts and uses allusions to the Holocaust to reinforce her opinion (the Nazi's prying teeth off corpses and stealing their rings). The repeated references to the Holocaust show that Plath is envious of those, like her, who are unable to control their own fates, but for different reasons: the Nazis forcefully destroyed their lives while the doctors forcefully save hers. In the final stanza, Plath makes an allusion to the phoenix rising from the ashes, representing her failed attempt, eating her tormentors "like air", further reinforcing Plath's contempt for those wishing to control her.

| Posted on 2009-03-04 | by a guest

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this poem is full of mixed emotions. it is about her third attempt in committing suicide. she compares her life to the holocaust but her wanted death as an art. she compares the doctors who revive her to the nazis who tortured. in her eyes death is her way of being happy. she feels that the doctors are taking that away from her.
~KYLE P.~

| Posted on 2009-03-04 | by KyleP

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the writer of this poem is very unpleased. the poem begins with the poet attempting suicide again. but once again she is saved by the Nazi/doctor that compels her to live and contains her in her fully living body. after so many failed attempts of suicide she states that dying is like and art that she can not master. but because she has now attempted suicides she is to go to hell. "ash" "ash" signifies that there is nothing left of her. but also signifies her being reborn in ashes like a phenix. and through the ashes she shall be be free and summoned to her lifeless world.
kenziep

| Posted on 2009-03-04 | by a guest

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In this poem, Sylvia Plath describes her third attempt at suicide. She describes it as a sort of entertainment. Plath then compares her suicide attempts to the holocaust. She compares Nazis to the doctors. She says that they torture her by bringing her back.
Michael S.

| Posted on 2009-03-04 | by a guest

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In this poem by Sylvia Plath, she is talking about her third attempt at suicide. I feel as if Plath is angry and saddened by the fact that she has been saved from her third attempt at suicide. She compares being saved by her doctors to being murdered by Nazis in the Holocaust. She says that "Dying Is an art, like everything else." Maybe she is trying to create the perfect way to commit suicide in her eyes, which would mean that it would be a success. I personally love how she wrote this poem. Her choice of words and comparisons gave the poem a real sense of how she felt and how bad she wanted to die. - Christy S.

| Posted on 2009-03-04 | by a guest

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She compares her life to the holocaust. She feels trapped in her own body she want to be released from her body witch is like a prison to her. She has tried to escape her prison before but they were filed attempts each time her enemy, the doctors, brought her back. When she tries to die she like it to be slow and painful. she enjoys pain, she wants to feel every moment. In the end she will leave like a phoenix and come back and defeat the doctors and be at peace. ~Dora s.

| Posted on 2009-03-04 | by a guest

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I believe that Plath wrote this poem in bitterness. She was angry with the doctors for saving her again when she did not want to be saved. She is determined to get her way and will not give up trying to end her life. Keera N.

| Posted on 2009-03-04 | by a guest

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She is comparing her life to the holocaust, and her death to a form of entertainment. She then compares her doctors to the Nazis but they torture her by bringing her back to life. Mike C

| Posted on 2009-03-04 | by miikeC

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In this poem, Sylvia Plath explains her third attempt at suicide. She makes many references to Jews and the Holocaust because she is Jewish. She explains that her living is like torture to her. She claims that her first suicide attempt was an accident. She is very negative throughout this poem and the poem is in first person. The last stanza refers to a phoenix being reborn.
Lauren High.

| Posted on 2009-03-04 | by a guest

.: :.

In this poem, Sylvia Plath explains her third attempt at suicide. She makes many references to Jews and the Holocaust because she is Jewish. She explains that her living is like torture to her. She claims that her first suicide attempt was an accident. She is very negative throughout this poem and the poem is in first person. The last stanza refers to a phoenix being reborn.

| Posted on 2009-03-04 | by a guest