"Lady Lazarus" is a poem by Sylvia Plath that talks about an attempted suicide. The poem starts "en media res" which means it starts in the middle of the story, with the line "I have done it again" (Plath 1). The 'it' to which she is referring is her attempt to kill herself. She has tried three times so far and all three times the doctors have brought her back to life. If there were any doubt as to this interpretation, Plath makes it clear later in the poem when she says "Dying / Is an art, / like everything else. / I do it exceptionally well" (Plath 43-45). Not only does she take responsibility for being close to death, but she expresses anger with the doctors for bringing her back time and time again, reinforcing the idea that this is suicide, by calling them Herr Doktor (Plath 64).
However, there is also a sense that she enjoys the sensation that her emotional and physical pain causes. She sounds angry as she talks about "the peanut-crunching crowd / Shoves in to see / Them unwrap me hand and foot - / The big strip tease" (Plath 26-29). This peanut-crunching crowd is the press, the fans, the family, and the gawkers who want to feel close to the tragedy and be a part of the scene. Although she sounds critical of their interest in the sensational aspect of her attempted suicide and the emotional pain it reveals, she also seems to welcome it as she says, "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" (Plath 51-56). While she indicates she will try suicide again, this time thwarting the doctors' attempts to revive her, her emphasis on the enjoyment of the experience of all the attention this time as compared to the first time which was accidental and the second time when she really did mean to make it permanent, makes her meaning somewhat unclear.
Works Cited
Plath, Sylvia. "Lady Lazarus." Ariel. New York: Faber and Faber, 1965. Print.
