Abstract
This essay deals with the notion and symbolism of death in Sylvia Plath’s poem “Lady Lazarus.” She speaks of her suicide attempts in a very intimate way, because for her, the fact that she was revived, that she was the female embodiment of the Biblical Lazarus, was no miracle. For her, it was a return to a bleak existence of the real world, while all she wanted was to disappear and be let go. She alludes to the Nazis, compares her doctor to her enemy, all the while referring to them as Nazis, who stand as a symbol of the death of millions. They continue to revive her, out of her own ashes, like the mythical bird phoenix, but she promises them a deadly revenge for this.
Keywords: death, Nazi, suicide attempt, Lazarus, revival
The life of Sylvia Plath was one wrought with severe depression, mental illness and inability to overcome the death of her father when she was little. It appears that throughout her life, she was searching for a strong male influence to rely on, unable to handle the harsh reality of life on her own. She tried to commit suicide as many as three times, the final one being fatal. In her poem “Lady Lazarus,” she speaks of death, comparing herself to the female version of the Byblical Lazarus, who was revived after being buried. She portrays the fact that for her, death is not the end of existence, but a welcome liberation of all life’s cruelty.
She commences the poem with “I have done it again/ One year in every ten? I manage it” (Plath 244). She refers, of course, to her suicide attempts. Her father’s death due to diabetes was a very harsh blow to the young and gentle Sylvia, who afterwards had numerous issues in her relationships with other men, especially her husband Ted Hughes. She herself is a “Sort of walking miracle,” because she manages to die and be reborn (Plath 244). She continues with a very painful depiction of what her skin looks like: “Bright as a Nazi lampshade,/ My right foot/ A paperweight,/ My face a featureless, fine/ Jew linen” (Plath 244). The Nazis stand for pure evil, death and utter lack of human emotion. Here, she alludes to the Nazi camps and the utterly inhumane practice of the Nazis, who, among other terrifying things, used to make different objects made out of human skin and bones, such as a foot being a paperweight, while her face resembles linen, something lacking any kind of indication of individuality, but a mere thing which only provides a practical service to its owner. She speaks of the inhumane treatment of human beings, who are being stripped off their individuality and treated as nothing more than mere objects. And, with this kind of existence, she perceives that her only salvation is death.
She urges her enemy to “Peel off the napkin” and asks him: “Do I terrify?” (Plath 244). The image that is evoked here is that of people having napkins over their faces, which cloud their vision, or which serve as protection. If one does not reveal one’s true face and intentions, it is possible to be sheltered from the pain and hardship of life. Thus, once the napkin is peeled off, what is left is the terrifying truth. The lies and masks are all brought down, there is nothing to hide behind anymore. She asks her enemy if he is terrified by the truth of her existence, her true self. She has plunged into the depths of death and knows her true self, her true nature.
She continues with allusions to death “the eye pits” and “the sour breath” that “will vanish in a day,” evoking the images of a carcass, rotting flesh and how the worst part of dying will be over soon, and what follows is eternal peace (Plath 244). By referring to herself as a “smiling woman,” she does mean to say that she is happy. A smile is not the true indicator of one’s happiness. It can be as false as any other lie produced in the human mind. “Like the cat [she has] nine times to die” refers to her relentless attempts at suicide (Plath 244). She plans to continue until she finally gets it right and does not get revived, when she will cease to be Lady Lazarus.
In addition, she also portrays her suicide attempts as a show in a circus, almost resembling a freak show, where “the peanut crunching crowd/ Shoves in to see the big striptease” (Plath 245). For the people around her, her suicide attempts are something to be glared at, pointed at as bizarre and unholy. She does not share their opinion. Death is still liberation to her, freedom from the oppressive glares of society which, from her early childhood, branded her as unstable, abnormal, unwanted. The striptease allusion reminisces of psychophysical dissection, taking away of the outer layers, leaving only the bare body and the bare mind for the world to see. This is what she feels others want to do to her, and she desperately clings to her individuality and privacy.
As the poem progresses, she opens up more about her suicide attempts, calling the first time an accident, when she took her mother’s pills and hid under the house, while the second time she really meant do it. She says voices were calling her to come back, and she was barely able to hear them, because she “rocked shut/ As a seashell” (Plath 245). The image of picking worms off of her like sticky pearls refers to the idea that she was so close to death, that maggots already started forming inside and on her body; so close that she imagined the decomposition had already begun. But, for her, these maggots are not disgusting creatures, they are sticky pearls, a beautiful, adorning addition to her now liberated body. She was so close to letting go of her earthly existence that the worms would not let go off her easily.
She compares dying to art, which like any other art, demands from the artist to be done well, which she does. Though this idea might appear contradictory, suicide attempts make Plath feel alive, she wants to feel hell and wants to feel reality, because what she is living in is much worse. When she returns from the other side, to “the same place, the same face, the same brute/ Amusing shout:/ ‘A miracle!’” she does not feel like a miracle (Plath 245). She feels like they stripped her off her right to go and come back when she herself pleases. She wishes to leave the earthly existence, yet she is not allowed to, and is forced to return again and again, only so that society can call her return a miracle of salvation. For her, return to life is return to hell, while death is liberation. Furthermore, she continues to feel like a side-show attraction at a circus, where they charge people entrance to see an anatomical defect of a person: “There is a charge/ For the eyeing of my scars, there is a charge/ For the hearing of my heart - / It really goes” (Plath 245). People always felt an enormous curiosity to see people with physical defects, and during the 18th and the 19th century, the circus freak shows were often frequented. This is exactly how Plath feels. She is nothing more than mere amusement to these people, they have paid a ticket to see her die and be revived. They do not feel anything for her or wish to help her in any way. They have only come to see the spectacle of Lady Lazarus being brought back from the dead.
In her eyes, the doctor is the enemy: “So, so, Herr Doctor./ So, Herr Enemy” (Plath 246). Herr is a prefix to the surname of a man in German, where she yet again, refers to the Nazis, whose name stands for the death of millions of innocent lives. She is the doctor’s experiment, reminiscing of the inhumane treatment of ill people in the camps and the experimental cures they were applying, which in most cases resulted in horrifyingly painful death of the patient. She is there for the inhumane doctor to make out of her “a cake of soap,/ A wedding ring,/ A gold filling” (Plath 246). She is not a human being, she is just an object they find a practical use for in another form.
In the end, she urges them to beware, because she will rise out of air they are poking and stirring, and not letting her rest in peace. She will rise with her red hair and devour them, an image which reminds one of the mythical bird, the phoenix, who rises and is reborn out of its own ashes. Just like this mythical bird, she is being reborn out her own ashes, over and over again, and she promises them revenge, that she will devour them like air, unless they let her rest in peace.
Plaths’ poem “Lady Lazarus” is homage to her unsuccessful suicide attempts, which for her, stand for freedom from the oppressive reality she no longer sees herself pertaining to. For her, death is liberty, an eternity of peace and darkness.
References:
Plath, S. (1981). The Collected Poems. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.
