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Lady Lazarus Analysis

In 'Lady Lazarus,' the speaker draws parallels between her emotional suffering and the Holocaust, using strong literary devices like symbolism and imagery to convey her pain. The poem's structure of tercets reflects her control over her narrative, contrasting her fate with that of the biblical Lazarus. Ultimately, Lady Lazarus's resurrection symbolizes her rebirth and empowerment despite her traumatic experiences.

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32 views2 pages

Lady Lazarus Analysis

In 'Lady Lazarus,' the speaker draws parallels between her emotional suffering and the Holocaust, using strong literary devices like symbolism and imagery to convey her pain. The poem's structure of tercets reflects her control over her narrative, contrasting her fate with that of the biblical Lazarus. Ultimately, Lady Lazarus's resurrection symbolizes her rebirth and empowerment despite her traumatic experiences.

Uploaded by

RAJIB DEBNATH
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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In “Lady Lazarus” the speaker is Lady Lazarus herself.

Lady Lazarus compares her emotional suffering to


the suffering of the Jews during the Holocaust. Lady Lazarus is very depressed and suicidal. Even though
Lady Lazarus displays herself as the victim, she has control over her language which is very important.
Lady Lazarus uses strong language skills and literary devices such symbolism, imagery, and word play in
the poem. She takes on the suffering of the Jews and portrays herself as one of them to explain her own
suffering.

Lady Lazarus is made up of 28 stanzas of three lines each also known as tercets. Tercets are a mixture of
enjambment and end-stopped lines. The tercets give the sense that our speaker is biting or spitting her
words out. The speaker is Lady Lazarus and Plath created to allude to a character from the bible. Lazarus
is a character from the Gospel of John who died and was resurrected by Jesus four days later. Like
Lazarus, Lady Lazarus experiences death and returns from it. However, Lady Lazarus is in control of her
fate unlike Lazarus. She expresses this control through her strong language. This power of control is
something Lazarus doesn’t have. This allusion is an important literary device.

Lady Lazarus uses many literary devices throughout the poem to expresses the idea of her suffering. She
does this by comparing herself to some of the most horrifying and disgusting pieces of the Holocaust. “A
sort of walking miracle, my skin bright as a Nazi lampshade,” (Lines 4-5). This simile explains how Lady
Lazarus compares herself to a lampshade made of the skin of Jews. This example explains how Lady
Lazarus expresses her pain. Lady Lazarus also compares herself to a “Jew linen”. “A paperweight, My
face a featureless, fine Jew linen.” (Lines 7-9). This metaphor explains how she compares her face to the
linens that Nazis confiscated when they threw the Jews out of their homes. This comparison expresses
the fact that she thinks of herself to be a possession of the Nazis. Lady Lazarus then gives us a new
perspective of her suffering by describing her suicide attempts. “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. (Lines 43-47). She tries to commit
suicide because she wants to feel something rather than the numb of her life. This quote is also an
example of an anaphora. Noa 2

Lady Lazarus evokes two main settings. The first setting is the circus. “What a million filaments. The
peanut-crunching crowd shoves in to see. Them unwrap me hand and foot—The big strip tease.” (Lines
25-29). In this quote Lady Lazarus portrays herself as a circus attraction and feels that she is someone
who is constantly gawked at and is humiliated. The second setting are the Holocaust's concentration
camps. In "Lady Lazarus," Plath describes the crematoriums by giving us minimal information. “Ash, ash
—you poke and stir. Flesh and bone, there is nothing there—A cake of soap, a wedding ring, a gold
filling.” (Lines 73-78). These are all the objects left of the victims inside the crematorium. These objects
symbolize the loss and suffering that the Jews have endured and is another example of Lady Lazarus’
comparison of suffering. Near the end of the poem Lady Lazarus is resurrected after being burned in the
crematorium. “Out of the Ash I rise with my red hair and I eat men like air.” (Lines 82-84). Lady Lazarus
comes back to life like the mythological phoenix that rises from the ashes. The Nazis can't kill her now
because she will “eat men like air”. This symbolizes her rebirth.

As the reader, my understanding of the meaning is shaped by the language of Lady Lazarus. Due to her
use of comparisons to the remnants of the Holocaust, It gives the poem a very depressing and gruesome
tone. It is also understood that she is comparing the suffering of the Jews to her own. The allusion of
Lazarus foreshadows the ending of the poem which is the resurrection of Lady Lazarus. It also allows me
to make the connection between the character and the meaning of the poem.

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