"Lady Lazarus" by Sylvia Plath

“Lady Lazarus” by Sylvia Plath

            As I began to read all of the poems assigned this week, I didn’t really connect with any of them.  But after I read them a second time, I was very confused by the poem “Lady Lazarus”.  What was this poem really about?  Was this a person or something in nature?  These are the reasons I chose to write about the poem. 

                In the first part of the poem, I was under the impression it was about a woman who had maybe came back to life or had been re-created.  “Peel off the napkin O my enemy.  Do I terrify?—— the nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth?   The sour breath will vanish in a day.” (Plyth 10-15) I hear a woman saying that her bandages were just unwrapped and she does not look very appealing. And this them is continued later when she is describing the people standing by to watch this moment happen.

                But then toward the middle of the poem she talks about how this is something that has happened before, “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”. (Plyth  34-38) But now it sounds like maybe she had tried to commit suicide, but how and why does she come back?  This is why this poem has grabbed my attention, is this a vampire or a mythical creature?

                I am intrigued to research this poem and find out the real meaning behind it.  My favorite part of this poem is at the end when she is warning God and Lucifer to be aware of her, “Herr God, Herr Lucifer Beware Beware. Out of the ash I rise with my red hair And I eat men like air”.  Plyth 80-85)  Who is this woman and why is she so angry?  This is a question I hope to get an answer to in my analysis. 

          If you would like to read the poem in it's entirery click HERE.

  

image provided by http://shewhoprevails.wordpress.com/2011/06/11/lady-lazarus-poem-plath/

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Summary vs. Analysis

            Most students have always had to give a summary of something they have read.  For example, in elementary school students turned in numerous book reports, in these reports we most likely just summarized the book.  After this week’s lecture, I have come to realize that I have never really analyzed literature; I have always just summarized what I have read.       

            By summarizing, we are basically just re-telling the story, but in a much shorter fashion.  This is useful for trying to inform someone who has never read the book, or seen the movie we are writing about.  A summary has no opinions, biases or judgments, it is straight facts.  For example, the story Rapunzel is about a girl who has been locked in a high tower for many years.  Because she has been locked away for so long, her hair is quite long. One day a Prince happens to stumble upon the tower but he cannot rescue her because there is no way to reach her. In her desperation, she throws down her long hair and the Prince climbs up to save her, and Rapunzel and the Prince live happily ever after.

            An analysis is when we take a story and take apart different parts to understand the story better, ask questions, and give your beliefs on why certain things happened.  If I were to analyze the story of Rapunzel, I would want to know why she was locked away, and why did she not try and escape before she met the Prince?  In an analysis we can “dissect” the characters or even symbols in the stories.  This is a great tool because we can give our view of a story when we write an analysis, it creates and argument about different aspects of the story. 

             

Here is a great guide for literary analysis.