"Lady Lazarus"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how Sylvia Plath's poem "Lady Lazarus" is pervaded by chilling imagery evoking Nazi concentration camps and the decay of human flesh. It looks at how her comparison of the doctor to a Nazi is a heavy analogy of the patriarchal and oppressive nature of the modern medical system. It also discusses how the overall tone of "Lady Lazarus" is sarcastic, ironic, full of mockery of death and of the patriarchal establishment.

From the Paper:

"One of the ways the poet conveys a tone of sarcasm and irony in "Lady Lazarus" is through imagery, simile, and metaphor. For example, in line 4 the narrator describes herself as "A sort of walking miracle," and then states, "my skin / Bright as a Nazi lampshade," (line 5). The narrator does not seriously suggest that she is a "walking miracle" simply because her suicide attempt was arrested. In fact, in a later stanza, the narrator again evokes the word "miracle" to sarcastically suggest that what the doctors do is far from being miracle work. Also, to compare her skin to a "Nazi lampshade" is a curious poetic devise that is loaded with sarcasm and dark humor. Sarcastic imagery concordant with the analogy of Nazism also occurs in the following stanza, in which the narrator compares her face with "a featureless, fine / Jew linen," (lines 8-9). "

More papers on "Lady Lazarus":

• Poem Review # 46144 : "Lady Lazarus" and Social Deviance"
• Poem Review # 145660 : "The Sounds of "Lady Lazarus"
• Poem Review # 51158 : "Lady Lazarus"

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