"Lady Lazarus" and Literary Criticism

Paper Summary:

This paper briefly analyzes Sylvia Plath's poem, "Lady Lazarus" and explains that the poem is a detailed journey into the twisted and sad mental anguish of Sylvia Plath and other individuals who contemplate or commit the final act of suicide. The paper discusses how Plath expressed her fascination for death in the poem and that her desire was for each reader of the poem to would walk away understanding that sometimes it is better to die; sometimes it is better to be a distant memory than to continue struggling against the grain of this world.

From the Paper:

"Sylvia Plath grew increasingly disillusioned throughout her short life and felt a consummate sadness that could not be lifted from her soul, it was in her mind a marvelous phenomenon that she was still alive. "A sort of walking miracle, my skin" (Plath 555). Sylvia Plath suffered from many serious depression like symptoms in life and demonstrated one of those that is all too common in suicide patients. Plath felt as though she could do nothing and had nothing to contribute to the world. An empty shell of walking bone and skin, there was nothing left for Plath to do, but die. Plath felt worthless and compares herself to inanimate objects. Since her father was German Plath associated herself with the persona of a Jewish girl in Nazi Germany and describes her persecution from this perspective. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Plath, Sylvia. Lady Lazarus. Ed. Dana Gioia and R.S. Gwynn. Upper Saddle River NJ: Pearson Education, 2005. 555-557.
• Hardwick, Elizabeth. Contemporary literary criticism, Vol. 62. Literature Criticism Online Web site. 24 Sep. 2009 <http://galenet.galegroup.com.ezproxy.saintleo.edu/servlet/LitCrit?dd=0&locID=sain11218&d1=CLCX_062_0019&srchtp=b&c=1&df=f&docNum=FJ3517650019&b0=lady+lazarus&vrsn=1.0&srs=ALL&b1=KE&d3=7&ste=10&d4=0.50&stp=DateDescend&n=10&tiPG=0>.

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