In the poem "Lady Lazarus" Sylvia Plath describes a woman who is facing suicidal tendencies. Sylvia Plath herself has dealt with depression and later in her life committed suicide at the age of thirty. Throughout the poem, many references are made that signify that the speaker of the poem wants to kill herself. "Lady Lazarus" is a poem about suicide and there are many signs in the poem that point to this theme.
The title of the poem "Lady Lazarus" is used to distinguish the main character who is also the narrator of this poem. It is unclear if the woman in the poem is actually named Lady Lazarus or if it is Sylvia Plath's way of giving a figurative meaning. That meaning could actually refer back to the bible. In Theresa Collins' essay "Plath's Lady Lazarus" Collins states: "Plath captures the three main aspects of the poem's struggle by tracing the name Lazarus through Catholic history" (3). One of those aspects is the title of the story. The title of the essay possibly relates to stories in the bible. One of the possibilities of the title's meaning is between Lady Lazarus and the Bible's Lazarus of Bethany. Theresa Collins points out that Jesus resurrects Lazarus from the dead not by love or mercy, but out of Jesus' desire to advertise his own power. She relates this to Herr Doktor resurrecting Lady Lazarus from the dead and interfering with her art (her will to die). The title is connected to the poem's theme of suicide.
Many metaphors and similes are used in the poem for the author to express the speaker's suicidal ambitions. Similes are used throughout the poem to describe the main character: "A sort of walking miracle, my skin / Bright as a Nazi lampshade," (4-5). This quote gives an indication about the struggle the speaker of the poem has been through. When the quote states "A sort of walking miracle," meaning the character is exhausted with her life, but she is somehow still living. The next stanza gives us more information on her struggle: "My face featureless, fine / Jew linen," (8-9) is another holocaust reference. Plath uses Holocaust references to signify the hardship of the speaker. Metaphors are also used to illustrate the character's struggle with suicide. The speaker refers to her suicidal tendencies stating, "Dying / Is an art, like everything else, / I do it exceptionally well" (43-45). This quote tells the audience that the character has a sense of pride in her suicidal state of mind and is almost like a cry for help. Many similes and metaphors are used throughout the poem to illustrate the speaker's suicidal tendencies.
There are some lines in the poem that do not have a clear meaning. The author left the audience to figure out these lines to give the poem a mysterious atmosphere. In the middle of the poem, there is a stanza that reads: "What a million filaments / The peanut-crunching crowd / Shoves in to see" (25-27). The definition of a filament is the threadlike conductor, often of tungsten, in the bulb that is heated to incandescence by the passage of current. Theresa Collins explains: "To the crowd Lady Lazarus had previously referred to as "a million filaments" she says, "There is a charge / For the eyeing of my scars … "(57, 58). She is competing with Herr Doktor's power with her own godlike omniscience" (3). Lady Lazarus sees the crowd as fake calling them filaments as in an artificial sun. She also feels her pain has been exposed to the world telling the crowd that there is a charge for looking at her scars. Lady Lazarus feels that Herr Doktor is trying to control her and she is rebelling against him. Herr Doktor plays the part of someone trying to rescue Lady Lazarus from committing suicide, but Lady Lazarus' will to kill herself is strong.
Towards the end of the poem, the speaker almost takes a spiritual approach. She tells God and Lucifer to beware. In saying this, she is ready for an afterlife whether it is heaven or hell. In the poem she calls herself an opus and that she will melt to a shriek. She sees herself as a valuable object, and she wants to destroy herself. The poem also says: "Ash, ash --- / You poke and stir. / Flesh, bone, there is nothing there" (73- 75). Lady Lazarus has completely disappeared telling the audience of her apparent suicide. Plath writes: "A cake of soap / A wedding ring / A gold filling" (76-78). In this stanza the author gives away that the character was married and perhaps had a family just like Sylvia Plath in real life. The poem ends with this stanza: "Out of the ash / I rise with my red hair / And I eat men like air." (82-84). This stanza symbolizes Lady Lazarus' rebirth, reincarnated into possibly a phoenix which might be what Plath was referring to when she spoke of red hair. The last line of the poem where it states that she will eat men like air is the author stating that she is stronger than before and a possible revenge on those who made her feel insecure.
Therefore there are many points in the poem support the author's theme of suicide. Many lines in the poem point to one theme in particular which is the main character's will to commit suicide. Sylvia Plath had long been affected by mental illness and through her poetry she expressed her emotions. In 1963, she took her own life by sealing the rooms in her house with wet towels and clothes to protect her children and then stuck her head in the oven with the gas turned on. Lady Lazarus is Sylvia Plath's way of pouring out her emotions onto a poem.
