Lady Lazarus By Sylvia Plath Essays - Literature, Sylvia Plath

Lady Lazarus By Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath uses a diverse array of stylistic devices in Lady Lazarus, among them allusion, apostrophe, extended metaphor, and irony, in order to develop the speaker as a character. Those three poetic devices are particularly evident in lines 65-79 ofLady Lazarus. In the New Testament of the Bible, Lazarus is a man who rises from the dead at the command of Jesus Christ (John 11:38). The title of this poem, Lady Lazarus(the Lady without a doubt referring to Plath herself, as this is an example of confessional poetry; the Lazarus being an allusion to the biblical figure) is an accurate indicator of the content of the poem. Lady Lazarus is about Plaths third attempt at suicide, and her subsequent resurrection. In lines 65-79, Plath develops the speakers contempt for the doctors who brought her back to life. Through this, Plath develops the characters paranoia. In lines 65-66 Plath uses apostrophe to address those doctors: So, so, Herr Doktor / So, so Herr Enemy. To her, the doctors are enemies- in the stanza previous to this line, she establishes the doctors as nearly vulture-like. Lines 61-64 state, And there is a charge, a very large charge / For a word or a touch / Or a bit of blood / Or a piece of hair on my clothes.Assonance (charge, large charge) is used in this example in a mocking fashion towards the doctors. Lines 67-68 establish the speakers fear that her fate is being used by the doctors for gain in the field of science: I am your opus / I am your valuable. Later, the speaker-characters contempt of the doctors that Plath has established is tied in to a Nazi allusion, which augments this concept. In lines 73-78, Plath writes, Ash, ash--- / You poke and stir / Flesh, bone, there is nothing there--- / A cake of soap / A wedding ring / A gold filling. This allusion to Nazis (wedding rings and gold fillings were harvested from the im prisoned Jews during the Holocaust, and their remains were used for soap) is also an example of an extended metaphor. The Nazi metaphor is, in fact, extended over other Plath poems as well- notably Daddy. This portion of Lady Lazarus serves to elucidate the confusion of the speakers character as well. This is accomplished through Plaths use of irony. It is ironic that the speaker refers to doctors who resurrected her life as Nazis, Enemies, and even Lucifer (the devil) in line 79. In lines 65-79 of Lady Lazarus, Plath employs poetic devices such as allusion, apostrophe, extended metaphor and irony in order to develop the confusion, paranoia, and contempt in the character of the speaker- who is, of course, Plath herself. Poetry Essays