Morataya 1

Nancy Morataya

Professor Holly Batty

English 102

September 25,2017

Rising from the Ashes

After having my son, I remember reading a story where the heroine runs away from her

family because of how overwhelming life is. I remember having that overwhelming feeling with

my son. When I read this poem, I felt a connection to her because sometimes I feel life suffocates

with the everyday struggles. In reading Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath, the heroine in the poem

describes her suicide attempts have transformed and transcended her soul. I cant help to wonder

why the speaker is choosing to escape life by her own hand. Everybody feels a sense of

entrapment in their own lives but this speaker is different. Although many may argue she is

describing political horrors, I am suggesting she was looking for rebirth because of oppression,

entrapment, and longing for a new beginning.

Sylvia Plaths history is very relevant to the poems heroine, she attempts to take her life

with no success. Plaths life was hard and she lived in times when she was oppressed by her

parents and husband. Plath wrote in a time when women were fighting for equal rights and to be

valued in society. Plath and her heroine had similarities in which they both hoped to overcome

and gain control of their lives. The way of escape was not ideal but liberating for both.

Political horrors which are described are a coalition to the concentration camps during

WWW II, where the Jews were persecuted. The heroine of the poem describes where she is

Bright as a Nazi lampshade, / My face a featureless, fine / Jew linen. (5, 8-9). There are many
 Morataya 2

instances when she compares herself to being in a cage and taking her life as theatrical event.

Even though, this was a horrible event happened before the Lady Lazarus was published.

There was a relation with the symbolism of being trapped by living in oppression for the heroine.

The oppression was demonstrated in different parts of the poem. Its easy enough to do

it in a cell. / Its easy enough to do it and stay put. (49-50), the imprisonment whether spiritual

or physical, has an effect to her mind. Having a sense of no escape and liberating herself through

suicide. This is a way of standing up to her oppressor, O my enemy. / Do I terrify? ---(11-12),

the power she was able to have over this other person even through the mist of no escape. This

was her pain and through the turmoil of her life, she would stand up for herself.

Her entrapment was the main part of the poem. Not only physical but spiritual, that out of

body experience, came at a great cost during her suicide attempts. She had tried three times with

no success, the first time was an accident, the second time was with purpose not to come back at

all (38), and the third time was to cleanse a decade What a trash / to annihilate each decade

(23-24). Because of numerous attempts she has a different view on death, Dying / Is an art, like

everything else (43-44). The suicide was about the escape but with no accomplishment,

Comeback in broad day / To the same place, the same face, and same brute (52-53).

I believe new beginnings is her goal I manage it---- / A sort of walking miracle (3-4).

Emphasizing how she looks and feels after each attempt There is a charge / For the eyeing of

my scars, there is a charge / For the hearing of my heart -- / It really goes (57-60). The level of

description in which is meant to captivate the reader and feel the same pain she does. The

description starts from the corpse perspective to the walking miracle showing us the how her life

is reassembling each time she comes back to life. Her body and soul are a puzzle where assembly

is required and each time she reaches a new limit that was unknown to her. In, Plaths Lady
 Morataya 3

Lazarus article written by Jeff Meyers, he says But these failures give her another chance to

demonstrate her powers of self-destruction and self-revival. Meyers describes how the poems

paradox how for Plath life is death itself and calling death an art spiritual vocation (Maeyers).

This all ties to the heroines rebirth, she does at every decade and understanding every

attempt comes with a cost. From the pain she rises stronger I do it so it feels like hell. / I do it

so it feels real. (46-47) and knowing this will not be easy. The rebirth comes at a great pain but

gains her perspective; I am your opus, / I am your valuable (67-68), how she expresses her

self-worth after each incident. Her end game is Out of the ash / I rise with my red hair (81-82)

rising from the ashes like a phoenix and being reborn from the ashes. In the article, Through the

Beautiful Red: The use of color red as the Triple- Goddess in Sylvia Plaths Ariel by Allison

Wilkins she writes about her usage of red color and about the rebirth. Wilkins states, We know

that she has reinvented herself yet again and is ready to face the world with fierceness. That is

how I see this ending and circles back to the beginning.

Lady Lazarus comes with a distinct understanding of the heroine, the author and the era

in which she lived in. I will never know for sure if this reflects much of Plaths life but one thing

I think is clear. How this heroine views her life is no secret her oppression from the world and

her personal life. The entrapment she lives in from her oppressors and how each attempt brings

her closer to a new beginning. Blood must be spilled for her rebirth and she is willing to pay the

price for her freedom. Throughout generations many have done unspeakable actions for freedom

why would it be any different for one woman. For a woman full of life and choosing to gain

control the only way she knew how. My escaping the only way she knew possible and still

unable to escape. How desperate can one person get to feel freedom even if just for a second
 Morataya 4

before coming back from the brink of death. Knowing death would be of a spiritual transcends

and not just the end.

 Morataya 5

Work Cited

Meyers, Jeffrey. "Plath's 'Lady Lazarus'." Notes on Contemporary Literature, vol. 42, no. 3, 2012. Literature

Resource Center, Accessed 22 Sept. 2017.

Plath, Sylvia. Lady Lazarus. Poetry Foundation. www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49000/lady-lazarus.

Accessed 19 September 2017

Wilkins, Allison. "Through the Beautiful Red: The Use of the Color Red as the Triple-Goddess in Sylvia

Plaths Ariel." Poetry Criticism, edited by Lawrence J. Trudeau, vol. 153, Gale, 2014. Literary Sources

Accessed 20 Sept. 2017. Originally published in Plath Profiles, vol. 3, 2010, pp. 74-89.