Samuel Sanders Sanders 1

Prof. Tubbs

ENGL 1302-129

14 May 2020
Cleansing Confessional: An Annotated Bibliography

Constantakis, Sara. "Lady Lazarus." Poetry for Students, edited by Sara Constantakis, vol. 49,

Gale, 2015, pp. 166-185. Gale eBooks, https://link-gale-

com.aclibproxy.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/CX3611700021/GVRL?

u=txshracd2904&sid=GVRL&xid=2ce2d161. Accessed 6 May 2020.

Sara Constantakis has an in-depth overview of “Lady Lazarus” by breaking down each

stanza and every idea of each line. Also, including the author speaks of Sylvia Plath’s

personal life and her writing style. She touches base on the Sylvia Plath Effect, which

means that creative writers are more likely than the general population to suffer from

some form of mental illness. As Constantakis notes, “paradoxically, the parts of the dead

body, the very thing that had been triumphed over, themselves became objects of

worship” (180). Which is what I interpreted as that Sylvia Plath was in turn more

respected more since her death.

Ghasemi, Parvin. “Violence, Rage, and Self-Hurt in Sylvia Plath's Poetry.” CLA Journal, vol. 51,

no. 3, 2008, pp. 284–303. JSTOR,

www.jstor.org.aclibproxy.idm.oclc.org/stable/44325429. Accessed 4 May 2020.

The journal article VIOLENCE, RAGE, AND SELF-HURT IN SYLVIA PLATH’S

POETRY by Parvin Ghasemi goes more into relations of the negative and dark feelings

that Plath contributes from her life. Also, there are mentions, comparisons, and references
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between other critics of the interpretations of Plath’s poetry. Parvin Ghasemi quotes

Ober’s explanation, “[t]he entire symbolic procedure of death and rebirth in ‘Lady

Lazarus’ has been deliberately chosen by the speaker. She enacts her death repeatedly in

order to cleanse herself of the ‘million filaments’ of guilt and anguish that torment her….

[T]hese attempts at rebirth are unsuccessful until the end of the poem” Ober 125 Ghasemi

298. Which they are accurate that Sylvia Plath does this in her personal life, however, the

only reason is because a new event has occurred in her life to make her struggle even

more difficult. I only disagreed with Ghasemi’s and Ober’s interpretation of Plath’s use

of a phoenix since their view of it are unsuccessful attempts at rebirth until the end of the

poem.

Van Dyne, Susan. “Fueling the Phoenix Fire: The Manuscripts of Sylvia Plath's ‘Lady Lazarus.’”

The Massachusetts Review, vol. 24, no. 2, 1983, pp. 395–410. JSTOR,

www.jstor.org/stable/25089435. Accessed 5 May 2020.

Van Dyne mentions in her review, “she borrowed the miracle of Lazarus, the myth of the

phoenix, the hype of the circus, and the horror of the holocaust to prophesy for herself a

blazing triumph over her feelings of tawdriness and victimization” (397). I agreed with

Van Dyne’s interpretation that Plath is borrowing these ideas to convey her feelings and

to express her outlook of herself in life. The difference I see with Van Dyne compared to

other critics is that she delves deeper and conveys the comparison with multiple allusions

strung together.