OUTLINE

“Lady Lazarus”

Thesis Statement:

I. Summary of “Lady Lazarus” by Sylvia Plath

A. Bible connection
1. “Lazarus” is a figure in the bible
2. This figure represents her life
B. She feels like an outsider in her own generation
1. She feels like her life is on display for others
2. “The peanut-crunching crowd” (Plath, “Lady” 2)
3. Nothing will change in her generation
C. Nazis

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1. She hates the doctors just like people hated the Nazis
a. “So, so, Herr Doktor. So, Herr Enemy.” (Plath, “Lady” 3)

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b. “...walking miracle...Nazi lampshade” (Plath, “Lady” 1)
2. She compares them to the doctors

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a. Both take precious things from others
b. rs e “A cake of soap, a wedding ring, a gold filling.” (Plath, “Lady” 4)
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D. Men
1. She is tired of dealing with men
2. “I rise...And I eat men like air” (Plath, “Lady” 4)
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 Sydney Yohe

In the poem “Lady Lazarus”, written by Sylvia Plath, Plath starts the readers off with a

connection to the Bible that goes along with the poem. “Lazarus” as seen in the title is also a

figure in the Bible. Plath uses this figure to show how her life is a repeating cycle; a cycle that

consists of life and death, it is a cycle of rebirth. Plath is stuck in this endless cycle of pain cycle

and is not able to break out of it. Since she feels like she is in a continuous cycle, she feels like

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she doesn’t belong in her generation. She is put on display for the whole world; like her killing

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herself and her problems are now the world's business because it can be. In line 26 Plath says,

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“The peanut-crunching crowd” (Plath, “Lady” 2), referring to all the people standing around
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judging her life and her decision. Plath deranged herself when she thought after her generation
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never changing. Throughout the poem Nazis and doctors are mentioned, she compares the hatred
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she has for doctors to the hatred people had for Nazis. The quote; “So, so, Herr Doktor. So, Herr

Enemy” (3), shows that she sees doctors as her enemy for reviving her after she tried to commit
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suicide. The audience reading this poem could see the enemy as the Nazis, because Plath
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mentions the Nazis earlier in the poem; “A sort of walking miracle,...Nazi lampshade” (1). The
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doctors took something precious from her; her freedom, which she was obtaining through
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suicide. The Nazis also took precious things from people. Plath gets this acrosse by listing things

Nazis took “...a wedding ring, a gold filling” (4). Lastly, what really sets Plath off is men, men
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like her father and her husband. She ends the poem with; “I rise with my red hair/And I eat men

like air” (4). Plath wants her readers to remember that quote; it shows how angry and disgusted

she is with men. Plath goes from giving men once more chance to eating “men like air” (4). Plath

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 wanted it that way to show the significance of how men were the true cause of her struggles in

life.

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