Summary

Lady Lazarus evokes two main settings.

1. The first setting is the circus. What a million filaments. The peanut-
crunching crowd shoves in to see. Them unwrap me hand and footThe big strip
tease. (Lines 25-29). ). In this quote Lady Lazarus portrays herself as a circus
attraction and feels that she is someone who is constantly gawked at and is
humiliated.

2. The second setting are the Holocaust's concentration camps. In "Lady

Lazarus," Plath describes the crematoriums by giving us minimal information. Ash,
ashyou poke and stir. Flesh and bone, there is nothing thereA cake of soap, a
wedding ring, a gold filling. (Lines 73-78). These are all the objects left of the
victims inside the crematorium. These objects symbolize the loss and suffering that
the Jews have endured and is another example of Lady Lazarus comparison of
suffering. Near the end of the poem Lady Lazarus is resurrected after being burned
in the crematorium. Out of the Ash I rise with my red hair and I eat men like air.
(Lines 82-84). Lady Lazarus comes back to life like the mythological phoenix that
rises from the ashes. The Nazis can't kill her now because she will eat men like
air. This symbolizes her rebirth.

Suicide attempts: The narrator begins by saying she has "done it again." Every
ten years, she manages to commit this unnamed act. She considers herself a
walking miracle with bright skin, her right foot a "paperweight," and her face as fine
and featureless as a "Jew linen". Each attempt occurred in a different decade, and
she is now 30 years old. Now that she has been pulled back to life from this most
recent attempt, her "sour breath / Will vanish in a day," and her flesh will return to
her bones.

She address an unspecified enemy, asking him to peel the napkin from her face,
and inquiring whether he is terrified by the features he sees there. She assures him
that her "sour breath" will vanish in a day.

Die 9 times like a cat: She is certain that her flesh will soon be restored to her
face after having been sacrificed to the grave, and that she will then be a smiling,
30 year-old woman. She will ultimately be able to die nine times, like a cat, and has
just completed her third death. She will die once each decade. After each death,
a "peanut-crunching crowd" shoves in to see her body unwrapped. She addresses
the crowd directly, showing them she remains skin and bone, unchanged from who
she was before.

The first death occurred when she was ten, accidentally. The second death was
intentional - she did not mean to return from it. Instead, she was as "shut as a
seashell" until she was called back by people who then picked the worms off her
corpse. She does not specifically identify how either death occurred.

Dying as an art: She believes that "Dying / Is an art, like everything else," and that
she does it very well. By describing dying as an art, she includes a spectator to both
her deaths and resurrections. Because the death is a performance, it necessarily
requires others (The crowd could certainly be understood to include the reader
himself). In large part, she kills herself to punish them for driving her to it. Each
time, "it feels real," and is easy for her. What is difficult is the dramatic comeback,
the return to the same place and body, occurring as it does in broad daylight before
a crowd's cry of "A miracle!" She believes people should pay to view her scars, hear
her heart, or receive a word, touch, blood, hair or clothes from her.

In the final stanzas, she addresses the listener as "Herr Dockter" and "Herr
Enemy," sneering that she is his crowning achievement, a "pure gold baby." She
does not underestimate his concern, but is bothered by how he picks through her
ashes. She insists there is nothing there but soap, a wedding ring, and a gold filling.
She warns "Herr God, Herr Lucifer" to beware of her because she is going to rise out
of the ash and "eat men like air."

Title:

Lazarus was a biblical figure revived by Jesus after being dead for four days. So, just
jumping straight in to things, it is likely coming back to life, but we do not know if
this is literal or figurative.

Lines 3-6:

In lines three to six, Plath introduces the Holocaust imagery by calling herself a
Nazi lampshade. This could refer to the lampshades allegedly made from the skin
of Jews by Nazis to show the pain she suffers from whoever the Nazis are and the
brutality of these Nazis. She also clarifies what the it is in a way by calling herself
a sort of walking miracle. Apparently she has done some amazing feat. This stanza
includes a simile and the beginning of a metaphor which enjambs into the next
stanza. She calls her foot a paperweight, possibly referring to the fact that she cant
leave the ground and float away as a ghost would. She creates another metaphor,
again including Holocaust imagery. So here, we see that because she is personified
by a Jew, she is likely being repressed or terrorized by the Nazis, whoever they are.
In the next stanza, this metaphor continues, and she asks the Nazis that, if you take
away her face and look into her mind, would she scare you with her thoughts? This
likely represents her suicidal and depressed mind, asking those around her, the
Nazis, that if they really saw how she was, would she terrify them? This utilizes
rhetorical question. She elaborates on what might possibly terrify her enemy, the
fact that she looks the same on the outside, but is so tortured on the inside? She
uses rhetorical question once again. Her reference to sour breath makes the reader
wonder if she has been asleep, because that is generally the only experience we
have with sour breath, waking up after being asleep for a long time. Sleep is often
representative of death. The first section of Plaths poem displays the introduction
of Holocaust imagery and the hostile environment that this Lady Lazarus awakens
to.

Lines 16-18:

In lines sixteen to eighteen, this is the first hint of something kind of

terrifying, except for the Holocaust imagery and shows a turn in the poem toward
something darkershe is about to reveal what it is. She shows that she does not
really consider her flesh to be her own and that she is not really comfortable in it,
because she has to let in become at home on her. She mentions that she has been
in a grave, creating the idea again that she likely has died and been brought back
like Lazarus. The grave is personified, making it look stronger than she is, like she
cant resist it. The speaker counteracts the last stanza, by making this all seem very
normal, And I am a smiling woman. She gives another hint that she has died,
comparing herself to a cat with a simile. The first line reminisces her third stanza,
where she talks about her face; here, she is smiling, but when you take away the
napkin, she is very different. She also gives us her age. She also twists the saying,
which goes that cats have nine lives, instead making it about death rather than life,
she [has] nine times to die. In the next three lines, she finally tells us what has
happened, she has nine times to die, and this is her third death, showing that the
speaker is indeed reminiscent of Lazarus. She hinted at this before, saying that she
manages to do this once every ten years, and she is thirty, so three makes sense.
She also shows that she considers her life to be trash, which she attempts to
destroy each decade. It could also be seen as her not being proud of her failed
attempts, ruining each decade for her because she cannot stay dead.

Lines 28-30:

In lines 28 to 30, the speaker shows furthermore her oppression by the

people around her, the peanut crunching crowd, coming to view her filaments.
Filaments are tiny strings that make up something, so, here, the strings are making
up her and the crowd is rushing in to view her. These could be the strings that make
up the napkin covering her face, possibly. The peanut crunching crowd draws the
picture of a crowd at a circus, gathering around for entertainment to see a freak
show. This line is enjambment and we see that they are indeed viewing her. She
sets it up as a strip tease, because she likely feels naked and vulnerable in front of
them, coming back from her death. She obviously had to have some issues to have
attempted death, and they are seeing her at her worstfor their entertainment. She
also creates another image of death, saying the she is emaciated, only skin and
bone. She says that, despite her death, she is the same as she has always been
which begs the questionhas she always been this twisted and messed up, and
was her death what it took for others to realize such? She reveals a shocking fact.
It first happened when she was only ten years old and it was an accident. She now
shows that her second time, she actually meant to stay dead, but she was revived
like Lazarus. She shows that she became very closed off from everyone, not letting
anyone in and not wanting to come back once she had dies. But she creates more
imagery concerning death, as they had to pick the worms off of her, and worms
mainly flock to decomposing things and earth, creating the image of the grave once
again.

In her next section, the speaker describes her view on death, and why she
believes she has such an affinity for it. She uses a metaphor to say that dying is an
art, which is odd coming from an artist and poet like herself. It just so happens that
dying is what she does best. She then creates a sort of child like rhyme, which is
vaguely reminiscent of a Dr. Seuss saying, I dont like green eggs and ham. She
uses a lot of simile. She also shows that she is tortured, saying that she wants it to
feel real and feel like hell, even though she is pretty sure she s going to come back.
The first two lines are still vaguely reminiscent of Dr. Seuss. She then creates more
imagery of a show, this time boxing, perhaps. She also show that those around her
never really change, they are all incredibly interested in her pain and her business.
The enjambment of brute amused shout strengthens the oxymoron and shows
how those around her enjoy her pain, and how much her pain increases even more
because of that. She creates more show imagery, as it is often usual in a circus to
make people pay to see the most freakish exhibits, of which she is one. She says
that they have to pay in order to view her in such a state. But with it really goes,
she shows how truly interested people are in her life. She creates the Holocaust
imagery again, by addressing her enemies as herr which means sir in German.
Here, her enemy is the doctor, who we can assume she doesnt like for bringing her
back to life all over again. She uses a few metaphors in lines 67 to 72, showing
how valuable she is to the doctor, because she makes him look good for performing
a miracle and is likely making the profits for eyeing her and selling pieces of her.
She creates more holocaust imagery here, as the Jews were often gassed or burned
to death. The last line is irony, showing that, as he is torturing her, his fake concern
is visible to her as it would not be to others.

In the next section, detailing the final resurrection, Lady Lazarus begins with
a horrifying scene, Nazis digging through the ashes of burned bodies, looking for
anything they could sell.

Lines 79-84:

However, in lines 79 to 84, the tone changes drastically. Now that her enemy has
burned her alive, she sees herself in a position of power, no longer the one being
viewed, but the one viewing, and she warns him of her return. She compares the
doctor, the herr of which she spoke earlier, to god and Lucifer, showing that the
doctor views himself as someone important enough to do the work that only god
should be doing. She warns him that she is going to rise, much like a phoenix would
with the color red. Death has given her a sense of power, and she is not to be
messed with because she is going to kill them before she can be resurrected again.

1. I have done it again.

2. One year in every ten
3. I manage it

4. A sort of walking miracle, my skin

5. Bright as a Nazi lampshade,
6. My right foot

7. A paperweight,
8. My face a featureless, fine
9. Jew linen.

10.Peel off the napkin

my enemy.
11.Do I terrify?

12.The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth?

13.The sour breath
14.Will vanish in a day.

15.Soon, soon the flesh

16.The grave cave ate will be
17.At home on me

18.And I a smiling woman.

19.I am only thirty.
20.And like the cat I have nine times to die.

21.This is Number Three.

22.What a trash
23.To annihilate each decade.
24.What a million filaments.
25.The peanut-crunching crowd
26.Shoves in to see

27.Them unwrap me hand and foot

28.The big strip tease.
29.Gentlemen, ladies

30.These are my hands

31.My knees.
32.I may be skin and bone,

33.Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman.

34.The first time it happened I was ten.
35.It was an accident.

36.The second time I meant

37.To last it out and not come back at all.
38.I rocked shut

39.As a seashell.
40.They had to call and call
41.And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls.

42.Dying
43.Is an art, like everything else.
44.I do it exceptionally well.

45.I do it so it feels like hell.

46.I do it so it feels real.
47.I guess you could say Ive a call.

48.Its easy enough to do it in a cell.

49.Its easy enough to do it and stay put.
50.Its the theatrical

51.Comeback in broad day

52.To the same place, the same face, the same brute
53.Amused shout:

54.A miracle!
55.That knocks me out.
56.There is a charge

57.For the eyeing of my scars, there is a charge

58.For the hearing of my heart
59.It really goes.

60.And there is a charge, a very large charge

61.For a word or a touch
62.Or a bit of blood

63.Or a piece of my hair or my clothes.

64.So, so, Herr Doktor.
65.So, Herr Enemy.

66.I am your opus,

67.I am your valuable,
68.The pure gold baby

69.That melts to a shriek.

70.I turn and burn.
71.Do not think I underestimate your great concern.

72.Ash, ash
73.You poke and stir.
74.Flesh, bone, there is nothing there
75.A cake of soap,
76.A wedding ring,
77.A gold filling.

78.Herr God, Herr Lucifer

79.Beware
80.Beware.

81.Out of the ash

82.I rise with my red hair
83.And I eat men like air.