University of Quindío

Modern Languages Program

Professor Tusarma Guerrero
Literary Theory
Diana Marcela Castañeda Mendoza
April 29, 2019

LADY LAZARUS
By Sylvia Plath

Based on Affective Stylistics, for analyzing the Poem of Plath, it says that the reader, in this case me, I
have to analyze the poem closely to know how exactly it affects me.
This poem was written by Sylvia Plath in 1962, she was an American poet, novelist and short-story
writer. She died on February 11, 1963, few months later of writing Lady Lazarus. Firstly, this event
impacted me because it is my birthdate, and the writer called my attention because was a person who
lived in gloominess. Secondly, thinking in the poem she described a helpless woman, who finally
became to a powerful one.
In the first three lines, the speaker talks as if she has achieved a goal, because she talks as if she has done
something again, and that she handles with it. Then, she refers to a “walking miracle” I presume that she
is talking about herself as a survivor. Personally, knowing the story of the writer I cannot avoid to think
about Sylvia as the leading lady in the text. “​Dying”​, that word, Lady describes it as art, and says that
she does it perfectly, although she admits that dying is horrible. ​“Miracle”​, she refers to this as a
punishment. It is extremely sad, since I think that she doesn’t want to live. “​Herr Doktor”​, Lazarus sees
herself as a helpless Jewish under Herr’s control, as she was Herr Doktor’s masterpiece, I believe that
she blames the real doctor for saving her live.
The speaker is describing her deaths, she has been through that for three times, and she compares herself
to a cat having 9 lives. The speaker thinks of her as a survivor, like the Phoenix who died and
resurrected, and she is more powerful than men.

In my personal opinion this poem is understandable despite of the usage of pretentious language;
although the poem was not my choice, I enjoyed it immensely, and I have sympathy with the writer who
seems to have suffered a lot during her lifetime.