Janet Fitch stated, “The phoenix must burn to emerge” describing the needed destruction of one’s self in order to build something new and better. When one reaches the edge of death it is said they are reborn with wisdom and speak of it as renewal. In Lady Lazarus Sylvia Plath demonstrates this feeling of renewal with lines like “Dying is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well…,” displaying her feelings that suicide is easy enough to do, but it’s doing it “theatrically” is what makes it an art. This motif of death is the foundation to Plath’s aspiration to revenge that is felt by her as female victim of male domination from her father’s general level of brutal domination. Males by nature are marked by the position of leaders, …show more content…
The sour breath Will vanish in a day”, which is an allusion to the Nazi’s final solution to eliminate Jews as well as this could have been a way for Plath to say her life like everyone else’s is bound to end, reducing her very existence to the identity of a nose, eye sockets, etc. She likely despised herself, and this description shows it, as well as her tenuous hold on life, which could be interpreted as a harbinger of her suicide. While on the topic of life and death, the title Lady Lazarus ironically identifies the persona as female Lazarus; whereas the original Lazarus was male, whom Jesus Christ brought back to life. The story of Lazarus is utilized in this poem after being connected to the myth of the reincarnating phoenix, the bird which kills itself then rejuvenates from its ashes similar to Plath who attempts to kill herself then “comes back to life” with the same desire for revenge like the bird to take revenge on its adversaries. And in the bible after Lazarus comes back to life he is renewed and better than he was before in the poem it states,” Dying is an art…” and as you know dying is not l a skill because any and every one can do it, yet Plath’s persona has attempted dying a few times and now considers herself exceptional, a pro even though she has failed twice.
Overall, through the experiences of Plath in Lady Lazarus we see the response of women to an oppressing male figure and a society of such figures. Gerard Way stated, “Sometimes you have to kind of die inside in order to rise from your own ashes and believe in yourself and love yourself to become a new person”, which we see in the persona of Plath presented in the poem. She does physically dies, but he emotional and mental connection is broken then reconnected resulting in a new