In this post, notes of “Unit 3B: Lady Lazarus Summary & Daddy by Sylvia Plath” from “DSC- 18: Women Writings” are given which is helpful for the students doing graduation this year.
1. Introduction to Sylvia Plath
Brief Biography:
Sylvia Plath was born on October 27, 1932, in Boston, Massachusetts. She was a well-known American poet, novelist, and short story writer. When she was eight years old, her father, Otto Plath, died, which had a big impact on her life and became a common topic in her writing. Plath went to Smith College and later got a Fulbright Scholarship to study at the University of Cambridge, where she met poet Ted Hughes and married him in 1956. Their troubled marriage and later separation influenced the strong emotions found in her work.
Plath faced mental health problems, including depression, throughout her life. Sadly, she died by suicide on February 11, 1963, at the age of 30. Her death made her an important figure in literature and the feminist movement.
Overview of Her Literary Contributions:
Sylvia Plath is best known for her emotional and personal style of poetry. Her most famous works include Ariel, a collection of poems published after her death in 1965, and The Colossus, her first poetry book. Plath’s poetry features strong images, deep emotions, and themes such as mental illness, identity, death, and the challenges of being a woman. Her writing combines her personal experiences with broader human issues.
Plath’s novel The Bell Jar (1963) is a partly autobiographical story that has become a classic in American literature. The novel deals with mental illness, gender roles, and the struggles of a young woman trying to find her place in the world.
Context of Her Work Within the Confessional Poetry Movement:
Sylvia Plath is often linked to the confessional poetry movement, which started in the 1950s and 1960s. This type of poetry focuses on deep self-exploration and honesty about the poet’s personal life, including mental health, trauma, and relationships. Confessional poets aimed to share their private struggles in a way that had not been seen in mainstream poetry before.
Alongside poets like Robert Lowell, Anne Sexton, and W.D. Snodgrass, Plath’s work helped popularize this movement, known for its emotional depth and openness. Her poetry often touches on feelings of doubt, anger, and sadness, making it both personal and relatable. Plath’s focus on women’s experiences has made her an important figure in feminist literature.
Her work, especially in Ariel, is seen as a significant change in 20th-century poetry, as she skillfully expressed inner struggles using vivid and sometimes unsettling images.
2. Lady Lazarus
Lady Lazarus Summary
Lady Lazarus is a well-known poem by Sylvia Plath, published in 1965, two years after her death. In this poem, the speaker, Lady Lazarus, compares herself to Lazarus from the Bible, who was brought back to life by Jesus. The speaker talks about “coming back” after trying to end her life multiple times, looking at themes of death, rebirth, survival, and strength.
Many see this poem as a reflection of Plath’s own struggles with mental illness and thoughts of suicide. It also looks at how society views and uses women’s pain.
The poem has 28 lines in different lengths and is written in free verse. The speaker shows a mix of strength, bitterness, and vulnerability, revealing her inner struggles. The tone is dark yet strong as Lady Lazarus shows herself as both tragic and victorious.
Lady Lazarus Themes
- Death and Resurrection: The main theme is the speaker’s experiences with death and coming back to life. Lady Lazarus likens herself to Lazarus, showing she has “returned” from death through her own strength, not divine help.
- Suffering and Survival: The poem talks about the speaker’s deep suffering from mental illness and suicidal thoughts, but it also emphasizes her survival. Her ability to rise again is a way to fight back against what tries to defeat her.
- Empowerment and Defiance: Lady Lazarus takes charge of her story, turning her past pain into a performance. She sees her returns to life as acts of will and strength, not just passive events.
- The Gaze of Others: The poem discusses how society looks at suffering, especially how others may take advantage of the speaker’s pain. The audience seems to watch her suffering without care, suggesting a critique of how trauma is treated as entertainment.
Structure of the Poem:
The poem has 28 lines in 7 stanzas of different lengths. The free verse style shows the speaker’s chaotic feelings. The lack of a regular rhythm reflects her unpredictable emotional state. The second half of the poem speeds up, especially with repeated lines that show Lady Lazarus mocking her own death and return as a dramatic act.
Key Lines and Their Meanings:
- “I have done it again. / One year in every ten / I manage it—”
These lines show the speaker’s repeated suicide attempts. The phrase “I manage it” feels cold, indicating a casual approach to her own death. - “The big strip tease. / I let them play with me.”
Here, Lady Lazarus uses a “strip tease” to describe her return to life. The “audience” may represent society or doctors who witness her struggles. The word “play” suggests her pain is seen as entertainment. - “Dying / Is an art, like everything else. / I do it exceptionally well.”
This line suggests that the speaker has become skilled at dying, mixing sarcasm with confidence. It shows she is not just a victim but has control over her actions. - “Out of the ash / I rise with my red hair / And I eat men like air.”
In these lines, the speaker talks about rising strong after her struggles, like a phoenix. Her “red hair” symbolizes her fiery spirit and power. The phrase “I eat men like air” suggests she becomes strong and dominant in her return. - “The same story is told / And it goes on.”
These closing lines highlight the repeating nature of her experiences with death and survival. It suggests her struggles may never end, but it also shows her strength in surviving.
Conclusion:
In Lady Lazarus, Sylvia Plath shows a woman dealing with the harsh realities of mental illness while also celebrating her survival. The poem blends personal pain with a strong sense of defiance and offers a powerful look at individual suffering and how society reacts to it. It paints a stark picture of the speaker’s mental battles, making it one of Plath’s most powerful works.
Lady Lazarus Themes
1. Death and Rebirth:
The main idea of Lady Lazarus is about the struggle between dying and coming back to life. The speaker shows that she can come back after each suicide attempt, viewing death as something she controls instead of something that beats her. This cycle of dying and coming back represents both real and symbolic change, as she goes through pain and rises from it, each time stronger and more determined. The comparison to Lazarus, who was raised from the dead in the Bible, emphasizes her control over her life.
2. Identity and Rebirth:
The poem describes a constant change in the speaker’s identity. She takes charge of her rebirth, suggesting that every time she “rises,” she creates a new version of herself. The idea of “rising from the ashes” relates to the phoenix myth, symbolizing renewal and strength. Resurrection becomes not just about surviving physically but also about claiming a new identity shaped by her struggles and strength. This connects to her ongoing battle with her self-identity, which is constantly influenced by her experiences of death and survival.
3. Oppression and Empowerment:
The poem shows the contrast between being oppressed and feeling empowered, especially from a feminist view. While Lady Lazarus faces challenges from her mental illness, society’s expectations, and the way her suffering is viewed, she turns these into sources of strength. Her repeated “resurrections” challenge the idea of being a victim; instead of feeling helpless, she uses her pain to gain control. By making death a form of art, she shows power over those who watch her, including people who expect her to fit into traditional ideas of femininity and emotional stability.
Lady Lazarus Literary Devices
1. Metaphors and Similes:
- “Dying / Is an art, like everything else. / I do it exceptionally well.”
This metaphor compares dying to an “art,” showing the speaker’s skill in facing death. It makes death seem like something she has mastered. - “I rise with my red hair / And I eat men like air.”
This line uses both metaphor and imagery. The “red hair” suggests fierce strength, while “eating men like air” symbolizes her power and control, indicating that she has become unstoppable.
2. Allusions:
- The Holocaust:
The poem references the Holocaust, a significant historical event. The speaker mentions her struggles and being treated like an object, connecting her experiences to the dehumanization faced during that time. This positions her as both a victim and a survivor in a world that watches her pain. - Lazarus:
The name “Lazarus” refers to the biblical figure raised from the dead by Jesus. This is important because, while Lazarus’s return was divine, the speaker’s rebirth comes from her own strength, highlighting her control over life and death.
3. Imagery and Symbolism:
- The Phoenix (Ashes):
The image of “rising from the ash” symbolizes rebirth and the destruction that comes before it. This relates to the phoenix myth, suggesting that each death and rebirth is a painful but necessary process for the speaker to grow stronger. - The “Strip Tease”:
The “strip tease” metaphor shows that the speaker is not just a victim but someone who displays her trauma for an audience. This highlights how her pain can be used by others but also emphasizes her control over how it is shown.
Critical Analysis:
1. Interpretations of the Poem:
Lady Lazarus is seen as a strong look at trauma, identity, and survival. It reflects Sylvia Plath’s own battles with depression and suicide, showing how the speaker’s cycle of self-destruction and rebirth represents Plath’s struggles. Critics see it as a way for Plath to turn suffering into art, showing dark defiance instead of passivity.
Some scholars also view the poem through a feminist lens, discussing how it comments on women’s roles in society and how their suffering is often ignored or fetishized. Lady Lazarus gains strength by rising above these challenges, reclaiming her power despite extreme trauma.
2. Plath’s Use of Personal Experience:
The poem clearly reflects Plath’s personal experiences, especially regarding death and rebirth. Plath faced severe mental health challenges, including a suicide attempt before her eventual death. Many readers connect the speaker’s experiences to Plath’s life, showing how the poem expresses her struggles.
Through Lady Lazarus, Plath explores the conflict between her public and private selves, showing how personal pain is felt alone yet can be seen by others.
3. Reactions and Critiques from Literary Scholars:
Literary scholars have mixed views on Lady Lazarus, often praising its raw emotion. Some see it as one of Plath’s most daring works, highlighting how it challenges victim roles and shows a speaker who redefines her suffering. Critics note that Plath’s work challenges traditional views of women’s roles, turning personal pain into something powerful.
However, some argue that using Holocaust imagery may minimize the suffering of millions. The speaker’s self-identification as a victim raises questions about the appropriateness of such comparisons, especially since her suffering is largely self-inflicted.
Others believe this use of imagery adds emotional weight to the poem, drawing attention to the dehumanizing nature of both personal and historical pain.
In summary, Lady Lazarus is a complex poem about death, identity, oppression, and empowerment. Through strong metaphors and a bold tone, Sylvia Plath addresses her personal trauma while creating a story that resonates broadly. The poem inspires ongoing discussion, with interpretations ranging from psychological to feminist readings, marking it as one of Plath’s most significant works.
3. Daddy by Sylvia Plath
Summary:
Daddy is one of Sylvia Plath’s most well-known poems, published in 1965 after her death. The poem shows the speaker’s strong and complicated feelings about her father, who died when she was eight. It goes beyond simple sadness and explores deep emotional struggles, including trauma and the search for self-identity. It combines personal feelings with broader historical ideas, showing a woman in distress.
The poem is like a speech where the speaker faces her personal pain and larger issues of control and oppression. Daddy expresses a mix of anger and sadness as the speaker deals with her father’s absence and the emotional impact he left on her.
The poem has 16 stanzas with five lines each and uses free verse. The repetition of certain phrases gives it a rhythmic, chant-like feel, showing the speaker’s ongoing struggle with her feelings about her father.
Main Ideas:
- Father-Daughter Relationship and Trauma:
The poem highlights the speaker’s feelings of betrayal and anger over her father’s early death, which left her hurt. It explores how this loss has affected her identity. - Death and Loss:
Plath shows how death impacts the speaker’s life. The speaker’s sadness is mixed with confusion about her father, leading her to both admire and blame him, feeling trapped by his memory. - Oppression and Patriarchy:
The father symbolizes the controlling forces of male authority. The speaker sees him as a representation of oppressive power, linking him to broader issues of how patriarchy affects women’s lives. - Resentment and Liberation:
The poem shows the speaker’s deep anger towards her father, but it also reflects her quest for freedom from his emotional hold. In the end, she seems to break free from his influence, even if it feels violent.
Structure of the Poem:
Daddy is written in free verse with five-line stanzas. The poem’s rhythm includes repeated lines that create a chant-like effect, highlighting the speaker’s need to confront her father’s trauma. The tone shifts from sadness to anger, showing her emotional journey from longing for her father to realizing she needs to break away from him.
Key Lines and Their Meanings:
- “You do not do, you do not do / Any more, black shoe.”
These lines show the speaker feeling trapped by her father’s memory, represented by the “black shoe.” - “Daddy, I have had to kill you. / You died before I had time—”
The speaker expresses a desire to “kill” her father, highlighting her unresolved anger since she never confronted him when he was alive. - “In the German tongue, in the Polish town / Scraped flat by the roller / Of wars, wars, wars.”
These lines connect the speaker’s pain to historical events like World War II, linking personal suffering to wider struggles. - “I used to pray to recover you. / Ach, du.”
The speaker reveals a past hope for her father’s return, showing a deep emotional distance between them. - “There’s a stake in your fat black heart / And the villagers never liked you.”
This introduces a vengeful tone, suggesting the speaker sees her father as monstrous, reflecting societal judgment. - “The vampire who said he was you / And drank my blood for a year.”
The speaker compares her father to a vampire, indicating his emotional drain on her life. - “Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I’m through.”
In the end, the speaker declares she is done with her father, marking a moment of anger and liberation.
Conclusion:
Daddy is a powerful poem about the pain of losing a father and its long-lasting effects. Through vivid imagery and strong emotions, Sylvia Plath captures a woman’s struggle to break free from her father’s influence. The poem connects personal hurt with larger themes of control and freedom, making it one of her most intense works. The language shows the speaker’s emotional release while also revealing the deep scars left by her father’s loss and the oppressive forces he represents.
Main Ideas in Daddy:
1. Father-Daughter Relationships:
The poem looks at the difficult and often hurtful bond between the speaker and her father. The speaker feels abandoned and betrayed because her father died when she was young, leaving her with deep emotional pain. The poem shows her father as both a caring figure and a harsh one, reflecting her mixed feelings of love and anger towards him. This creates a complicated and unresolved relationship.
2. Trauma and Recovery:
Daddy focuses on personal trauma and the emotional struggles that come from the speaker’s father’s death. The poem describes her journey of dealing with grief and loss. However, this recovery is not easy; it is intense and confrontational, as the speaker seeks to break free from her father’s emotional hold. The idea of “killing” her father symbolizes her need to rid herself of his influence.
3. Power and Oppression:
The poem also discusses power dynamics, especially how the father has control over the speaker’s life. Even after his death, she feels emotionally trapped by his memory. The references to “Fascist” imagery connect her father to larger systems of control, suggesting that his influence reflects how patriarchal power affects women. Her anger towards him arises from his ongoing dominance, and her act of “killing” him represents her fight to reclaim her power.
Literary Devices in Daddy:
1. Metaphors and Similes:
- “You do not do, you do not do / Any more, black shoe.”
The “black shoe” symbolizes the heavy and controlling presence of the father in the speaker’s life, making her feel trapped. - “I used to pray to recover you. / Ach, du.”
Here, “praying” shows the speaker’s longing for her father, viewing him as a god-like figure, despite understanding the harm his absence causes. - “The vampire who said he was you / And drank my blood for a year, / Seven years, if you want to know.”
The vampire symbolizes the harmful relationship with her father’s memory, suggesting it drains her life and energy.
2. Allusions (e.g., to Nazism and the Holocaust):
- Nazism and Fascism:
The term “Fascist” compares her father to a dictator, showing his total control over her life, which she needs to escape. This connects personal pain to wider issues of oppression. - The Holocaust:
Mentions of “the German tongue” and “Polish town” link her personal loss to historical violence, highlighting how her grief relates to broader suffering and trauma.
3. Imagery and Symbolism:
- The Black Shoe:
This image represents the father’s controlling presence, making the speaker feel trapped by his influence. - The Vampire and the Blood:
The vampire metaphor shows a draining relationship, where the father’s memory takes away her emotional strength. - The Holocaust References:
References to the Holocaust connect her personal grief to larger historical tragedies, emphasizing the depth of her suffering.
Critical Analysis:
1. Interpretations of the Poem:
Daddy is often seen as a personal journey through the emotional struggles following the speaker’s father’s death. The poem expresses feelings of anger, love, and abandonment, and the violent imagery symbolizes the release of these repressed emotions.
Some scholars also view the poem as linking personal pain to historical suffering, suggesting that emotional trauma is part of broader societal issues.
2. Plath’s Use of Personal Experience:
Sylvia Plath’s own experiences heavily influence the poem. Her father died when she was young, and this loss shaped her life. The speaker’s feelings reflect Plath’s unresolved emotions regarding her father, who was both powerful and absent.
3. Reactions and Critiques from Literary Scholars:
Daddy has sparked many discussions among critics. Many praise its emotional depth and vivid imagery, highlighting the struggle of reclaiming identity from a father’s shadow.
However, some criticize the use of Holocaust references, arguing it trivializes those historical events. Others believe the comparisons are meant to show the depth of personal suffering.
Despite the debate, Daddy remains a significant work, exploring themes of identity, trauma, and the impact of a troubled father-daughter relationship.
4. Comparing Lady Lazarus and Daddy
Themes:
1. Similar Themes:
- Death and Rebirth:
Both Lady Lazarus and Daddy talk about death but in different ways. In Lady Lazarus, the speaker goes through repeated cycles of death and coming back to life, showing pain and recovery. In Daddy, the focus is on the sadness and trauma from the speaker’s father’s death. In both poems, death is not just an end, but something the speaker faces over and over, affecting who they are. The rebirth in Lady Lazarus reflects the speaker’s effort to overcome the father figure in Daddy, as both try to take back control from their painful pasts. - Identity and Change:
Both poems show characters struggling with who they are. In Lady Lazarus, coming back to life symbolizes finding oneself after each “death.” In Daddy, the speaker tries to break free from her father’s influence. While Lady Lazarus shows a personal fight for self-discovery, Daddy highlights the intense need to break away from the past to regain power. Both poems focus on transformation—whether it’s the speaker rising in Lady Lazarus or changing psychologically in Daddy by rejecting their father’s control. - Oppression and Strength:
Both poems deal with feeling oppressed, especially by authority figures. In Lady Lazarus, the speaker feels pressured by society to show her pain, while in Daddy, the oppression is more personal, coming from the father and the broader patriarchal society. Both speakers turn their oppression into strength. In Lady Lazarus, the speaker takes charge of her own “death” and “rebirth,” while in Daddy, the speaker confronts and breaks away from her father’s shadow, representing personal freedom.
2. Different Themes:
- Father’s Influence:
The father’s role in Daddy is clear and central, focusing on the speaker’s feelings about her father and how his death affects her. In contrast, Lady Lazarus deals more with public pressure and the struggle to stay true to oneself while being observed. The personal nature of the father’s death is missing in Lady Lazarus, where “death” is more about how the speaker sees herself and how others see her. - Public vs. Private Struggle:
In Lady Lazarus, the struggle with death and rebirth is shown as a public event, with the speaker aware of the audience watching her. She is both a victim and a performer of her own pain. On the other hand, Daddy is more personal, with the speaker dealing with deep feelings of anger and sadness towards her father. While the trauma in Daddy is expressed violently, Lady Lazarus offers a more detached view of personal suffering, where the speaker seems to control her own narrative of death and rebirth.
Literary Devices:
1. Metaphors and Symbols:
- Both poems use strong metaphors to express deep feelings. In Lady Lazarus, the speaker’s death and rebirth are like a performance, showing the acting nature of her pain. In Daddy, metaphors like “Fascist” and “vampire” describe the father’s controlling nature. The imagery in Lady Lazarus is about resurrection, while Daddy focuses on power and oppression.
2. Repetition:
- Both poems use repetition to highlight strong emotions. In Lady Lazarus, the phrase “I have done it again” repeats, showing the ongoing cycle of suffering. In Daddy, phrases like “You do not do” emphasize the speaker’s emotional confrontation with her father.
3. References:
- Lady Lazarus includes references to historical events, like the Holocaust, connecting the speaker’s pain to larger traumas. In Daddy, references to Nazism and Fascism critique the power of fathers and patriarchy, linking personal suffering to wider societal issues.
4. Imagery:
- Lady Lazarus uses vivid imagery to describe resurrection, while Daddy employs darker images to show the struggle against the father’s oppressive presence.
Personal Context:
1. Lady Lazarus and Personal Pain: In Lady Lazarus, the speaker’s repeated “death” and “rebirth” reflect Plath’s own battles with mental illness and suicide attempts. The feeling of being watched connects to how Plath was viewed in the media, often as a tragic figure.
2. Daddy and Personal Pain: In Daddy, Plath’s early loss of her father is central to the poem. The speaker’s feelings of anger and loss stem from her real-life experience of growing up without her father. The poem expresses the unresolved grief and trauma Plath carried, using violent imagery to show her struggle against authority and loss.
Conclusion:
Both Lady Lazarus and Daddy explore death, identity, and oppression, but in different ways. Lady Lazarus focuses on public suffering and rebirth, while Daddy centers on personal conflict with a father’s legacy. Plath’s own experiences with trauma and grief influence the themes and literary techniques in both poems, highlighting the complexity of her relationship with death, identity, and the forces of her past.
5. Conclusion:
Summary of Key Points:
In this analysis, we looked at two important poems by Sylvia Plath, Lady Lazarus and Daddy. Both poems deal with heavy topics like death, identity, trauma, and power, but they do so differently. Lady Lazarus shows a cycle of suffering and coming back to life, where the speaker faces and overcomes death in a dramatic way. On the other hand, Daddy focuses on the deep pain and scars left by the speaker’s father’s death, touching on feelings of abandonment, anger, and the impact of male control. Plath uses strong imagery and repetition in both poems to show the intense struggles of the speakers.
When comparing the two, we see that while both deal with personal trauma and the search for strength, Lady Lazarus is about public suffering, while Daddy is about the private pain between a father and daughter. References to historical events, like the Holocaust, help connect personal pain to wider societal issues.
Both poems reflect Plath’s own life, especially her father’s death and her mental health battles, giving insight into her emotional and psychological challenges.
Reflection on Sylvia Plath’s Impact on Literature and Feminist Writing:
Sylvia Plath has greatly impacted literature, especially confessional poetry, where personal and often uncomfortable truths are shared. Her poems, particularly Daddy and Lady Lazarus, have opened discussions about deep emotions and mental health, breaking the silence around issues like trauma and grief. Plath’s work has become an important part of feminist literature as she examines the challenges of being a woman and the fight for independence in a controlling world.
Plath shows women as complex and sometimes angry, challenging traditional views of femininity. Her openness about difficult topics like depression and suicide has encouraged future women writers to share their own struggles and experiences. So, Plath’s influence is felt not just in poetry but also in the wider feminist movement and discussions about women’s mental health.
Discussion on the Relevance of Her Work Today:
Plath’s work is still very relevant today, especially in talks about mental health, female empowerment, and societal pressures. Her insights into mental illness and identity resonate in a world where mental health conversations are becoming more common, though stigma still exists. Plath’s honest portrayals of emotional pain in Lady Lazarus and Daddy help readers connect with their own experiences of loss and healing.
Moreover, the feminist themes in Plath’s poetry are important today, especially with movements like #MeToo that challenge old gender roles. Her poems discuss the struggle between a woman’s wish for freedom and the forces that try to control her, which is still a key idea in modern feminism.
Plath’s work also touches on the universal human experience of dealing with suffering and searching for meaning, whether after loss or while facing societal expectations. As society changes, Plath’s themes of identity, trauma, power, and resistance remain essential in literature and social discussions.
In summary, Sylvia Plath’s legacy lives on not just because of her talent but also due to her bravery in facing the darkest parts of her life, which resonates with her readers. Her work continues to inspire and challenge, providing insight into the complexities of human experience and the ongoing search for personal and social freedom.