Lady Lazarus Essay

471 Words2 Pages
Stylistic Devices in Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath uses a diverse array of stylistic devices in "Lady Lazarus," among them allusion, apostrophe, extended metaphor, and irony, in order to develop the speaker as a character. Those three poetic devices are particularly evident in lines 65-79 of"Lady Lazarus." In the New Testament of the Bible, Lazarus is a man who rises from the dead at the command of Jesus Christ (John 11:38). The title of this poem, "Lady Lazarus"(the "Lady" without a doubt referring to Plath herself, as this is an example of confessional poetry; the "Lazarus" being an allusion to the biblical figure) is an accurate indicator of the content of the poem. "Lady Lazarus" is about Plath's third attempt at suicide, and her subsequent 'resurrection'. In lines 65-79, Plath develops the speaker's contempt for the doctors who brought her back to life. Through this, Plath develops the character's paranoia. In lines 65-66 Plath uses apostrophe to address those doctors: "So, so, Herr Doktor / So, so Herr Enemy." To her, the doctors are enemies- in the stanza previous to this line, she establishes the doctors as nearly vulture-like. Lines 61-64 state, "And there is a charge, a very large charge / For a word or a touch / Or a bit of blood / Or a piece of hair on my clothes."Assonance ("charge, large charge") is used in this example in a mocking fashion towards the doctors. Lines 67-68 establish the speaker's fear that her fate is being used by the doctors for gain in the field of science: "I am your opus / I am your valuable." Later, the speaker-character's contempt of the doctors that Plath has established is tied in to a Nazi allusion, which augments this concept. In lines 73-78, Plath writes, "Ash, ash--- / You poke and stir / Flesh, bone, there is nothing there--- / A cake of soap / A wedding ring / A gold filling." This allusion to Nazis
Open Document