Language and style

“Lady Lazarus” by Sylvia Plath is a very complex poem both in terms of form and content, and we believe special attention should be given to the poem’s language and style.

Playing with the language

In “Lady Lazarus”, Sylvia Plath is playing with language extensively, mostly through the use of metaphors and symbols. For now, we believe that it is very important to mention the collective metaphors related to Holocaust and Nazism and the way in which Lady Lazarus sees herself as a terrorized victim of the Germans.

Besides metaphors related to the Holocaust, the poem also has imagery related to the circus or the acting world. There, the poet plays with language by depicting herself as a naked and exposed victim, a freak whom the insatiable crowd wants to see and touch.

Finally, the poet also plays with language through the imagery related to death, graves and decaying corpses. Also, the title of the poem can be related to death, as the author uses the Biblical character of Lazarus as inspiration for her poem. However, this choice is very ironic, as Lazarus was a firm believer in God, while Lady Lazarus solely believes in herself.

Tense of the verbs

A variety of verbal tenses is employed in the poem. The dominant tense is present tense, which is used to depict the current situation in which Lady Lazarus finds herself: “manage” (l. 3), “am” (l. 20), “shoves” (l. 27), etc. or the way in which the public constantly tries to have a glimpse of her personal life.

Imperatives are employed when the speaker addresses the reader, whom she invites to “peel off the napkin” (l. 10) or to “beware” (l. 80). Future tense is employed when Lady Lazarus thinks about the consequences of her failed suicid...