Perspectives

As “Lady Lazarus” by Sylvia Plath is a complex poem, it is necessary to put it into perspective so as to have a broader understanding of the author’s life, style and the period in which the poem was written.

Literary period

Sylvia Plath is an author who belongs to the literary current/style called confessional poetry. Just as the title of the current announces, this current deals with personal issues of the authors – be them physical or psychological – and it can contain themes such as depression, suicide, death or several traumas that define the poet. This current appeared in the United States in the 1950s, and we can safely say that “Lady Lazarus” fits perfectly in this style. As you have seen, the poem explores the themes of death (including suicide), pain and suffering – all being elements that defined, in some way or another, Sylvia Plath’s life.

Other texts by the same author

Sylvia Plath is mostly famous for her semi-autobiographical novel called “The Bell Jar”, which was published in the same year of her death. Although the novel is partly real and partly fictional, it is still a very important self-confession of Plath’s life and ...