THE REFLECTION OF SYLVIA PLATH’S SUICIDAL MANNER AND SUICIDE ATTEMPTS IN “LADY LAZARUS” AS SEEN THROUGH THE IMAGERY
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By
FAJAR ADITYA YUNARTO
Student Number: 014214115
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2007
i
]âwzx ÇÉà? à{tà çx ux ÇÉà }âwzxwA YÉÜ ã|à{ ã{tà }âwzÅxÇà çx }âwzx tÇw ã|à{ ã{tà ÅxtáâÜx çx Åxàx? |à á{tÄÄ ux ÅxtáâÜxw àÉ çÉâ tzt|Ç
(Matthew 7: 1-2)
iv
This undergraduate thesis is dedicated to
My beloved mother
My special sister
My loyal brother
and
My lovely Telica
v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to thank my God the almighty, Jesus Christ, for the blessing and guidance, and for giving me the strength to finish my thesis.
My gratitude goes to my family for being my motivation, and for their supports to my education, their love and patience. My special thank goes to Telica, my beloved person, for her love, attention, patience, tenderness and care. This thesis would not have finished without her participation. I thank her for being a friend during those bad times and good times. I am sorry for many mistakes that I have done and for many tears that I gave.
I thank Dewi Widyastuti, S.Pd., M.Hum. as my advisor, for her time and her patience, and for her advice that is very helpful for my undergraduate thesis, and for being my academic advisor, for her helps during my time in the Department of
English Letters, Sanata Dharma University. I also thank Gabriel Fajar Sasmita as my co-advisor, for the corrections and suggestions.
I thank all of my friends in the English Letters Department of Sanata Dharma
University that I cannot mention one by one for the cheerful friendship and colorful memories they have given to me. I also want to thank my friends Mita, Tommy,
Deva, Wahyu, Troy, Tetra, and Andre for their helps and friendship that have given me the spirit to carry on.
Last but not least, I would like to thank all the lecturers of the English Letters
Department, staff, security, and all of the people that I cannot mention one by one for all the supports and helps.
Fajar Aditya Yunarto
vi TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE ...... i APPROVAL PAGE ...... ii ACCEPTANCE PAGE ...... iii MOTTO PAGE ...... iv DEDICATION PAGE ...... v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ...... vii ABSTRACT ...... viii ABSTRAK ...... ix
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ...... 1 A. Background of the Study ...... 1 B. Problem Formulation ...... 4 C. Objectives of the Study ...... 4 D. Definition of Term ...... 5
CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW ...... 6 A. Review of Related Studies ...... 6 B. Review of Related Theories ...... 7 1. Theories of Imagery ...... 8 2. Theories of Suicide ...... 11 3. Relationship between Literature and Biography...... 13 C. Review of Sylvia Plath’s Life ...... 14 D. Theoretical Framework...... 17
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ...... 19 A Object of the Study ...... 19 B Approach of the Study ...... 20 C Method of the Study ...... 21
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS ...... 23 A The Explication of “Lady Lazarus” ...... 23 B The Analysis on the Imagery of “Lady Lazarus” ...... 35 C Sylvia Plath’s Suicidal Manner and Suicide Attempts Reflected in the Imagery of “Lady Lazarus” ...... 50
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ...... 72
BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 76
APPENDIX ...... 77 “Lady Lazarus” ...... 77
vii ABSTRACT
Fajar Aditya Yunarto (2006). The Reflection of Sylvia Plath’s Suicidal Manner and Suicide Attempts in “Lady Lazarus” as Seen through the Imagery, Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University.
Author’s personal backgrounds, experiences, historical moment, and the life of the people around him/her usually influence the literary works he/she writes. Consciously or unconsciously the author expresses his/her feelings, thoughts, and memories in the work of art. Sylvia Plath is an author who often writes a literary work influenced by her personal life. “Lady Lazarus” is one of her works influenced by her personal life that is related to her suicidal manner and suicidal attempts. The objectives of this study are, first, to find out how the imagery in the poem is inferred, the second is to reveal how the inference of the imagery reflects Sylvia Plath’s suicidal manner and suicide attempts. This study applies library research method and uses a biographical approach. This study also applies three theories related to the topic. They are theories on imagery, theories on suicide, the relationship between literature and biography. The result of the analysis shows that there are various kinds of images that are used in the poem. Most of those images are to help to know the speaker’s opinions about some people, events, and suicide, and to give clues about her miserable condition and her intention. The imagery of the poem reflects Sylvia Plath’s first, second and third suicide (suicide attempts). The imagery shows some similarities between suicides of the speaker in the poem and Plath’s actual suicides. The people and events in the poem have similarities to the people and events in Plath’s actual life. The clues about the miserable condition and intention of the speaker show that she suffers from severe stresses (grief work, self-devaluation, interpersonal conflict, etc). The biography of Sylvia Plath proves that Sylvia Plath also suffered from similar severe stresses. Through the imagery the poem reflects Sylvia Plath’s suicidal manner and suicide attempts.
viii ABSTRAK
Fajar Aditya Yunarto (2006). The Reflection of Sylvia Plath’s Suicidal Manner and Suicide Attempts in “Lady Lazarus” as Seen through the Imagery, Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Latar belakang, pengalaman, momen sejarah, dan kehidupan orang-orang di sekitar sang penulis biasanya mempengaruhi karya-karya sastra yang ia tulis. Secara sadar atau tidak sadar sang penulis mengekspresikan perasaan-perasaan, pikiran- pikiran, dan memori-memorinya dalam karya sastra. Sylvia Plath adalah seorang penulis yang sering menulis karya sastra yang dipengaruhi oleh kehidupan pribadinya. “Lady Lazarus” adalah salah satu karyanya yang dipengaruhi oleh kehidupan pribadinya yang berhubungan dengan sikap bunuh diri dan percobaan- percobaan bunuh dirinya. Tujuan dari studi ini adalah, pertama, menemukan bagaimana pencitraan dalam puisi ini diuraikan, yang kedua adalah mengungkapkan bagaimana pencitraan mencerminkan sikap bunuh diri dan percobaan-percobaan bunuh diri Sylvia Plath. Studi ini mengaplikasikan metode penelitian pustaka dan menggunakan pendekatan biografi. Studi ini juga menerapkan tiga teori yang berhubungan dengan topik. Teori tersebut adalah, teori imagery, teori bunuh diri, dan hubungan antara sastra dan biografi. Hasil dari analisis menunjukan bahwa ada berbagai macam jenis citra yang digunakan dalam puisi ini. Citra-citra tersebut kebanyakan adalah untuk membantu mengetahui pendapat sang pembicara mengenai beberapa orang, kejadian-kejadian, dan bunuh diri, dan juga memberikan petunjuk tentang kemalangannya dan niatnya. Pencitraan dalam puisi mencerminkan bunuh diri pertama, kedua, dan ketiga Sylvia Plath (percobaan-percobaan bunuh diri). Pencitraan menunjukan kesamaan antara bunuh diri sang pembicara dalam puisi dan bunuh diri Sylvia Plath yang sesungguhnya. Orang-orang dan kejadian-kejadian dalam puisi memiliki kesamaan dengan orang-orang dan kejadian-kejadian dalam kehidupan nyata Sylvia Plath. Petunjuk-petunjuk mengenai kemalangan dan niatan sang pembicara menunjukan bahwa ia menderita tekanan batin (duka cita, kegagalan, dan konflik hubungan, dll). Biografi dari Sylvia Plath bahwa Sylvia Plath juga menderita tekanan batin. Melalui pencitraan puisi ini mencerminkan sikap bunuh diri dan percobaan-percobaan bunuh diri Sylvia Plath.
ix CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of Study
People who commit suicide are types of people who lack of solution in dealing with problems in life. The lack of solution might be caused by the lack of faith in religion. Moslems and Christians regard suicide as a sin (Coleman, 1976:
613). People who have a strong faith in religion must have known that there are heaven and hell as the reward for everything they do in this world. People who did something that is forbidden by the religion as suicide would be rewarded the everlasting hell “where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched (Mark
8: 44).”
According to Jim Smith in his book Abnormal Behavior, suicide is “the act of intentionally destroying oneself (Smith, 1984: 129).” According to
Supratiknya, a person will not commit suicide if the person does not suffer from an abnormal behavior that is caused by psychosocial factors. People who committed suicide suffer these psychosocial factors: childhood traumatic experience, parental deprivation, pathogenic relationship between children and their parents, and heavy stress (Supratiknya, 1995: 27-31).
People who committed suicide have their own reasons. Whatever the reasons are, many people still choose suicide as a way to deal with problems in life. Not only ordinary people, but also famous people like artists, politicians, and authors. For examples, Kurt Cobain, a popular musician in the 90s, not only as a
1 vocalist of Nirvana, but also as the leader of the same band who made Nirvana one of the greatest bands in the world. Too bad his career ended with suicide on 7
April 1991, it was also the end of Nirvana. Being a famous artist who had many fans was not his dream, and he could not deal with it. A famous painter, Vincent
Van Gogh (1853-1890), committed suicide because he thought he could not become a great painter with the epilepsy that he had. In fact, he could only sell one painting for 400 Francs in his life. A famous politician, Adolf Hitler (1889-
1945), committed suicide after he failed winning the Second World War. A Nobel winning author Ernest Hemingway (1898-1961), Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), and Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) were famous authors who committed suicide
(Iwantra, January 2005: 76-81). .
Suicide is a unique expression, and that is why suicide can be made into an interesting theme in literature. According to Wellek and Warren, through literary works, authors perpetuate and publish their fantasies (Wellek and Warren, 1956:
81-93). While according to Abrams, literary works have a close relation with their creators, because consciously or unconsciously through the literary works the authors express their feelings, thoughts, and experiences (Abrams, 1981: 20 – 22).
Frankly speaking, when an author writes a literary work with suicide theme, he consciously or unconsciously delivers a bit something inside him in terms of psychology.
Those experts’ ideas explain clearly that studying the author’s mind, thoughts, dreams, obsessions, fantasies, and feelings based on his life and experiences is needed to understand his works. Understanding the author’s state of
2 mind in term of psychology in writing his works will put the readers into a better understanding on the content of his works.
There are so many authors who wrote literary works contented with suicide theme. These are some of the list, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Doctor
Marigold by Charles Dickens, “A Clean, Well Lighted Place” by Ernest
Hemingway, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, and Hamlet by William
Shakespeare (http://endeavor.med.nyu.edu/lit-med). However, Sylvia Plath, an author who died of suicide, is the most interesting of them all. She even perpetuated her suicidal manner and suicide attempts through the imagery so clearly in one of her poems, “Lady Lazarus.”
Sylvia Plath was born in Massachusetts in 1932, depression had gotten into her since she was 8 years old, that was when her beloved father died of diabetes, and she swore not to talk to God again that day. At the age of 9, Plath started to think about suicide as she wrote in her journal. Every deduction and failure in love had darkened her life (Iwantra, January 2005: 77).
Her marriage to Ted Hughes, who was also a poet in 1956, could not heal her depression. Happiness in life that she expected from the marriage did not show up, moreover, Hughes had an affair with Assia Wevill. One day in one of their quarrels, Hughes told her that he wished she would kill herself, so that he could sell their house (Iwantra, January 2005: 77).
Tragically, London, in the morning of 11 February 1963, Plath after preparing breakfast for her children went straight to the kitchen in the basement
3 and sealed herself there to commit suicide with gas from the oven. Plath died at the age of 30 (Alexander, 1991: 328-330).
The researcher is going analyze “Lady Lazarus.” The poem does not only talk about suicide, but also mention the author’s actual suicides. Through imagery, or images that are taken collectively, the readers can see that the poem reflects the author’s suicidal manner and suicide attempts. The imagery will at least show that the speaker has exactly the same interest in dying like the author, because the author, Sylvia Plath, also died of suicide. The researcher believes that the poem
“Lady Lazarus” is the most suitable literary work to study Sylvia Plath’s suicidal manner that led to some suicide attempts.
B. Problem Formulation
Based on the background of the study, the researcher would like to discuss these two questions in the following chapter. The questions are as follows.
1. How is the imagery of “Lady Lazarus” inferred in the poem?
2. How is Sylvia Plath’s suicidal manner and suicide attempts reflected in the
imagery in the poem?
C. Objectives of the Study
The aim of the study is to give reliable answers to the questions that have been formulated in the problem formulation. The aims are, firstly, to find out how the imagery in “Lady Lazarus” is inferred in the poem to answer the first problem.
Secondly, to reveal how the imagery reflects Sylvia Plath’s suicidal manner and
4 suicide attempts. For the first problem, the researcher will analyze the images of the poem to reveal the inference. The next step is to find out the similarities between the author’s suicidal manner and suicide attempts and the inference of the imagery. By finding out the similarities between the inference of the imagery and the author’s suicidal manner and suicide attempts, the explanation on how far the imagery reflects Sylvia Plath’s suicidal manner and suicide attempts will be accomplished.
D. Definition of Terms
In this part, the researcher would like to define some terms to help the readers to understand the content of this thesis. The terms are suicide, and suicidal manner.
1. Suicide
Suicide according to James C. Coleman is “taking one’s own life.” Suicide
can be called as the act to destroy one self (Coleman, 1976: 603).
2. Suicidal Manner
Suicidal manner can also be called suicidal behavior. Suicidal manner or
suicidal behavior is an individual’s psychological state of intent or motivation
in which suicide appears to be one method of obtaining relief from an aversive
life situation (Coleman, 1976: 608).
5 CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review of Related Studies
Joan Welz of the University of Alberta states that Sylvia Plath was a bright, intelligent, and determined young woman with a need to succeed and a burning desire to write. Plath’s literary reputation rests mainly on her carefully crafted pieces of poetry, particularly the verse that the author composed in the months leading up to her death (http://www.hum.ualberta.ca/eml).
Helen Vendler of The New Yorker said that Plath’s poems like “Daddy” and “Lady Lazarus” show that the author is talented and has an amazing skill in writing, it can obviously be seen from the words that are chosen by the author.
Especially “lady Lazarus,” that almost every stanza picks up a new possibility of theatrical voice. For example, the words are made like mock movie talk (“So, so,
Herr Doktor. / So, Herr Enemy”) to bureaucratic politeness, (“Do not think I underestimate your great concern”) to witch warnings (“I rise with my red hair/
And I eat men Like air”) (www.english.uiuc.edu).
According to McQuade in his book Single Volume American Literature II,
Sylvia Plath’s intensity, purity, and spareness last poems have given her short career a weight out of proportion to its brevity. Those poems are of cool mastery, and of talent unafraid of its own extremes although they came from a tragic life and often have a tragic subject, these poems are exhilarated (1999: 2521).
6 Kathleen Margaret Lant in her thesis “The big striptease: female bodies and male power in the poetry of Sylvia Plath” says that “Lady Lazarus” shows how female subject offers pieces of herself that she displays herself not in assertive way, but in a sexually provocative and seductive way. The speaker of the poem “Lady Lazarus” wants her unveiling will to be noticed as a seductive gesture of submission and invitation (www.english.uiuc.edu).
The researcher has a different opinion about Plath’s writings. Perhaps those writings are intelligent and skillful writings for some people, but for the researcher, the most obvious in Plath writings are the backgrounds, the psychological moods, and the intentions of the author when writing. Not only are those, Plath’s writings are as the vehicle to shout her deepest fear, her inmost thoughts, and indirectly her suicidal manner that led to some suicide attempts. The researcher does not think of “Lady Lazarus” as a poem that reveals sexual provocation or seduction, but the researcher thinks of it as a reflection of the author’s psyche and life in term of suicide.
B. Review of Related Theories
This part contains theories to help answering the problems that have been formulated in problem formulation. The theories are theories on imagery
(allusion, metaphor and simile will be included to support the theory of imagery) as the part of theories of literature, theories on suicide as the part of theories of psychology, and the relation between literature and biography.
7 In addition, the researcher needs to include the theory on how to discuss a poem. According to Rohrberger and Woods, essentially, what poetry expresses is not different from what either fiction or drama expresses. Plot, characterization, and theme are the absolute essentials of fiction and drama. However, poetry can use all those essentials. In narrative poems, many of the criteria used to judge fiction can be applied, and dramatic poems can be judge as little plays. Most poems are plotless or characterless, but never themeless (Rohrberger and Woods,
1971: 33). “Lady Lazarus” is a narrative poem, which is why the researcher analyses the poem using the technique to analyze a fiction.
1. Theory of Imagery
Imagery is “images” that are taken collectively to make poetry concrete, as opposed to abstract. In modern criticism, imagery is one of the most ambiguous and common term. The applications of imagery range all the way from the
“mental pictures” that are experience by the reader of a poem to the totality of elements which make up a poem. In this case, an image can be a picture made out of word, and the poem may itself be an image composed from a multiplicity of images (Abrams, 1981: 78)
There are three different kinds of imagery, they are as follows. Firstly imagery is used to signify all objects and qualities of sense perception in literary works. It can be made out of literal description, allusion, or in the analogues used in its similes and metaphors. The imagery includes the literal objects the poem refers to. Some readers of the passage experience visual images and some do not,
8 among those who do, the explicitness and detail of the mind pictures vary greatly.
Imagery also includes auditory (sound), tactile (touch), thermal (heat and cold), olfactory (smell), gustatory (taste), or kinesthetic (sensation of movement), as well as visual qualities. Secondly, imagery can be used more narrowly to signify only descriptions of visual objects and scenes, especially if the description is vivid and particularized. Thirdly, imagery can also be used to signify figurative language, especially the vehicles of metaphors and similes (Abrams, 1981: 78 –
79).
Images, as they function in comparisons of various sorts, are important devices for interpretation. In that case, imagery shall not be idle and meaningless, dead or inert, or distracting or self-serving. Every bit of image ought to “make sense” and to aid the poem in its making sense the reader has to be open-minded, because there are many ways in which imagery may make its sense. The reader can only judge the accuracy of the images by understanding the context of the poem, because in this case, the images and the context become one unity (Brooks,
1960: 269 – 273)
Imagery does not only give setting or stimulates imagination or furnish pictures pleasing in themselves, but, it has everything to do with what the poem says. Imagery is an integral part of the poem that the reader should be on the alert for the implications of the imagery and for the relation of the imagery to the full meaning of the poem. Because, in some poem, the uses of metaphors have been reduced to one term, which is to make implicit rather than explicit. This kind of
9 metaphor gives the effect of powerful description and comparison (Brooks, 1960:
269 – 273).
The researcher will need to include the definition of allusion, metaphor and simile in order to recognize the imagery in the poem.
1. Allusion is a reference, explicit or indirect, to a person, place, or event, or
to another literary work or passage. In another word, allusion is a reference
that is used by the author based on the author’s private readings and
experiences, in order to know the exact meaning, which the allusion
signifies, the reader must understand the reference used by the author, the
reader must study the background of the author. The uses of allusions are
to expand upon or enhance a subject, but some are used in order to
undercut it ironically by the discrepancy between the subject and the
allusion (Abrams, 1981: 8). There are many kinds of allusion exist today,
according to Jon Rosenblatt, there are at least four allusions used in the
poem “Lady Lazarus,” biblical, historical, political, and personal allusion.
However, the researcher finds that there is another allusion used in the
poem, which is mythical allusion (www.english.uiuc.edu).
2. Metaphor is a literal usage of word to denote one kind of thing, quality, or
action, which is applied to another, in the form of identity instead of
comparison (Abrams, 1981: 65). For an example, in “O my love is a red,
red rose,” the word “is” is the key to denote the identity of the word “my
love.” “A red, red rose” is the identity of “my love.” The image “a red, red
10 rose,” signifies the identity of “my love” instead of giving comparison of
visual description although a red rose is a visual object.
3. Simile is a comparison between two distinctly different things that is
indicated by the word “like” or “as” (Abrams, 1981: 65). For an example,
“Heavy as frost, and deep almost as life,” the word “as” is the key to
compare “heavy” to “frost” and “deep” to “life.”
2. Theories of Suicide
According to Jim Smith in his book Abnormal Behaviors, suicide is “the act of intentionally destroying oneself,” he also adds that suicide can be called as
“a violent self-inflicted destructive action resulting in death.” He explains that the decision to commit suicide is usually a combination of a wish to live and a wish to die, this situation he explains as an ambivalence, which is meant to be a cry for help (1984: 129).
Durkheim grouped suicide into four basic groups. They are, egoistic, altruistic, anomic, and fatalistic. Egoistic is when a person no longer finds a basis for existence in life or unable to find the reason to live. Altruistic is when a person is positioned into a heroic situation, he dedicates his life to a cause. Anomic means
“deregulation,” it is when a person suffers from a great change in which he is not ready to deal with. Fatalistic is when a person is in an excessive regulation, this condition usually happens among prisoners, slaves and others suffering the same burdens. Durkheim measures the suicide rate based on the strengths and
11 weaknesses of society. The causes are external or environmentally determined
(Smith, 1984: 129-130).
James C. Coleman of University of California at Los Angeles declares that there are four causes of suicide. He calls it as stress factors in suicide. Paykel,
Prusoff, and Myers detected these causes in 1975. They are, interpersonal crises, failure and self-devaluation, inner conflict, and loss the meaning and hope (1976:
606-608).
Interpersonal crises are interpersonal conflict and disruptions. These kinds of conflicts are often found within the marital conflict, separation, divorce, or the loss of loved ones through death may result in severe stress and suicidal behavior.
It is a combination of stressful factors such as frustration and hostility over feeling rejected, a wish for revenge, and a desire to withdraw from the highly conflictful and hurtful relationship but on which the individual feel dependent. In other case it also happens on the death of a loved one on whom the person felt dependent for emotional support and meaning in life (Coleman, 1976: 606-607). Failure and self-devaluation is the feelings of having failed in some enterprises which often involving occupational aspirations and accomplishments (Coleman, 1976: 607).
Inner conflict is when a person is situated on a debate with his own mind. He may be anxious and confused, struggle with the meaning of life and death, and decide that he should not continue the struggle any longer (Coleman, 1976: 607). Loss of meaning and hope is when a person has no desire to live (Coleman, 1976: 607).
According to Sigmund Freud, both life and death forces are in constant conflict in every person, even though they are unconscious. Freud viewed suicidal
12 urges as a problem within the individual. The causes are frustrations that trigger an aggression to be directed inward, ambivalence that is a love-hate situation toward a lost parent or lost object, and grief work that is an abnormal desire to be reunited with a loved one (Smith, 1984: 130).
Sigmund Freud was the first to suggest that the unconscious, not the conscious governs a large part of human’s actions. This irrational part of human psyche, the unconscious, receives and stores hidden desire, ambitions, fears, passion, and irrational thoughts. Freud dramatically redefined the unconscious, believing it to be a dynamic system that not only contains biographical memories but also stores suppressed and unresolved conflicts in human mind. Still according to Freud, the unconscious is the storehouse of disguised truths and desires that want to be revealed in and through the conscious (Bressler, 1999: 149-150).
3. The Relationship between Literature and Biography
According to Rohrberger and Woods, a work of art is a reflection of a personality, that in esthetic experience the reader shares the author’s consciousness, and that at least part of the reader’s response is to the author’s personality. Furthermore, Rohrberger says that they attempt to learn as much as they can about the life and development of the author and to apply this knowledge in their attempt to understand the author’s writing (Rohrberger and Woods, 1971:
8). In another word, a literary work has always been involved with the author.
Wellek and Warren in their book Theory of Literature state that biography in relation to the light it throws on the actual production of poetry as an
13 investigation of the personality and the life of the author, it is a study of the man of genius, of his moral, intellectual, and emotional development, in which it has its own intrinsic interest. Biography can be used as affording materials for a systematic study of the psychology of the poet and of the poetic process (1956:
75). Furthermore, they claim that the most obvious cause of a work of art is its creator (Wellek and Waren, 1956: 75).
As the affording materials for systematic study of the psychology of the poet, the biography of the author is needed to study to reveal the author’s suicidal manner that lead her to some suicide attempts. There must be some explanation in psychology about Silvia Plath’s suicidal manner.
There are three points of view to be understood about biography. First, it explains and illuminates the actual product of poetry. The second advocates the intrinsic interest of biography, shifts the centre of attention to human personality.
The third considers biography as material for science or future science, the psychology of artistic of creation (Wellek and Warren, 1956: 75).
D. Review on Sylvia Plath’s Personal Life
Review on the author’s life in this thesis is needed to learn the personal life of the author and to analyze to what extent the life of the author is reflected in her poem. In addition, by learning the personal life of the author, the researcher might find the intention of the author in writing the poem. The review on the author’s life is taken from the book Rough Magic: A Biography of Sylvia Plath by
Paul Alexander.
14 Sylvia Plath, a daughter of German immigrant parents, was born on
October 27, 1932. Her father was a professor of biology at Boston University
(Alexander, 1999: 12), who died of diabetes on November 5, 1940 when Sylvia
Plath was eight years old. Hearing her father died Sylvia Plath swore, “I’ll never speak to God again.” Her mother, Aurelia, then worked at two jobs to support
Sylvia and her brother Warren, but in her diary, Plath reveals her hatred for her mother (Alexander, 1999: 34-36).
1941 was the first publication of Sylvia Plath’s work, it was a collection of poems book simply entitled Poem about what she saw and heard on hot summer nights. The collection was printed in children’s section of the Boston Herald,
Sylvia Plath accelerated to make more poems and other literary works ever since.
In late summer of 1942 when Sylvia Plath was almost 10, Aurelia started to ask little Sylvia and Warren the idea about moving out of Winthrop. It made Sylvia
Plath became frustrated, that later Sylvia Plath when she was twenty years old, explained her friend Eddie that she committed suicide, “she swam out into the ocean alone and tried to drown herself.” However, she was unable to finish her will to commit suicide (Alexander, 1999: 121). There is also evidence that proves
Sylvia Plath slit her own throat when she was ten (Alexander, 1999: 135).
On October 1942 the whole family moved to Wellesley where little Sylvia had to deal with new neighborhood; moreover she had to lose her past memories about her beloved father when she was informed that the house had been sold right after her tenth birthday. Her mother, Aurelia, sold the old house and bought the new one which was located on 26 Elmwood Road, fifteen miles west of the
15 city, she felt that she had lost many elements of her old life ever since. Later she had to make new friends, adjust to different school, and learn the way around unfamiliar places. Nevertheless, her most depressive element in life was the pain she still felt over the death of her father (Alexander, 1999: 36-41).
In February 1943, Aurelia had a terrible sickness for which she was hospitalized for three weeks and another week of recovery at home before she could continue her regular routine. Unlike dealing with their father sickness, little
Sylvia and Warren were not so depressed about Aurelia’s sickness (Alexander,
1999: 42).
At school, Sylvia Plath appeared to be a model student. She won prizes and scholarship. She studied at Gamaliel Bradford Senior High School (now
Wellesley High School) and then took her degree at the Smith College from 1950 to 1955 (Alexander, 1999: 60-174).
In 1952, her first awarded story, “Sunday at the Mintons,” was published in Mademoiselle Magazine while she was at college. In 1953, Sylvia Plath worked on the college editorial board at the same magazine and suffered a mental breakdown, which led to a suicide attempt for the second time. She describe this period of her life in The Bell Jar, her autobiographical novel, which was published under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas in 1963, a month before her death
(Alexander, 1999: 124).
Not until April 1954, she wrote poetry again, and changed her appearance to indicate a new beginning. In October 1955, Sylvia Plath attended Newham
College at Cambridge University on a Fulbright scholarship, where she met Ted
16 Hughes at a St. Botolph’s party on February 25, 1956, and they were married on
June 16 1956, although many of her friends had reminded her that Ted Hughes was the biggest seducer in Cambridge (Alexander, 1999: 176 -189).
Their happy married life only lasted a while. Later on, Sylvia started to accuse Ted on having many affairs with some girls. After six years of marriage and having two children, in July 1962, Sylvia finally discovered Ted’s newest affair with Assia Wefill, a wife of Canadian poet David Weffil, a couple whom they shared the apartment with. Sylvia and Ted separated in September, and in
December, Sylvia and the children moved into an apartment at 23 Fitzroy Road
(Alexander, 1999: 282 – 313).
On February 11, after preparing breakfast for the children Sylvia went into the kitchen and sealed the door to commit suicide with gas from the oven. The baby sitter who came in the morning found her body (Alexander, 1999: 330).
D. Theoretical Framework
The reviews and theories above are needed to answer the problem formulation. The reviews will be applied as the references towards the analysis, while the theories will be applied as the basic understanding to analyze the problems. Both the reviews and theories support one another, which the combination of both will be able to answer the problems of this study.
To answer the first problem formulation, that is how the imagery in “Lady
Lazarus” inferred. The theory of imagery (allusion, metaphor and simile as the
17 parts of theory of imagery are included) will be applied to analyze how the imagery inferred.
The second problem formulation tries to describe how the imagery reflects
Sylvia Plath’s suicidal manner and suicide attempts. The second problem will be analyzed by comparing Sylvia Plath’s suicide attempts in her biography and the inference of the imagery. The theories of suicide will be needed to understand the backgrounds of Sylvia Plath’s suicidal manner. Understanding the backgrounds of
Sylvia Plath’s suicidal manner will help to know the relation between the inference of the imagery and the author’s suicidal manner. The relationship between literature and biography will be applied to understand the significance and the relation of the author life and his works.
18 CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
The object that is analyzed in this study is “Lady Lazarus,” a narrative poem by Sylvia Plath, an author who was born in Massachusetts on October 27,
1932 and committed suicide on February 11, 1963. “Lady Lazarus” was written within a week from 23 to 28 October, 1962. It is so ironic that “Lady Lazarus” was first published in 1965, two years after Plath’s death of suicide. Although
Sylvia Plath’s life was brief in conventional terms, her life was rich in experiences. She received accolades in the form of prizes, awards, and scholarships. She had literary successes, although none as great as those that were endowed on her post-humously. In 1982, she received the Pulitzer Prize for poetry for her collected poems; “Lady Lazarus” is one of many of her great poems in the collection and had most response from the experts. “Lady Lazarus” is included in her Ariel, her famous collected poems.
The poem that is used in this study was taken from Donald McQuade’s
Single Volume American Literature II, the third edition, published by Addison
Wesley Longman, Inc. in 1999. “Lady Lazarus” contains of 28 (twenty-eight) stanzas of 84 (eighty-four) lines.
The speaker in “Lady Lazarus” is about a thirty-year-old woman who confesses to have done another suicide after two failed suicides. She calls herself as a walking miracle, and challenges her enemy, showing the enemy that she has
19 guts because she has nine lives like the cat. Assuming her life is such a trash she annihilate each decade by committing suicide, this time is number three. The speaker blames everybody who makes her life so bitter, and blames everybody who tries to rescue her. Because she would be able to live again without their rescue, there is no need to keep her life when there is nothing in it anymore.
Furthermore, she said that she is going to rise again and do revenge.
B. Approach of the Study
For the approach, the researcher uses the biographical approach because it is the most suitable approach to answer the question stated in the problem formulation. Since the researcher tends to analyze the relation between the author’s life (suicidal manner and suicide attempts of the author) and the poem, the biographical approach provides suitable explanation because this approach stresses on the reflection of the author’s life.
The biographical approach is very useful to analyze the background and biography of the author. The biographical approach is to understand the life of
Sylvia Plath’s to find out her abnormal behavior (psychology) that led her to some suicide attempts. In A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature, Wilfred
Guerin states that “the biographical approach is a reflection of its author’s life and times or the life and times of the characters in the work” (Guerin, 1979: 25).
Biographical material definitely can provide useful facts that help the researcher to understand and appreciate the literary object.
20 C. Method of the Study
The researcher uses the library research to collect the data for this study.
Those data are divided into two categories, they are, primary data and secondary data taken as the sources.
The primary data is the poem by Sylvia Plath “Lady Lazarus” taken from
McQuade’s The Harper Single Volume American Literature II, which is the object of the analysis. Besides the poem “Lady Lazarus” the researcher used other sources as the secondary sources. Most were books of psychology to support the theories of psychology, books concerned with literature theories, and Silvia
Plath’s life history. The books of psychology are James C. Coleman’s Abnormal
Psychology and Modern Life, Jim Smith’s Abnormal Behaviors: Outline
References. Books of literature theories are Abrams’ A Glossary of Literature
Terms, Wellek and Warren’s Theory of Literature, Bressler’s Literary Criticism,
Donald McQuade’s Single Volume American Literature, Wilfred Guerin’s A
Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature, Cleanth Brooks’ Modern Poetry, and Rohrberger and Woods’ Reading and Writing about Literature. The author’s biography is taken from Rough Magic: A Biography of Sylvia Plath by Paul
Alexander. The researcher also takes some data that cannot be found from those books from the internet. They are reviews from Helen Vendler and Kathleen
Margaret Lant at
In researching the work, the researcher used several stages to help to analyze the thesis. The first stage was to read “Lady Lazarus” by Sylvia Plath
21 repeatedly to find the problem in the poem to analyze, and then paraphrased the poem to help to find the intrinsic elements needed to analyze. When the researcher found some interesting problems, the next thing was to find what many experts have said about Sylvia Plath’s “Lady Lazarus,” and to find out what important subject to analyze that had never been discussed before from the internet. This way was taken to avoid plagiarism in order to have a fresh topic for the analysis.
After the second stage was completed, the researcher formulated those problems into problem formulations and figured the most suitable approach for the analysis.
Soon after the approach had been decided, the researcher was to find the theories from the books to support the analysis. After all those stages had been completed, the researcher started to analyze the poem by inferring the imagery in the poem and then related the result of the inference (what the images signify and depict) of the imagery to the biography of the author using all the data and theories. Finally, after finished analyzing the poem, the researcher drew a conclusion from the analysis.
22 CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
This chapter is divided into three main parts, the first part contains the explication of the poem, and then the other two parts contain the analysis of the problem formulations stated in Chapter I. The first analysis will discuss how the imagery of the poem “Lady Lazarus” inferred. The second analysis will describe how the inference of the imagery in “Lady Lazarus” reflects Sylvia Plath’s suicidal manner and suicide attempts.
A. The Explication of “Lady Lazarus”
“Lady Lazarus” is divided into twenty eight stanzas, three lines in each stanza. “Lady Lazarus was made within a week and it was finished on October 28
1962, one day after her thirtieth birthday. The poem sounds like demonic possession (Alexander, 1999: 303), which is filled with anger and hatred.
The poem “Lady Lazarus” is spoken by a thirty-year-old woman who calls herself as Lady Lazarus. It can be seen from the title, “Lady Lazarus,” in which the speaker uses the first person point of view “I” as to refer to the title. The name
Lazarus is taken from a Bible story about Jewish follower of Christ, brother of
Mary and Martha who was dead of some illness and resurrected by Christ. The story can be found in the Gospel according to John chapter eleven (John, 11: 1-
44). The poem is closely related to the biblical Lazarus, because the poem uses several biblical allusions from the story of biblical Lazarus in the Bible.
23 The explication will be discussed per-stanza, but sometimes to get a better understanding, some stanzas will be grouped based on the continuity.
I have done it again One year in every ten I manage it ----
In the first stanza, the speaker begins with a sentence that invites the reader to question himself, “I have done it again.” This sentence makes the reader to formulate a question like this, “what has she done before?” What the speaker has done again will be explained in the analysis on stanza fifteen as suicide, and when the speaker says “One year in every ten” the reader once again is invited to question himself, “How old is she?” which later in stanza seven will be answered.
However, before those questions are answered the speaker adds “I manage it,” this means the speaker is intended to do the thing she does, which is later in the explication of stanza fifteen will be explained as suicide.
A sort of walking miracle, my skin Bright as a Nazi lampshade, My right foot
A paperweight, My face a featureless, fine Jew linen
“Nazi lampshade,” shows the cruelty of Nazi upon the Jewish, because
“Nazi lampshade” is made of human skin, which is the skin of Jewish. This means the speaker compares her skin with the skin of Jewish. It means the speaker regards herself as a Jewish under the cruelty of Nazi. Then in the second line of the next stanza her assumption is once again emphasized, “My face featureless, fine Jew linen.”
24 Peel off the napkin O my enemy Do I terrify? ----
The stanza four is directed to her enemy, or most possible to challenge.
The speaker asks the enemy to “Peel off the napkin,” so that the enemy can examine her better. In the next line the speaker adds “Do I terrify?” this indicates that the speaker wishes to know the reaction of the enemy after seeing her without the napkin. The speaker wants to know whether she terrifies the enemy or not.
The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth? The sour breath Will vanish in a day.
“The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth, and the sour breath” signify the speaker’s body. The next line, “Will vanish in a day” explains what will happen to the speaker’s body. The function of this sentence is to attract the audience to guess what will happen to the speaker’s body, because in reality, the way a body will vanish in a day is through burning, sprinkled with acid, exploded with a bomb, or perhaps consumed by a wild carnivore.
Soon, soon the flesh The grave cave ate will be At home on me
And I a smiling woman. I am only thirty. And like the cat I have nine times to die.
In stanza six, the speaker gives an image that she is going to be happy upon death soon, because she believes that she is going to resurrect if she dies.
The resurrection is explained in the next line, “The grave cave.” For the first time, the speaker compares herself with the biblical Lazarus, because the grave cave is
25 where the biblical Lazarus was buried (John 11: 38). There is one thing that has always been related to the biblical Lazarus, which is resurrection. In this stanza the speaker seems to regard herself as a holy person that she deserves a resurrection upon her death.
“And I a smiling woman” describes her unregretful of the suicide she has committed. “And like the cat I have nine times to die,” this line seems to agree with the myth that says that a cat has nine lives. In this stanza, the speaker assumes that she also has nine lives, in which to say that she has no worry in dying or even die. This line also indicates that the speaker believes the myth. The second line, “I am only thirty,” answers the question in the analysis of the first stanza, “How old is she?”
This is Number Three. What a trash To annihilate each decade.
“This is Number Three” is a statement that shows disappointment, the word “This” refers to the word “it” in the first line of the first stanza “I have done it again.” “This” and “it” have the same meaning, as explained in stanza fifteen, it is a suicide. It means she is disappointed because she lost her three lives out of nine. In this stanza, the word “trash” refers to the speaker’s life, three decades of life. It is proven by the next line, “To annihilate each decade.” The speaker declares that she had committed three suicides as she is now thirty years old, because she wants to erase or destroy completly each decade.
What a million filaments. The peanut crunching crowd Shoves into see
26 In this stanza, the word “million filaments” refers to something related with electricity, it could be an electric shock therapy, or electrocution. The word
“crowd” according to Hornby means large number of people gathered together
(1995: 280). It means the word “crowd” in the poem most possible means the people around her. “Peanut crunching” depicts the condition of the crowd, which is a noisy crowd. “Shoves into see,” means that the people are scrambling around to watch her dying. In this stanza, the speaker seems to talk about another audience or group of people, not the ones she is talking to now.
Them unwrap me hand and foot ---- The big strip tease. Gentlemen, ladies
“Them unwrap me hand and foot,” and the next line, “the big strip tease,” are to depict humiliation, and the ones who humiliate her are “gentlemen, ladies.”
It means the speaker feels humiliated, because gentlemen and ladies treat her as if an object. They do something to her without her permission and neglect her human rights.
These are my hands My knees. I may be skin and bone,
“These are my hands. My knees” shows that the speaker communicates to the audience by showing her hands. The word “skin and bone” in this stanza depicts the speaker’s body condition, which is skinny or thin, caused by burdens that she has.
Nevertheless I am the same, identical woman. The first time it happened I was ten It was an accident.
27 The word “identical” is used to show that the speaker has not changed a bit. Then in the next line, the speaker explains what she has not changed from, that is from what happened when she was ten, she still has the same wish and desire. The last line, “It was an accident,” explains what happened when she was ten, but she does not mention what it was. However, the “accident” refers to the second line of the first stanza that says “One year in every ten.” The speaker keeps the audience questioning about the thing she does right now, but in the next stanza the speaker starts to explain what it is.
The second time I meant To last it out and not come back at all. I rocked shut
In this stanza, the speaker finally gives a clue about what she does in every ten years, which is a suicide. Because “to last it out” means to give it a stop, or to end it, and the word “it” here means the speaker’s life. This stanza explains the second suicide, so it means the word “first” in the previous stanza means suicide too. The word “come back” is used to show that the speaker had been brought back to life or reborn once, although she meant to last it out. The word, “rocked shut,” signifies the failure of the suicide.
As a seashell. They had to call and call And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls.
In this stanza, the speaker compares herself to a seashell, a water animal that lives inside its hard outer. They had to call and call” explains what people did to safe her. The next line, “like sticky pearls,” she compares “worms” that people pick to “sticky pearls.” Pearl is a small, hard, shiny white or bluish-grey ball that
28 forms inside the shells of a certain oysters and is of great value as a jewel
(Hornby, 1995: 853). The speaker tries to show that people regard her as a valuable woman that they value the most disgusting of her, the worms. The speaker tries to say that the people were trying to save her, while she wished to die back then.
Dying is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well.
“Dying is an art,” shows that the speaker thinks that dying is just like art, and then she adds, “like everything else.” According to Hornby, art means the expression of human creative talent (1995: 56). This means according to speaker, dying can become an expression that she does it as well as she can. In this stanza, the speaker seems to have a subjective thought towards dying. This is where the word “it” in the first line of the first stanza, “I have done it again” is given meaning. The “it” is “suicide,” it refers to the third line of the first stanza, “I manage it,” so it is an on-purpose-dying. This also answers the question of the first stanza, “What has she done before?” and this stanza also gives meaning to the words “first” and the “second” in stanza twelve and thirteen.
I do it so it feels like hell. I do it so it feels real. I guess you could say I’ve a call.
The word “hell” in “so it feels like hell,” according to Hornby is a state or place of great suffering or wickedness, a very unpleasant experience (1995: 556).
The word “hell” depicts the unspeakable pain or the suffering the speaker feels when dying. This means she commits suicide to feel the unspeakable pain. The
29 second line, “I do it so it feels real” refers to an event where someone thinks that he is dreaming, and then he pinches his arm to feel a small pain to make sure that he is not dreaming. It triggers this question “Why do you have to commit suicide just to know that you are not dreaming?” the reader does not have to wait long to get the answer, the next line, “I guess you could say I’ve a call,” answers the question.
It’s easy enough to do it in a cell. It’s easy enough to do it and stay put. It’s the theatrical
The word “cell” of the first line in this stanza, “It’s easy enough to do it in a cell,” depicts the miserable condition of the speaker. Cell is a very small room for one or more prisoners in a prison (Hornby, 1995: 178). This gives an image of the speaker’s condition, she feels imprisoned, or under a great depression. The word “theatrical” in “It’s the theatrical” means not natural or done in order to create an effect (Hornby, 1995: 1237). This stanza tries to say that the interesting part of the speaker’s suicide is the reason of doing it that makes her does not turn back or “stay put,” which is why it is designed to be succeeded to create an effect.
Comeback in broad day To the same place, the same face, the same brute Amused shout:
‘A miracle!’ That knocks me out. There is a charge
In this stanza, the word “A miracle” which according to the speaker, it is only an “amused shout” is used as a mock to the people if the speaker is once again saved. Because it would only knocks her out. If it is related to the previous
30 stanza, in the second line, “Comeback in a broad day/To the same place, the same face, the same brute,” then it is clear that the speaker does not want to go back.
She will charge the people or ask responsibility for that. These two stanzas try to say that although the speaker’s reborn can be called a miracle, for her it is a curse, or bad luck, that is why she does not want to be saved.
For the eyeing my scars, there is a charge For the hearing of my heart ---- It really goes
And there is a charge, a very large charge For a word or a touch Or a bit of blood
Or a piece of my hair or my clothes So, so, Herr Doktor. So, Herr Enemy.
In stanza twenty, twenty-one, and the first line of stanza twenty-two, the speaker assumes herself as an extraordinary person that she can charge people for seeing her scars and hearing of her heart, touching, speaking to her, and even taking a bit of her blood, as if she has the right to charge after giving a big thrill or entertainment to the people. The last line of stanza twenty, “It really goes” shows the seriousness of the speaker about the charge. The speaker seems to have regarded herself very precious. However, if these stanzas are related to the last line of stanza seventeen, “It’s the theatrical,” then the speaker must have considered her act of suicide as a worth-seeing event, which she can charge people for giving them such a big thrill. When the speaker mentions Herr Enemy and Herr Doktor in stanza twenty-two, she starts to direct her speech to them. “So, so Herr Doktor/So Herr Enemy,” indicates that the speaker is trying to draw their
31 attention. The use of “Herr” before their names shows how the speaker judges them as Nazis.
I am your opus, I am your valuable, The pure gold baby
That melts to a shriek. I turn and burn. Do not think I underestimate your great concern.
Stanza twenty-three and twenty-four are directed to Herr Doktor and Herr
Enemy. Stanza twenty-three determines the speaker’s position for Herr Doktor and Herr Enemy. First, she considers herself as their opus, and then as their valuable and pure gold baby. The word “opus” in “I’m your opus” means each musical composition of a composer, or it can be a work of art (Hornby, 1995:
814). A musical composition or a work of art can be identified in this poem as creation. It means, she thinks that Herr Doktor and Herr Enemy have made her become who she is now, but in a negative way. Then in the next line, “I am your valuable,” the speaker exaggerates her assumption to mock Herr Doktor and Herr
Enemy in order to be heard. The last line, “The pure gold baby,” has the same function with the two lines before. With stanza twenty three she put herself as something precious for Herr Doktor and Herr Enemy, but in the next stanza she shows how she turns into something worthless. She melts into a shriek, and she turns and burns. The word shriek in “That melts to a shriek,” means to give a sudden shout in a loud high voice (Hornby, 1995: 1094). The researcher assumes that the shout is a shout of disappointment, when a person is situated in an emotional difficult position
32 In stanza twenty-four, the speaker begins to turn from proud of who she is, into angry for not being appreciated by Herr Doktor and Herr Enemy. It can be seen in the last line of this stanza, “Do not think I underestimate your great concern,” that reflects blameworthiness of Herr Doktor and Herr Enemy.
Ash, ash ---- You poke and stir. Flesh, bone, there is nothing there ----
Stanza twenty-five is also directed to Herr Doktor and Herr Enemy. “Ash” is the remains of burning or cremating (Hornby, 1995: 59). The word “ash” gives the image of death. In the second line, the word “you” refers to “Herr Doktor” and
“Herr Enemy,” who poke and stir her like an object. “Flesh” and “bone” signify the speaker’s body, or physical appearance. The speaker thinks that there is nothing in her physical appearance. In this stanza, the speaker seems to put the blames on “Herr Doktor” and “Herr Enemy.”
A cake of soap, A wedding ring, A gold filling.
The last line of this stanza, “A gold filling” is an item left in the crematoria after the bodies of Jewish prisoners had been burned in the Nazi concentration camps (McQuade, 1999: 2531). After the cremation, there would be some rendered fat of the bodies in the crematoria, and the rendered fat was used to make soap (McQuade, 1999: 2531). It explains the next line, “A cake of soap.” Then “A wedding ring” indicates a marriage, obviously the speaker’s marriage. She equals
“A wedding ring” to “A cake of soap.” This stanza is to be related to the last line
33 of the previous stanza “Flesh, bone, there is nothing there,” which means to say that no physical forms are valuable.
Herr God, Herr Lucifer Beware Beware.
Once again the speaker judges others as Nazis, this time she judges “God” and “Lucifer” as Nazis by putting “Herr” before their names. Then she uses a repetition of the word “Beware.” This repetition is used to threat “Herr God” and
“Herr Lucifer.” The speaker seems to have a hateful grudge against “Herr God” and “Herr Lucifer.”
Out of the ash I rise with my red hair And I eat men like air.
The first line, “Out of the ash,” refers to the phoenix myth of resurrection
(www.english.uiuc.edu). According to the myth, a phoenix bird will burn its body when it gets old, like a self-combustion, and then from the ash, a baby phoenix will be born. The first line can be identified as the moment of resurrection. Then she will rise with her red hair and eat men like air. This stanza shows that she has a hateful grudge against men that she will eat them as soon as she has the power to do it.
B. The Analysis on the Imagery of “Lady Lazarus”
The speaker uses images to describe herself, and to give picture about her suicide attempts. The skill and knowledge of the author, Sylvia Plath can be seen
34 on how she includes some historical, biblical, mythical, and personal references or allusion to enrich the imagery in the poem.
The function of the images in this poem is as a way to help the interpretation in comparisons of various sorts. The accuracy of the images can be gathered by looking closer at the context (Brooks, 1960: 269 – 273). In that case, the researcher tries to analyze the poem from the very beginning to the end. The full meaning of this poem relies in the implications of the imagery, in which some of the metaphors have been reduced to one term to make it implicit (Brooks,
1960: 269 – 273).
The inference of the imagery will be discussed per-stanza, but sometimes the discussion of the stanzas will be grouped based on the continuity to get a better understanding.
I have done it again One year in every ten I manage it ----
From the very first stanza, the speaker has given a picture to the reader about what she does over and over again. She says that she has done something again at the time of speaking. The time setting can be seen from the present tense she uses. The last stanza, “I manage it ----,“ is an image that signifies a visual scene. This image depicts a planned-act that takes place one year in every decade
(ten years).
A sort of walking miracle, my skin Bright as a Nazi lampshade, My right foot
A paperweight, My face a featureless, fine
35 Jew linen
In stanza two, she describes her skin as a “walking miracle,” an image that is made out of metaphor. According to Hornby, miracle is an act or event that does not follow the known laws of nature (1995: 743), as if to suggest that her skin is the result of a miraculous act. Then she compares her skin to a Nazi lampshade in the next line. The Nazi lampshade is an image that signifies quality of sense perception using allusion, historical allusion. The term Nazi lampshade comes from the Second World War period. The Nazis, in concentration camps, made lampshades of human skins, skins of Jewish (McQuade, 1999:2529).
The Nazi lampshade shows the cruelty of Nazi upon the Jewish during the
Second World War. It gives the image of oppression that she regards her skin as the result of cruelty done by Nazi. Then, “my right foot/a paperweight” is an image that signifies the description of visual object. It gives an image of suffering.
As if to declare that her suffering has made her so skinny that her right foot is very thin and light. Later, she describes her face as featureless fine Jew linen. The description of her face is an image that is made out of allusion, biblical allusion
(Jew linen). This image depicts her assumption about being a result of a miraculous act too.
There is one important thing about fine Jew linen, that is stated in the Holy
Bible. When Jesus died, an honorable counselor, Joseph of Arimathaea asked
Pilate to give him the body of Jesus, and then he bought fine linen, took Jesus’ body down and wrapped him in the linen and laid him in a sepulcher (Mark 15: 43
– 46). Implicitly, the speaker is trying to say is that she felt oppressed by some
36 figures that she regards them as Nazi. It can be seen from how she assumes herself as Jewish under the oppression of Nazi. In terms of good and evil, she thinks that those figures of Nazi represent the evil, and she, as a Jewish, represents the good or the victim.
Peel off the napkin O my enemy Do I terrify? ----
In stanza four, the speaker, as she uses biblical allusion, relates herself with the biblical Lazarus. The napkin, according to the Holy Bible, covered the face of the biblical Lazarus when Jesus resurrected him (John, 11: 44). This means, the speaker compares her face to the face of biblical Lazarus in term of quality, not visual. The speaker seems to try to build an assumption that she has the quality of the biblical Lazarus whether in term of resurrection and in term of
Jewish (biblical Lazarus is a Jewish). The last line, “Do I terrify?” draws a conclusion to the whole description of the speaker’s body. By asking the question,
“Do I terrify?” to her enemy, the speaker seems to try to make a picture about the condition of her body. Implicitly, the speaker tries to describe that her body looks terrifying because of the oppression of the figures of Nazi (related to the analysis of the previous stanzas). This stanza is directed to the enemy, which is of course one of the figures that she calls Nazi.
The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth? The sour breath Will vanish in a day.
Soon, soon the flesh The grave cave ate will be At home on me
37 With stanza five and six the speaker gives an image that depicts what will happen to her body in any time soon. “The sour breath” is an olfactory (smell) image that depicts the speaker’s condition, which is about to die. In daily life the word “sour breath” indicates a condition when a person finds it hard to breathe, in term of dying, and he manages to breathe through his mouth to gain a better inhale and exhale. The exhale will taste sour because it carries the smell of the dry mouth.
Healthy person can experience the same thing too, that is when the person talks too much. For examples, when a person finds that he needs to drink after delivering a speech or a lecture. “Will vanish in a day” is an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts a tragic death. The stanza six, “Soon, soon the flesh/The grave cave ate will be/At home on me,” explains that what she wishes is going to be fulfilled soon, which is a resurrection after death as the representation of innocence. It can be seen from the use of the allusion to make the image, which is the grave cave, it is where the biblical Lazarus was buried and resurrected (John 11: 38).
And I a smiling woman. I am only thirty. And like the cat I have nine times to die.
“And I a smiling woman” is an image that signifies the description of visual scene, it depicts what she feels upon dying and what may come afterward, and it also determines the sex of the speaker (woman). “I am only thirty” is an image of visual object that can depict the speaker’s physical shape and simply tells the speaker age, because in daily life, people can imagine someone’s physical
38 shape base on the age. “And like the cat I have nine times to die” is an image that is made of allusion, mythical allusion. According to the myth, a cat has nine lives.
It depicts how the speaker has no worries in dying.
This is Number Three. What a trash To annihilate each decade.
“What a trash,” if related to the previous line, “this is Number Three,” is the metaphor of the previous line, as if to say that the Number Three is a trash (in form of identity). However, it can also be an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts her disappointment of her third decade of life.
Because, the analysis of the first stanza mentions that the speaker commits suicide every decade, it means the third suicide (“this” of “this is Number Three” means suicide) represent her third decade of life. The use of capital letters upon “Number
Three” is as a sign to be noticed, or as element to draw attention. The word annihilate in “To annihilate each decade” means to destroy something completely
(Hornby, 1995: 40). It means the function of the suicide is to destroy each decade completely.
What a million filaments. The peanut crunching crowd Shoves into see
“What a million filaments” refers to something related to electricity, it could be an electric shock therapy, or electrocution. The word filament means slender thread of wire in an electric lamb bulb (Hornby, 1995: 433). Based on the context, “million filaments” can be identified as an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts a process of electric shock therapy or
39 electrocution. Like in the second line of previous stanza, the word “what a” is used to described the speaker’s disappointment, which is of the shock therapy, or the electrocution.
“The peanut crunching crowd” is an auditory (sound) image that depicts the crowd, how they make noisy or disturbing sound. “Crowd” means large number of people gathered together (Hornby, 1995: 280). “Crunch” means crush something (peanut, a crunchy food) noisily with the teeth when eating (Hornby,
1995: 282). “Shoves into see” is a kinesthetic (sensation of movement) image that depicts the crowd, how they push to watch the speaker. Through these images the speaker tries to say that the noisy crowd, in which she considers as a unity (shoves
– singular), comes to watch her. This stanza may mean that the electric shock therapy or electrocution is meaningless, that it only invites disturbing people to watch.
Them unwrap me hand and foot ---- The big strip tease. Gentlemen, ladies
“Them unwrap me hand and foot” is a kinesthetic (sensation of movement) image. It shows how the crowd treats her like a piece of material, and then the crowd makes a big striptease of her. “The big striptease” is an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts humiliation. Unlike in a striptease show where the artist takes off her clothes by her own will in search of money, denying her own shame. The speaker feels that the crowd makes a show of her by denying what she wants. The last line simply tells the members of the crowd, they are gentlemen and ladies.
40 These are my hands My knees. I may be skin and bone,
The image in the last line, “I may be skin and bone,” signify a description of vivid visual objects, which is the body of the speaker, because “hands” and
“knees” represent the body of the speaker. The image depicts the condition of the speaker’s body, which is skinny or thin.
Nevertheless I am the same, identical woman. The first time it happened I was ten It was an accident.
The image in the first line, “identical woman” signifies the quality of sense perception that refers to the speaker self in form of identity using metaphor (I am).
This identity represents her perceptions, feelings, wishes, and thoughts instead of visual description of her physical appearance. This metaphor will be proven in the analysis of the second problem formulation. The second line, “The first time it happened I was ten” gives a setting of the first suicide, represents the first decade of her life. The last line simply explains her assumption towards the first suicide.
She assumes her first suicide as an accident.
The second time I meant To last it out and not come back at all. I rocked shut
This stanza gives setting that indicates the speaker’s second suicide, represents the second decade of her life. “I meant to last it out and not come back at all” simply explains her seriousness towards the suicide, based on the context, it can also be an image of visual scene that depicts the speaker’s second suicide.
Then the last line, “I rocked shut” builds an image of visual scene that depicts
41 what happens to the speaker’s second suicide. The researcher tries to find the exact meaning of “rocked shut.” The word “rocked” means move backwards and forwards or from side to side (exp. our boat was rocked by the waves), or shake violently (Hornby, 1995: 1017), while the word “shut” means stop or close
(Hornby, 1995: 1096). Based on the on the diction, “I rocked shut” may mean “ I shook stop.”
As a seashell. They had to call and call And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls.
“As a seashell” is an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts the location of the suicide. “They had to call and call and pick the worms off me” is an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts what the people (they) did to save her, or to stop the speaker’s second suicide to take effect. It is a combination of auditory (sound), “they had to call and call” and kinesthetic (sensation of movement), “and pick the worms off me.” The comparison between the worms and the sticky pearls also builds a description of visual scene that has an implicit meaning. The “worms” is a description of visual object that depicts a valueless material, while the “sticky pearls” is also a description of visual object that depicts the opposite, valuable material. The implication of the comparison is that the speaker does not value her own life while the people value her life as precious.
Dying is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well.
42 “Dying is an art” is an image that signifies the quality of sense perception in form of identity using its metaphor (is) that gives dying an identity, which is an expression of human creative talent. Then, “like everything else” is an image that signifies the quality of sense perception in form of comparison using its simile
(like) that depicts the attributes or details of the art of dying. “I do it exceptionally well” gives an image of visual scene that depicts the speaker’s seriousness towards suicide.
I do it so it feels like hell. I do it so it feels real. I guess you could say I’ve a call.
The word “hell” in “so it feels like hell,” according to Hornby is a state or place of great suffering or wickedness, a very unpleasant experience (1995: 556).
The word hell gives an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts what the speaker could do to hurt herself. The speaker tries to describe the aim of the suicide. What she means is that she does the suicide to be able to feel the unspeakable pain or great suffering. “I do it so it feels real” is another aim of the suicide that gives an image of visual scene that depicts what the speaker could do to herself. It refers to an event when someone is position in a condition where he thinks he is dreaming, and to make sure that he is not dreaming he has got to do something, such as pinching his hand. Instead of pinching her hand, the speaker prefers to commit suicide. The implication of this statement depicts the state of dreaming she is positioned, which is negative, or in another word nightmare. “I guess you could say I’ve a call” is an auditory (sound) image that depicts the speaker condition, a condition that invites her to commit suicide.
43 It’s easy enough to do it in a cell. It’s easy enough to do it and stay put. It’s the theatrical
The word “cell” of the first line is an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts condition of the speaker. “Cell” means a very small room for one or more prisoners in a prison (Hornby, 1995: 178). This time the speaker compares her condition or her life to a cell. She implicitly says that it is easy to commit suicide when she feels imprisoned. The next line shows her reaction towards the suicide, as she states that she is not going to turn back. The second line “It’s easy enough to do it and stay put” is also an image that signifies the description of visual scene. The phrase “stay put” is related to the previous image
“cell.” It invites the reader to imagine that the speaker is in a nowhere-to-run position, as to say that she has no option. The word “theatrical” in “It’s the theatrical” means unnatural or designed for effect (Hornby, 1995: 1237), which is an image that signifies the description of visual scene that concludes the previous images. The speaker implicitly says that the suicide is unnatural, because she wishes it to make effect.
Comeback in broad day To the same place, the same face, the same brute Amused shout:
The word “comeback” in the first line is an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts the speaker’s resurrection (refers to the miraculous act in the stanza two and three). The image “same brute” concludes the images of the second line, which is an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts the terrible condition or life of the speaker that is
44 mentioned in the previous stanza. It also gives an implicit statement that depicts the speaker’s wish for a different condition, or the opposite, or in another word, she wants to leave it all behind.
‘A miracle!’ That knocks me out. There is a charge
“A miracle” is related to the last line of the previous stanza, “Amused shout” in which to state that “a miracle” is the “amused shout.” “A miracle” is a combination of auditory (sound) and kinesthetic (sensation of movement) image.
It invites the reader to imagine the reaction of the people, how they are shouting
(auditory) and making surprised movements (kinesthetic), when they see the speaker’s resurrection. Then the second line, “that knocks me out,” is an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts the speaker’s reaction towards the people’s reaction. Knock someone out as figurative language means overwhelm with surprised, have a strong emotional effect, or put someone into unconsciousness (Hornby, 1995: 655). The last line, “There is a charge,” is an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts the speaker’s anger. It is as serial reaction of the speaker, but this time in form of statement or threat, because “there is a charge” can be interpreted as “you’ll pay for this.” It is directed to the people or the “crowd” that had been mentioned in stanza nine.
For the eyeing my scars, there is a charge For the hearing of my heart ---- It really goes
And there is a charge, a very large charge For a word or a touch Or a bit of blood
45 Or a piece of my hair or my clothes So, so, Herr Doktor. So, Herr Enemy.
Stanzas twenty to twenty-two are the description of the acts that are done by the crowd worth the speaker’s threat (refers to the analysis on stanza nineteen).
However, those acts lead the readers to imagine some images as follows. “For the eyeing my scars” is an image that signifies the description of visual object, which is the scars of the speaker. “For the hearing of my heart” is an auditory (sound) image. The most important imagery in stanza twenty is the image in the last line,
“it really goes.” This is an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts the real existence of the threat. The word “word” in “For a word or a touch” can mean comment or conversation, it is an auditory (sound) image, while
“touch” is a kinesthetic (sensations of movement) image. “A bit of blood” is an image that signifies the description of visual object, which is the blood of the speaker. “A piece of my hair” is an image of visual object, which is the speaker single hair, while “my clothes” is also an image of visual object, which is the speaker clothes.
In second and third line of stanza twenty-two the speaker seems to change the direction of her speech from the crowd to Herr Doktor and Herr Enemy that leads the readers to imagine two male figures. “Herr Doktor” and “Herr Enemy” are images that signifies the description of visual objects that depict two Nazi male figures. “Herr” was used to call upon the leader of Nazi, “Herr Hitler,” and other Nazi gentlemen. In stanzas two to four the speaker has mentioned that her
46 oppression and suffering are done by Nazi, means the implication of this stanza is to denote the doers of her oppression and suffering.
I am your opus, I am your valuable, The pure gold baby
“Opus” means each musical composition of a composer, or it can be a work of art (Hornby, 1995: 814). “Opus” is an image that signifies the quality of sense perception to give the picture about the speaker in form of identity, as it uses metaphor (I am). The next images, “valuable” and “pure gold baby” are similar to the previous one, “opus.”
That melts to a shriek. I turn and burn. Do not think I underestimate your great concern.
The first line of stanza twenty-four, “That melts to a shriek” cancels everything the speaker says in previous stanza. “Melts” is an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts a transformation, because “melt” means a changing form into liquid through heating (Hornby, 1995: 730). “Shriek” means to give a sudden shout in a loud high voice (Hornby, 1995: 1094), which is an auditory (sound) image that depicts misery. The researcher thinks that the word shriek is chosen, instead of scream or shout, because shriek is usually used as an expression of unspeakable pain or fear of torture, like in horror or thriller novel. “I turn and burn” is an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts the ending part of the transformation process, which is destruction, because “burn” means to destroy something by fire (Hornby, 1995: 150).
Ash, ash ---- You poke and stir.
47 Flesh, bone, there is nothing there ----
“Ash” is an image that signifies a description of visual object that depicts the result of the transformation process in the previous stanza (I turn and burn). It can also depict a death by fire, because “Ash” is the remains of burning or cremating (Hornby, 1995: 59). The words “poke” and “stir” are kinesthetic
(sensation of movement) images, and “you” is directed to Herr Doktor and Herr
Enemy. The speaker uses “poke” and “stir” instead of “suggest” and “direct,” which means the implicit meaning of this line is that the speaker thinks that Herr
Doktor and Herr Enemy treat her like a piece of material or dead object. “Flesh” and “bone” are images that signify the description of visual objects that depict physical form of the speaker. “There is nothing there” explains the meaninglessness of “flesh” and “bone.”
A cake of soap, A wedding ring, A gold filling.
“A gold filling” is an item left in the crematoria after the bodies of Jewish prisoners had been burned in the Nazi concentration camps (McQuade, 1999:
2531), it is an image that signifies the description of visual object using historical allusion that depicts the result of the cruelty of Nazi figures (Herr Doktor and Herr
Enemy). “A cake of soap” is the result of the cremation. After the cremation, there would be some rendered fat of the bodies in the crematoria, and the rendered fat was used to make soap (McQuade, 1999: 2531), it is an image that signifies the description of visual object using historical allusion that depict the result of cruelty of Nazi. “A wedding ring” means a ring that is used in a wedding
48 ceremony as a symbol of unity of a husband and a wife. The couple in marriage will wear the ring for the rest of their life until death does them apart. It is also an image that signifies the description of visual object that depicts a physical symbol of marriage. These three dead objects or physical form are considered worthless by the speaker (related to the previous stanza “there is nothing there”).
The researcher tries to analyze the implication of these images. The gold filling and cake of soap depict the result of cruelty of Nazi that reminds the reader about the cruelties of Nazi that are mentioned in the beginning stanzas, so that the reader relates those cruelties to Herr Doktor and Herr Enemy in stanza twenty-two as the doers of those cruelties, because this stanza is directed to Herr Doktor and
Herr Enemy. The “wedding ring” is considered equal to “gold filling” and “cake of soap,” it position the “wedding ring” as the result of cruelty of Nazi.
Herr God, Herr Lucifer Beware Beware.
“Beware,” means be cautious (Hornby, 1995: 103), is a warning that is directed to Herr God and Herr Lucifer. “Herr God” and “Herr Lucifer” are images that signify the description of visual objects using biblical allusion that depict
Nazi male figures (Herr). The use of Herr before God and Lucifer is to position them as Nazi. This stanza means to warn or threat God and Lucifer whom the speaker considers as Nazi.
Out of the ash I rise with my red hair And I eat men like air.
49 The first line, “Out of the ash,” refers to the phoenix myth of resurrection
(www.english.uiuc.edu). According to the myth, a phoenix bird will burn its body when it gets old, a kind of self-combustion, and then from the ash, a baby phoenix will be born. It is an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts the speaker’s resurrection. However, it can also depict a suicide or tragic death by fire (ash, the result of cremation). The second line also talks about resurrection, only this time the speaker adds a detail on the image, which is the
“red hair,” which is an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts the speaker’s transformation, which is into a demonic figure. The word
“eat” in the last line of this stanza is an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts a process of revenge. The revenge is directed to the figures in which she calls upon them as “Herr,” because “Herr” is like “sir” in
English, it refers to male figures (men).
C. Sylvia Plath’s Suicidal Manner and Suicide Attempts Reflected in the
Imagery of “Lady Lazarus”
In this analysis, the researcher tries to prove that there are connections between imagery and the author’s suicidal manner and suicide attempts. The researcher believes that the poem is the reflection of the author’s life because the author’s life explains and illuminates the actual product of poetry (Wellek and
Warren, 1956:75). The author’s biography can give clues about the author’s psychology of artistic of creation, in which later in this analysis, the researcher
50 will analyze the psychology of the author to study how far the poem reflect the personality and consciousness of the author (Rohrberger and Woods, 1971: 8).
The researcher will analyze the relation between the author’s suicidal manner and the poem using the theory of suicide to prove that the imagery reflects the author’s suicidal manner. The researcher will also analyze the relation between the author’s suicide attempts in the biography and the poem using the biography of the author to prove that the imagery reflects the author’s suicide attempts. As affording materials for a systematic study of the psychology of the poet and of the poetic process (Wellek and Warren, 1956: 75) the researcher must relate the work and the author’s biography. The researcher also uses the biography as material for science or future science, the psychology of artistic of creation
(Wellek and Warren, 1956: 75). The poem must be analyzed from the first stanza to the last one in order to find the exact connections and similarities. The stanzas will be analyzed one by one, but to get a better understanding they will be grouped based on the continuity occasionally.
I have done it again One year in every ten I manage it ----
There is a similarity between the image and the author’s third suicide in this stanza. The speaker says that she manages to commit suicide at the time of speaking, “I manage it (“it” means suicide, see the analysis on stanza fifteen). The researcher believes that the author, Sylvia Plath, started to manage the third suicide at this point, and waited for the right time to commit. The author’s suicide can be called as a planned act, because in fact, the author had committed suicide
51 on February 11, 1963 (Alexander, 1999: 330), a hundred and six days after she finished “Lady Lazarus.” Plath’s final suicide proves that she had planed to commit suicide the third time when she wrote “Lady Lazarus.” Plath’s final suicide and the speaker’s newest suicide are related to one another. The analysis on stanza twenty eight will explain the relation between Plath’s final suicide and the speaker’s newest suicide. Sylvia Plath had committed three suicides during her lifetime, including the final suicide. In fact, those suicides happened one in every ten years. The details of the suicides will be explained in the analysis on stanza twelve, thirteen, and twenty-eight.
A sort of walking miracle, my skin Bright as a Nazi lampshade, My right foot
A paperweight, My face a featureless, fine Jew linen
“A sort of walking miracle my skin” indicates the era after the second suicide attempt (before the third suicide attempt). After the second attempt Sylvia
Plath felt that miracle had happened to her (being the result of miraculous act), she felt reborn, or being brought back to life (resurrected), she changed herself into a different person, she even changed her hair color to indicate her changing.
Before the second suicide attempt, Sylvia was a person who was not going to let any boy to have a sexual intercourse with her. She even had a powerful physical drive toward sex that according to her friend, Eddie, it was a great barrier.
However, felt being reborn, she had her first sexual intercourse with her friend
Phillip McCurdy in the car, in front of her house on 26 Elmwood Road. After the
52 second sexual intercourse with Phillip McCurdy, Sylvia started to explore her sex activities with many other guys. She even dated two guys at the same time, and had sexual intercourse with every one of them. Later she even begged Eddie to scold her and told him that she was a whore and a slut (Alexander, 1999: 135-
191).
The next line, “bright as Nazi lampshade,” shows that the author is the victim of the ones that she considers as Nazi (Herr). This line will be analyzed later in the analysis of stanza twenty two. The same thing happens to “my skin is featureless fine Jew linen,” only this time the author position herself as a Jewish
(most hated race of Nazi or the victim of Nazi era). “My right foot – is – A paperweight” will be explained in the analysis of stanza eleven, because it is related to “I may be skin and bone” in stanza eleven.
In this poem, Sylvia Plath uses the term Nazi to represent the evil or the oppressor. The reason Sylvia Plath uses Nazi as the representation of evil is because although she has a so-called superior Aryan (the race of Nazis) blood runs in veins, she felt that she stood on the side of the oppressed ones, the Jewish.
Her grandparents from her father side were German immigrants who came to
America to seek a better fortune. However, as well as many Jewish, they did not belong in Germany, because at that time Germany reformed land ownership and industrialized its economy. Many low-class German were indirectly driven out of
Germany and set out their journey to America (Alexander, 1999: 15-19).
Peel of the napkin O my enemy Do I terrify? ----
53 Sylvia Plath did not have many enemies in her life. In fact, she made a lot of friends in many big cities in the world like London, Paris, Madrid, and Boston.
But, one morning on February the 8th 1963, for two hours she shared her friend
Jillian that her ideal marriage had now ended, and she cursed Ted, Assia, and the entire Hughes family. However, it was Ted Hughes alone she had to blame for every bad thing in her third-decade of life. Not only that, after knowing that Ted
Hughes would agree to divorce, to her mother Sylvia Plath claimed that she had never been happy in years. Now she could get on with her life. She wished that he would marry Assia to have the “honor” of being Assia’s forth husband. She also whished that Ted, whom she regarded as a bastard and a criminal, had admitted to her years ago, that he had wanted to leave her. That way she should be able to date someone who would appreciate her for who she was (Alexander, 1999:298).
“The mention of his (Ted Hughes) name could sometimes throw her into a rage (Alexander, 1999:309).” In her opinion, she had done countless sacrifices to help his career for nothing, that now Assia who enjoyed his success. For this, he called Ted as a bastard and a gigolo (Alexander, 1999: 309-310). “She could hardly bear to think of him living in an elegant flat, meeting important literary and publishing figures for supper, and taking carefree vacation with his girlfriend when it had been she -Sylvia!- who had worked so hard to put them in a position to enjoy the better things in life (Alexander, 1999: 319).” He even forced her to work part-time jobs during their marriage time when they lack of money. This situation indicates that Sylvia Plath suffered what is called as Anomic situation or deregulation, because she suffered from a great change in which she was not
54 ready to deal with (Smith, 1984: 129 – 130). What made her believe that she should be happy about the divorce was her conscious. However, her unconscious stimulated her vindictive thoughts of Ted Hughes and created a wish for revenge
(interpersonal crises). Implicitly, Sylvia Plath wanted Ted Hughes to look closer to her suffering (Peel off the napkin). Sylvia Plath tried to compare herself to the biblical Lazarus in term of resurrection and Jewish (as the victim of Nazi) using the term “napkin.” The term “napkin” has another function in this stanza, which is to tell Ted Hughes when to look closer to her suffering, which is obviously after she died, because the “napkin” according to the Holy Bible covered the face of
Lazarus when he died, and because the researcher believes that Sylvia Plath expected and believed that Ted Hughes would look closer to her suffering after she died. This issue will be explained in the analysis on stanza twenty-eight, as it has a relation with the effect she mentioned in stanza seventeen.
The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth? The sour breath Will vanish in a day.
Soon, soon the flesh The grave cave ate will be At home on me
“Will vanish in a day” shows that the author suffered from egoistic, how she wished to disappear, not being existed. Sylvia Plath thought that she had lost the reasons of her existence, unable to find the reason to live (Smith, 1984: 129 –
130). The fifth and sixth stanzas are to tell what kind of suicide she would do.
From the images, it is obvious that the suicide is a sort of tragic suicide that will consume her body into inexistence. Most possible a death by fire, probably she
55 would burn herself. This will be explained in the analysis on stanza twenty four to twenty eight. The use of the term grave cave is to emphasize her assumption about being the result of some miraculous act (stanza two and three) and being innocence.
And I a smiling woman. I am only thirty. And like the cat I have nine times to die.
“And I a smiling woman” expresses Sylvia Plath’s psyche, which was not very healthy, because she claimed that she smiled toward suicide. “And like the cat I have nine times to die,” nobody has nine lives, if anybody says so means he is out of his mind. It shows that Sylvia Plath had no worries towards her plan to commit suicide the third time. It can be seen that basically she was situated on a debate with her own mind. She might be anxious and confused, that she struggled with the meaning of life and death. It indicates that she was suffered from inner conflict. This stanza shows that she was not afraid to do it, and she had no worries at all. On the contrary, she was so excited about it. She was thinking that the only way to end all her miseries was to commit suicide (Alexander, 1999: 315-318).
This is Number Three. What a trash To annihilate each decade.
When the speaker says “this is Number Three” obviously she is speaking for Sylvia Plath, declaring the suicide she is doing is the third. In reality Sylvia
Plath had committed the third suicide, it was a successful one. The use of capital letter indicates that Sylvia Plath wanted her third suicide plan to be known. On late November, 1962, not too long after she finished “Lady Lazarus,” she read
56 Alvarez, a friend who was sympathetic to her poetry, the poem “Lady Lazarus.”
In fact, Alvarez was very expert in analyzing poetry using psychological approach
(Alexander, 1999: 314 – 315). The researcher believes that Sylvia Plath wanted the third suicide to be known to activate the effect that is discussed in the analysis on stanza seventeen, “It’s the theatrical.”
“What a trash” is to draw a picture about Sylvia Plath’s life according to herself. She even said to her mother near-franticly on July 17, 1953 (one month before her second suicide), “Oh, Mother, the world is so rotten! I want to die!
Let’s die together! (Alexander, 1999: 118).” Her life was so miserable and full of bad experiences. First decade of her life she lost her most loved person, her father.
Second decade of her life she felt that she had lost her talent in writing, which was her only way to entertain herself in dealing with bitter experiences in life
(Alexander, 1999: 298). Third decade of her life she again lost her most loved person, Ted Hughes. This lost reminded her of her previous lost. She even sensed the same feelings and torn her apart as well (Alexander, 1999: 315). Those are the reasons why Sylvia Plath wanted to destroy each decade completely. This stanza tells that the suicide she was going to commit was the third time. This stanza also tells the reason why she felt so much oppressed. The reason was she felt that her life was worthless, and every decade of her life was filled with disappointment.
What a million filaments. The peanut crunching crowd Shoves into see
Them unwrap me hand and foot ---- The big strip tease. Gentlemen, ladies
57 The first line of stanza nine, “What a million filaments,” refers to the electroshock therapy on Sylvia Plath’s mental breakdown at Valley Head
Hospital, which is considered useless (“what a”). On July 17, 1953, about a month before her second suicide, Sylvia told her mother, Aurelia, that she wanted to die.
Aurelia contacted a psychiatrist, Dr. J. Peter Thornton the following day to prevent the mental breakdown to take effect on Sylvia Plath. Thornton said that
Sylvia Plath suffered from a severe depression that triggered a nervous collapse, and he recommended an electroshock therapy. Sylvia Plath was electro shocked four times during the treatment at Valley Head Hospital, cost her twenty-five dollars each. However, the electroshock therapy showed slight signs of improvement. On the contrary, the electroshock therapy was believed to be the cause to Sylvia Plath’s second suicide (Alexander, 1999: 118 – 120).
“The peanut crunching crowd” indicates the debate regarding the electroshock therapy. Sylvia Plath was very reluctant to discuss her depression.
On the other side, people (Aurelia Plath, Olive Higgins Prouty, and the doctors) were debating to decide whether the therapy to be taken or not. Considering
Sylvia Plath’s safety, Aurelia thought that the Doctor was too young
(inexperienced) and the therapy did not provide full hospitalization. However, considering the Sylvia Plath’s mental breakdown, the electroshock therapy seemed to be the only option at that time, so it went on. The debate was disturbing for Sylvia Plath as she did not want to talk about it (Alexander, 1999: 118 – 120).
“Shoves into see” indicates what the people do during the therapy weeks.
Right after every session of the electroshock therapy, Sylvia Plath (nearly
58 unconscious, unable to communicate, barely needed support) was observed by the doctors and staffs, and the family to see the improvement. However, they were not there, when Sylvia Plath (sober) needed them the most, during the recovery period
(to recover physical effects of the shock therapy). Being left alone, Sylvia Plath felt that no one was on her side as she became haunted by thoughts of abandonment, because she had no one to turn to. As if to say that they were only there to see the electroshock instead of to give support (Alexander, 1999: 118 –
120).
The researcher thinks that “Them unwrap me hand and foot” refers to
Sylvia Plath unconsciousness during the session of electroshock therapy, in which of course she could not move and had other people (gentlemen, ladies) to change her clothes (the big striptease) and she could do nothing about it.
These are my hands My knees. I may be skin and bone,
October 17th 1962, 11 days before she finished writing “Lady Lazarus,”
Sylvia Plath was informed by the Health Visitor that she had lost her weight a lot, at least twenty pounds, or approximately nine kilograms (Alexander, 1999:300).
She must have been quite skin and bone in that period. Sylvia Plath was five feet nine inches tall (175 cm) and her average weight was 140 pounds (63.5 kg), it is a proportional shape for a woman, which means, if she lost twenty pounds her weight became 120 pounds (54.4 kg), which is not even close to proportional shape (skinny). In fact, she was ill, and not to mention that she was also under great interpersonal crises depression that time (Alexander, 1999: 298 – 300).
59 Nevertheless I am the same, identical woman. The first time it happened I was ten It was an accident.
In this stanza, the speaker mentions that she is still the same identical woman, and then in the next line she mentions about her first suicide which was an accident. The mention of the first suicide is most possible to indicate that she is still the same identical woman as the way she was when the first suicide happened. She was ten years back then. In fact, Sylvia Plath was ten years old when she committed her first suicide. It was because she could not bear to lose her father. “She (Sylvia Plath) swam out into the ocean alone and tried to drown herself. She was saved, she said, because she finally could not force her body to give in to the destructive wishes of her mind (Alexander, 1999: 121).” Her failure to commit the first suicide can be called as an accident, an accident that made the suicide unsuccessful. Accident is an event that happens unexpectedly and is not planned in advance (Hornby, 1995: 7). Her logic rejected her own wish to commit suicide. The first suicide proves that Sylvia Plath suffered from a grief work, which is an abnormal desire to be reunited with a loved one (Smith, 1984: 130).
How about “I am the same identical woman”? Once Sylvia Plath wrote
“My father died, we moved inland. Whereupon those nine first years of my life sealed themselves off like a ship in a bottle – beautiful, inaccessible, obsolete, a fine, white flying myth (Alexander, 1999:38).” The memories of her father had become one subject that occupied her subconscious for the rest of her life. She had never changed, not even a bit. The memories of her father hunted her life
60 (Alexander, 1999:118). Her friend, Alvarez, once gave comment towards the state of Sylvia Plath’s psyche.
Ted’s desertion had obviously triggered in her same feelings of isolation that had tormented her following her father’s death. All the anguish she had experienced at her father’s death was reactivated. Despite herself, she felt abandoned, injured, enraged, and bereaved as purely and defenselessly as she had as a child twenty years ago (Alexander, 1999: 315)
It means, what she felt when Ted Hughes abandoned her is the same feeling she felt when her father abandoned her, the feeling is identical.
When she felt abandoned by a male romantic figure, she subconsciously experienced the sense of loss she harbored over the death of her father” (Alexander, 1999: 183)
Sylvia Plath was still the same identical woman in term of psyche (not physical) at the time she wrote “Lady Lazarus.” The lost of Ted Hughes reminded her of the lost of her father, because she underwent the same feelings.
The second time I meant To last it out and not come back at all. I rocked shut
As a seashell. They had to call and call And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls.
The speaker claims that her second suicide attempt was to end everything, or meant to be the successful one. However, she shook stop. On the second suicide attempt, Sylvia Plath made a great plan for the success of the suicide. On
Monday, August 24, 1953, around 2:00 P.M, she waited till everybody left, then she took her sleeping-pill bottle and a blanket and she propped a note: “Have gone for a long walk. Will be home tomorrow” on the dining table, so that no one would search her inside the house. After that, she went to the cellar and hid
61 herself to the small unseen place. There she took one by one of the pills of forty. It was a perfect plan until she stopped it accidentally. Because the pills were too many for her that she became ill, or in drugged state like when someone is drunk or suffers sea sick or airsick, and threw up a significant number of them
(Alexander, 1999: 123 - 124). The last line “I rocked shut” seems to depict this incident. “I rocked shut” can be interpreted as “I threw up the pills and incidentally stopped the suicide.”
Her second suicide was driven by her fear of losing her talent after being rejected by Frank O’Connor’s class at Harvard Summer School. She was very disappointed back then, and she felt that she was not good enough to be a talented author (Alexander, 1999: 112 – 116). Her second suicide shows that she suffered from self-devaluation, feelings of having failed in some enterprises which often involving occupational aspirations and accomplishments (Coleman, 1976: 606 –
608).
“As a seashell” explains the location of the second suicide, which is a hidden place that she had to crawl into a tiny two-and-a-half-foot entrance after she put aside a stack of firewood that blocked it (Alexander, 1999: 121). The second line, “They had to call and call,” depicts what the people did when they found her and saved her. Her Grammy (Grammy, instead of Granny, is a call she used to call upon her grandmother) accidentally found her covered with her own dried vomit in the cellar. She immediately summoned Warren, her brother, and both of them hurrying upstairs and told the news to Aurelia, her mother, and
Grampy (grandfather), and then they went back downstairs together (Alexander,
62 1999: 124). The last line “And pick the worms off me like sticky pears” refers to the recovery that Sylvia Plath had after the second suicide. Aurelia, the rest of the family, and Olive Higgins Prouty (a sponsor who helped the recovery expenses) spent a lot of money at three different hospitals (Newton-Wellesley Hospital,
Massachusetts General Hospital, and Mclean Hospital) for the recovery
(Alexander, 1999: 126 – 132). Sylvia Plath did not value her own life that she committed suicide, while people spent a lot of money for her recovery.
Dying is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well.
In this stanza, the speaker tells the readers that at this particular moment, the speaker is dying, and she is enjoying it. She sees it as an expression of creative human talent or natural skill (Hornby, 1995: 1219) like any other arts, she even does it perfectly that she complements herself for doing it. Sylvia Plath also thought of suicide as a creative work, only in her case she used it as an expression of her feeling although she never said it, and she was talented in suicide. It can be seen through the second and third suicide she committed. The details of her creative works (second and third suicide) are analyzed in the analysis on stanza thirteen (second suicide) and stanza twenty-eight (third suicide).
I do it so it feels like hell. I do it so it feels real. I guess you could say I’ve a call.
There are some reasons why the speaker does suicide. She does it to hurts herself, to be real (make sure that she is not dreaming), and to answer the call. The author, Sylvia Plath, also had the indication that she was going to hurt herself on
63 the time when she felt she had lost Ted Hughes completely. Two weeks before the poem “Lady Lazarus” was finished, Sylvia Plath wished to hurt herself when
Edith, Ted Hughes’ mother, asked her to stop her yearly maintenance request to
Ted Hughes (Alexander, 1999: 300). She could not believe that she had lost Ted
Hughes. On October 1, she wrote to her mother that she did not want to flee of his fame (Alexander, 1999: 296). She wished to divorce Ted Hughes in one side, but she also wished to be near to Ted whatsoever in the other side. This condition is reflected in the second line of stanza sixteen “I do it so it feels real,” because loosing Ted Hughes was a nightmare for her. This condition is called as interpersonal crises or interpersonal conflict and disruption.
Sylvia Plath just could not get away from the thoughts about suicide anyway, and whenever she got away from the thoughts about suicide, she had someone to remind her. This time, Ted Hughes was the one. He speculated that
Sylvia Plath would kill herself in light of her past emotional problems, and he also told Sylvia Plath that he would sell the Court Green house if she were dead of suicide (Alexander, 1999: 298). According to the researcher, this is why she said that she had a call. It explains the last line of stanza sixteen, “I guess you could say I’ve a call.”
It’s easy enough to do it in a cell. It’s easy enough to do it and stay put. It’s the theatrical
The speaker says it is easy to do a suicide in a cell, and it is easy to do suicide if she can fight the thoughts to turn back, “It’s easy enough to do it and stay put.” The cell shows how her life is under pressure as if a prisoner lives in a
64 cell. The speaker seems to have what is called as Fatalistic, having a big burden of being situated into an excessive regulation (Smith, 1984: 129 – 130). In the last line she adds, “It’s the Theatrical” that indicates how she wishes the suicide to take effects.
Sylvia Plath had the same condition, which was excessive regulation. She felt that everyone wished for her death, everyone wanted to make her suffer, had no one to turn to, she also felt that she was helpless and had no way out (stay put) that was caused by her latest misery, abandoned by Ted Hughes (Alexander,
1999: 326 – 327).
The last line “it’s the theatrical” shows that Sylvia Plath designed her upcoming suicide for effect. How the suicide is designed to make effect is discussed in the analysis on stanza eight (Sylvia Plath activated the effect) and twenty-eight (the suicide was designed to be succeeded).
Comeback in broad day To the same place, the same face, the same brute Amused shout:
‘A miracle!’ That knocks me out. There is a charge
For the eyeing my scars, there is a charge For the hearing of my heart ---- It really goes
And there is a charge, a very large charge For a word or a touch Or a bit of blood
Just like an exhibition or theatre show, there will be a charge for people who want to see the speaker’s scars, and there will be a charge for people who
65 want to hear the beating of her heart starts at the time of speaking. One more thing, she demands a very large charge for people who wish to speak or touch her.
As she assumes herself a miracle, people will pay for every piece of her hair or her clothes. In these stanzas above, Sylvia Plath tried to make a prophecy of what was going to happen after her upcoming suicide. These contents nothing of her past life, but the prophecy of her comeback was based on the period after her second suicide when she had to come to the same place, the same face, and the same brute that lead her to plan another suicide plan, which is the third. The researcher believes that the function of stanzas nineteen, twenty, and twenty-one
(first line) are to show her attitude to carp (in form of threat) people not to save her or fail her upcoming suicide.
Or a piece of my hair or my clothes So, so, Herr Doktor. So, Herr Enemy.
The next thing is now the speaker turns her head to Herr Doktor and Herr
Enemy to show them what becomes of her now. However, who was Herr Doktor for Sylvia Plath? After the second suicide, there was one subject occupied her subconscious she could not admit until her therapy years, it was her father
(Alexander, 1999: 118). Herr Doktor represents her father, Otto Plath. The use of
Herr is to position her father as a person to blame (Nazi figure who oppressed her). After the death of her father, Sylvia Plath thought about the death of her father, she became confused. “How could her father, and international expert, or doctor, in the field of biology, so misdiagnose his own case?” She blamed her
66 father for his own death that she even called it as suicide, which is to say that her father’s on-purpose-death (according to her) oppressed her (Alexander, 1999: 41).
The reason why Herr Enemy, which is Ted Hughes (in the analysis on stanza four), is placed in same stanza with Herr Doktor is that she regarded Ted
Hughes as the substitute of her father. They both had the same position, which are the ones she loved most. One day when she felt abandoned by Ted Hughes, she said. “Isn’t this an image of what I feel my father did to me?” She thought of Ted
Hughes as someone who was aware of her love for her, but he was not there for her, just like his father who left her (died) intentionally, suicide, according to her
(Alexander, 1999: 226).
I am your opus, I am your valuable, The pure gold baby
That melts to a shriek. I turn and burn. Do not think I underestimate your great concern.
Herr Doktor and Herr Enemy are the reason why she becomes like what she is now. They are her maker, “I am your opus,” and it positions her as their valuable, their pure gold baby that only made her filled with disappointments,
“melts to a shriek.” “I turn and burn” is to tell that Sylvia Plath, at the time she wrote the poem, felt that she was worthless, she lost the meaning and hope in life
(Coleman, 1976: 607), and she was going to commit suicide again, this time by fire. The last stanza, “Do not think I underestimate your great concern,” is directed to her father and her husband, (when she wrote the poem, Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes had not been divorced although they agreed to) not to pardon
67 herself, but to mock them. Through these stanzas above, Sylvia Plath blamed her father, Otto Plath, and her husband who had an affair with Assia Weffil, Ted
Hughes, for her upcoming suicide.
Ash, ash ---- You poke and stir. Flesh, bone, there is nothing there ----
A cake of soap, A wedding ring, A gold filling.
“Ash” explains what will be resulted from what Herr Doktor and Herr
Enemy did to Sylvia Plath, which is death. They took control of her mind (poke and stir), which was the most important of her, broke her mental and psyche, and drew so much attention of her mind, in which to say that her physical form (her body) was less important to her, “Flesh, bone, there is nothing there.” Stanza twenty-six is related to the last line of stanza twenty-five, “Flesh, bone there is nothing there.” Sylvia Plath assumed that there is nothing in physical form, like her body. The implication of this line is that Sylvia Plath thought that har father and Ted Hughes should have had care more about her mental and psyche before they did what they did to her (giving too many oppressions and tormenting her).
Physical objects in stanza twenty-six are the physical forms that represent their cruelty. “A cake of soap” and “A gold filling” are the result of the cruelty of Nazi
(Herr Doktor, Otto Plath, and Herr Enemy, Ted Hughes) while “A wedding ring” is what Ted Hughes gave her, a symbol of unity in a marriage, as it is put in the same position with “A cake of soap” and “A gold filling,” it can also be
68 understood as the representation of cruelty done by Nazi. Means, Sylvia Plath assumed her marriage to Ted Hughes as Ted Hughes’ cruelty to her.
Herr God, Herr Lucifer Beware Beware.
Out of the ash I rise with my red hair And I eat men like air.
One day Sylvia Plath told her friend, Nancy, about her sleeping pills suicide, she said,
“The strangest part of the suicide attempt was regaining consciousness in the hospital. I don’t believe in God or in afterlife, and my first reaction when I opened my eyes was “No, it can’t be. There can’t be anything after death (Alexander, 1999:138).”’”
Sylvia Plath did not believe life after death, which means, she did not believe the existence of heaven and hell. It means, she did not believe in God, known as the owner of heaven, and Lucifer, known as the owner of hell. The use of “Herr” to call God and Lucifer is to show that she also had a hateful grudge against them. Following her father’s death Sylvia said that she was not going to talk to God again (Alexander, 1999: 32).
Alvarez, Sylvia Plath’s friend, said that her last poems were made to sound like demonic possession. It explains the use of “red hair” as to depict a demonic possession. The most important of the last stanza is the word “eat” and “men.”
“Eat”, which represents revenge, is directed to the word “men.” The use of the word “Herr” before Doktor, Enemy, God, and, Lucifer are to indicate that they are male figures of Nazi that she would eat. Sylvia Plath’s father, ex-husband, God, and Lucifer are in fact of male figures.
69 With these two stanzas above, Sylvia Plath cursed all men, including God and Lucifer, and she threatened them. Now that all men had made her life miserable, she had no respect to them anymore. She had a hateful grudge against men, and declared her hatred towards men. She wanted to do revenge to Ted
Hughes, as one of those men. It is impossible to do physical revenge after the suicide, because in reality she would not be living at that time. However, she would be able to do revenge, not physically, but mentally. Her death would put
Ted Hughes and other people that had tormented her in guilt. This is the effect she wished for. As a matter of fact, the suicide took effect in reality although maybe it was not the effect she wished for. As Ted Hughes’ lover gave her the burden of living in the shadow of Sylvia Plath that triggered her to suffer deep emotional instability. Assia Gutmann (her real name, as she refused to use her real husband’s name David Weffil) committed suicide, which was the same suicide that Sylvia
Plath committed, a suicide with gas from the oven. She took her daughter
Alexandra Tatiana Elise (her daughter from Ted Hughes) along with her and died together (Alexander, 1999: 346).
As she mentioned the imagery about death by fire such as “I turn and burn,” “ash,” and “out of the ash,” she declared that her future suicide was going to be a tragic death by fire. In fact, her death was caused by gas instead of fire.
According to the researcher, she was planning to burn herself, but in the second thought on the last minute of her decision, she might have considered her children’s safety. The burning of her body would have burn the entire house, because the suicide took place in the kitchen at the basement, while her innocent
70 children was in the same house, in the upper floor. Her second thought changed her final decision, although it lessened the theatrical aspect. She even sealed the door and cracks so that the gas would not go anywhere, for the safety of her children (Alexander, 1999: 330 – 331).
71 CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION
By finding out what the images in “Lady Lazarus” signify and depict, the researcher found out that the speaker in “Lady Lazarus” assumes herself as the result of miraculous act in term of resurrection. She is a thirty-year-old woman who regards dying as an art that she manage it well, she even makes it theatrical.
She has committed two suicides before, and now she is doing the third. She thinks she is the same identical woman who is under a great depression and feels very much oppressed as when she did the first suicide. She relates her oppression to the oppressions of the Jewish under The Nazi’s cruelty during the Second World War.
She even regards herself as a Jewish and regards her oppressors as Nazis. She feels like she has all the reasons to commit suicide, and she believes it thoroughly, and she will not change her mind. She convinces the people not to save her or stop her again this time. She regards the people as ones who act as if they care but they do not really care. After all, she has no reason to live, or in her diction, to go back.
Anger, hatred, and disappointment have become a perfect combination that gives a dominant influence in her mind. The combination makes her decision to commit suicide seems right. She blames Herr Doktor and Herr Enemy for all the oppression they made, and for the great depression they put her into. By putting “Herr” before their names, she regards them as the Nazis, because “Herr” is put before name of Nazis, such as Herr Hitler. What the Nazi did to the Jewish reflects what Herr Doktor and Herr Enemy did to her. She is sure that she is going
72 to resurrect again if her suicide is succeeded, and she is going to do revenge to some men she hates.
By analyzing the relation between what the images depict and Sylvia
Plath’s biography, the researcher found out similarities between them. Sylvia
Plath too was a thirty-year-old woman when she wrote the poem, and she had committed two suicides at that time. Like the speaker, she hated the Nazi too, because as an American of German heritage, she felt the stink of anti-German sentiment as a torture. Indirectly the Nazi tortured her too. Her hatred to Nazi formulated the standard judgment on the evil ones or the oppressors, which is the use of Herr is to mark the names of the people she blamed for her oppression.
Sylvia Plath’s first suicide was caused by her grief work on the death of her father whom she called as Herr Doktor, Otto Plath. Her biography explains that whenever she felt abandoned by a male figure, she felt the same misery as when she lost her father. She thought that her father had abandoned her, because she thought that her father committed suicide. This explains that she was very much an identical woman too in term of suicidal manner on her third suicide. She had a troubled mind when she wrote the poem, her husband whom she called as
Herr Enemy, Ted Hughes, left her for another woman. This situation positioned
Ted Hughes in Otto Plath position, because her third suicide was triggered by her interpersonal conflict of anger, hatred, and disappointment toward this male figure, Ted Hughes. This feeling of being abandoned reminded her of what her father did to her.. By finding out the right depictions that have relation with the biography of Sylvia Plath, the researcher found the connection between the poem
73 and the author’s suicidal manner. Definitely, the poem reflects Sylvia Plath’s suicidal manner
Sylvia Plath thought that her second suicide was distracted, and she was disappointed about that. She blamed the people who saved her, because according to her biography, she did not want to be saved. She waited until there was nobody in the house, and hid herself in the darkest, narrowest, and most secluded spot in the basement and committed suicide with sleeping pills. Based on what happen on her second suicide attempt, just like the speaker, Sylvia Plath too did not want to be saved again on her third suicide.
Through what the images depict, the researcher found that she was going to commit suicide again and the suicide will be committed with the burn of fire. In fact she had committed it although it was different. Considering the safety of her children, she committed suicide using gas from the oven after she sealed the entire door and cracks. Through the images she literary tried to explain the reasons of her future suicide and she wished all people who knew her to understand that. The imagery shows that Ted Hughes, Herr Enemy, is the only alive person that she blamed for the future suicide. Besides those reasons, she also had a purpose, as she mentioned it in the last stanza of the poem. That is to do revenge to Ted
Hughes, not physically but mentally. The suicide will make him feel guilty as soon as he had understood the poem. The poem has made the final suicide theatrical. As she had committed the final suicide successfully the final suicide can be called as a planned-act or well-managed. The imagery proves that the speaker suffers from similar severe stresses to Sylvia Plath’s severe stresses. It
74 proves that the poem and Plath’s suicidal manner are connected one another. As a whole, the poem reflects Sylvia Plath’s first and second suicide. The poem also mention about the upcoming suicide (third suicide). Although the third suicide is different from what the poem says through the imagery, the biography of Sylvia
Plath proves that she had the tendency to do the same, but the safety of her children forced her to do differently. It proves that the poem reflects Sylvia
Plath’s suicide attempts. The imagery of the poem definitely reflects Sylvia
Plath’s suicidal manner and suicide attempts.
75 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abrams, M.H. A Glossary of Literary Terms. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1981.
Alexander, Paul. Rough Magic: A Biography of Sylvia Plath. New York: Da Capo Press, 1999.
Bressler, Charles E. Literary Criticism. New Jersey: Prentice hall, 1999.
Brooks, Cleanth. Modern Poetry. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965.
Coleman, James C. Abnormal Psychology and Modern Life. Los Angeles: Foresman and Company, 1976.
Iwantra, Arvero. “Ngetop Tapi Edan.” For Him Magazine. January 2005: pp. 75- 81
Guerin, Wilfred. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1979.
Lant, Kathleen Margaret. “The Big Striptease: Female Bodies and Male Power in the Poetry of Sylvia Plath.”
McQuade, Donald. The Harper Single Volume American Literature II. New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc, 1999.
Rohrberger, Mary and Samuel H. Woods, Jr. Reading and Writing About Literature. New York: Random House, 1971.
Rosenblatt, Jon. “Sylvia Plath: The Poetry of Initiation.”
Smith, Jim. Abnormal Behaviors: Outline References. Chattanooga: University Press of America, 1983.
Supratiknya. Mengenal Perilaku Abnormal. Yogyakarta: Kanisius, 1995.
Wellek, Rene and Austin Warren. Theory of Literature. New York: Harcount, Brace & World, Inc, 1956.
Welz, Joan. “Sylvia Plath (1932 – 1963).”
76 APPENDIX
Lady Lazarus
I have done it again One year in every ten I manage it ----
A sort of walking miracle, my skin Bright as a Nazi lampshade, My right foot
A paperweight, My face a featureless, fine Jew linen
Peel of the napkin O my enemy Do I terrify? ----
The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth? The sour breath Will vanish in a day.
Soon, soon the flesh The grave cave ate will be At home on me
And I a smiling woman. I am only thirty. And like the cat I have nine times to die.
This is Number Three. What a trash To annihilate each decade.
What a million filaments. The peanut crunching crowd Shoves into see
Them unwrap me hand and foot ---- The big strip tease. Gentlemen, ladies These are my hands
77 My knees. I may be skin and bone,
Nevertheless I am the same, identical woman. The first time it happened I was ten It was an accident.
The second time I meant To last it out and not come back at all. I rocked shut
As a seashell. They had to call and call And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls.
Dying is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well.
I do it so it feels like hell. I do it so it feels real. I guess you could say I’ve a call.
It’s easy enough to do it in a cell. It’s easy enough to do it and stay put. It’s the theatrical
Comeback in broad day To the same place, the same face, the same brute Amused shout:
‘A miracle!’ That knocks me out. There is a charge
For the eyeing my scars, there is a charge For the hearing of my heart ---- It really goes
And there is a charge, a very large charge For a word or a touch Or a bit of blood
Or a piece of my hair or my clothes So, so, Herr Doktor. So, Herr enemy.
78 I am your opus, I am your valuable, The pure gold baby
That melts to a shriek. I turn and burn. Do not think I underestimate your great concern.
Ash, ash ---- You poke and stir. Flesh, bone, there is nothing there ----
A cake of soap, A wedding ring, A gold filling.
Herr God, Herr Lucifer Beware Beware.
Out of the ash I rise with my red hair And I eat men like air.
(Sylvia Plath, October 23-28, 1962)
79 1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of Study
People who commit suicide are types of people who lack of solution in dealing with problems in life. The lack of solution might be caused by the lack of faith in religion. Moslems and Christians regard suicide as a sin (Coleman, 1976:
613). People who have a strong faith in religion must have known that there are heaven and hell as the reward for everything they do in this world. People who did something that is forbidden by the religion as suicide would be rewarded the everlasting hell “where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched (Mark
8: 44).”
According to Jim Smith in his book Abnormal Behavior, suicide is “the act of intentionally destroying oneself (Smith, 1984: 129).” According to
Supratiknya, a person will not commit suicide if the person does not suffer from an abnormal behavior that is caused by psychosocial factors. People who committed suicide suffer these psychosocial factors: childhood traumatic experience, parental deprivation, pathogenic relationship between children and their parents, and heavy stress (Supratiknya, 1995: 27-31).
People who committed suicide have their own reasons. Whatever the reasons are, many people still choose suicide as a way to deal with problems in life. Not only ordinary people, but also famous people like artists, politicians, and authors. For examples, Kurt Cobain, a popular musician in the 90s, not only as a 2
vocalist of Nirvana, but also as the leader of the same band who made Nirvana one of the greatest bands in the world. Too bad his career ended with suicide on 7
April 1991, it was also the end of Nirvana. Being a famous artist who had many fans was not his dream, and he could not deal with it. A famous painter, Vincent
Van Gogh (1853-1890), committed suicide because he thought he could not become a great painter with the epilepsy that he had. In fact, he could only sell one painting for 400 Francs in his life. A famous politician, Adolf Hitler (1889-
1945), committed suicide after he failed winning the Second World War. A Nobel winning author Ernest Hemingway (1898-1961), Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), and Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) were famous authors who committed suicide
(Iwantra, January 2005: 76-81). .
Suicide is a unique expression, and that is why suicide can be made into an interesting theme in literature. According to Wellek and Warren, through literary works, authors perpetuate and publish their fantasies (Wellek and Warren, 1956:
81-93). While according to Abrams, literary works have a close relation with their creators, because consciously or unconsciously through the literary works the authors express their feelings, thoughts, and experiences (Abrams, 1981: 20 – 22).
Frankly speaking, when an author writes a literary work with suicide theme, he consciously or unconsciously delivers a bit something inside him in terms of psychology.
Those experts’ ideas explain clearly that studying the author’s mind, thoughts, dreams, obsessions, fantasies, and feelings based on his life and experiences is needed to understand his works. Understanding the author’s state of 3
mind in term of psychology in writing his works will put the readers into a better understanding on the content of his works.
There are so many authors who wrote literary works contented with suicide theme. These are some of the list, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Doctor
Marigold by Charles Dickens, “A Clean, Well Lighted Place” by Ernest
Hemingway, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, and Hamlet by William
Shakespeare (http://endeavor.med.nyu.edu/lit-med). However, Sylvia Plath, an author who died of suicide, is the most interesting of them all. She even perpetuated her suicidal manner and suicide attempts through the imagery so clearly in one of her poems, “Lady Lazarus.”
Sylvia Plath was born in Massachusetts in 1932, depression had gotten into her since she was 8 years old, that was when her beloved father died of diabetes, and she swore not to talk to God again that day. At the age of 9, Plath started to think about suicide as she wrote in her journal. Every deduction and failure in love had darkened her life (Iwantra, January 2005: 77).
Her marriage to Ted Hughes, who was also a poet in 1956, could not heal her depression. Happiness in life that she expected from the marriage did not show up, moreover, Hughes had an affair with Assia Wevill. One day in one of their quarrels, Hughes told her that he wished she would kill herself, so that he could sell their house (Iwantra, January 2005: 77).
Tragically, London, in the morning of 11 February 1963, Plath after preparing breakfast for her children went straight to the kitchen in the basement 4
and sealed herself there to commit suicide with gas from the oven. Plath died at the age of 30 (Alexander, 1991: 328-330).
The researcher is going analyze “Lady Lazarus.” The poem does not only talk about suicide, but also mention the author’s actual suicides. Through imagery, or images that are taken collectively, the readers can see that the poem reflects the author’s suicidal manner and suicide attempts. The imagery will at least show that the speaker has exactly the same interest in dying like the author, because the author, Sylvia Plath, also died of suicide. The researcher believes that the poem
“Lady Lazarus” is the most suitable literary work to study Sylvia Plath’s suicidal manner that led to some suicide attempts.
B. Problem Formulation
Based on the background of the study, the researcher would like to discuss these two questions in the following chapter. The questions are as follows.
1. How is the imagery of “Lady Lazarus” inferred in the poem?
2. How is Sylvia Plath’s suicidal manner and suicide attempts reflected in the
imagery in the poem?
C. Objectives of the Study
The aim of the study is to give reliable answers to the questions that have been formulated in the problem formulation. The aims are, firstly, to find out how the imagery in “Lady Lazarus” is inferred in the poem to answer the first problem.
Secondly, to reveal how the imagery reflects Sylvia Plath’s suicidal manner and 5
suicide attempts. For the first problem, the researcher will analyze the images of the poem to reveal the inference. The next step is to find out the similarities between the author’s suicidal manner and suicide attempts and the inference of the imagery. By finding out the similarities between the inference of the imagery and the author’s suicidal manner and suicide attempts, the explanation on how far the imagery reflects Sylvia Plath’s suicidal manner and suicide attempts will be accomplished.
D. Definition of Terms
In this part, the researcher would like to define some terms to help the readers to understand the content of this thesis. The terms are suicide, and suicidal manner.
1. Suicide
Suicide according to James C. Coleman is “taking one’s own life.” Suicide
can be called as the act to destroy one self (Coleman, 1976: 603).
2. Suicidal Manner
Suicidal manner can also be called suicidal behavior. Suicidal manner or
suicidal behavior is an individual’s psychological state of intent or motivation
in which suicide appears to be one method of obtaining relief from an aversive
life situation (Coleman, 1976: 608).
6
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review of Related Studies
Joan Welz of the University of Alberta states that Sylvia Plath was a bright, intelligent, and determined young woman with a need to succeed and a burning desire to write. Plath’s literary reputation rests mainly on her carefully crafted pieces of poetry, particularly the verse that the author composed in the months leading up to her death (http://www.hum.ualberta.ca/eml).
Helen Vendler of The New Yorker said that Plath’s poems like “Daddy” and “Lady Lazarus” show that the author is talented and has an amazing skill in writing, it can obviously be seen from the words that are chosen by the author.
Especially “lady Lazarus,” that almost every stanza picks up a new possibility of theatrical voice. For example, the words are made like mock movie talk (“So, so,
Herr Doktor. / So, Herr Enemy”) to bureaucratic politeness, (“Do not think I underestimate your great concern”) to witch warnings (“I rise with my red hair/
And I eat men Like air”) (www.english.uiuc.edu).
According to McQuade in his book Single Volume American Literature II,
Sylvia Plath’s intensity, purity, and spareness last poems have given her short career a weight out of proportion to its brevity. Those poems are of cool mastery, and of talent unafraid of its own extremes although they came from a tragic life and often have a tragic subject, these poems are exhilarated (1999: 2521). 7
Kathleen Margaret Lant in her thesis “The big striptease: female bodies and male power in the poetry of Sylvia Plath” says that “Lady Lazarus” shows how female subject offers pieces of herself that she displays herself not in assertive way, but in a sexually provocative and seductive way. The speaker of the poem “Lady Lazarus” wants her unveiling will to be noticed as a seductive gesture of submission and invitation (www.english.uiuc.edu).
The researcher has a different opinion about Plath’s writings. Perhaps those writings are intelligent and skillful writings for some people, but for the researcher, the most obvious in Plath writings are the backgrounds, the psychological moods, and the intentions of the author when writing. Not only are those, Plath’s writings are as the vehicle to shout her deepest fear, her inmost thoughts, and indirectly her suicidal manner that led to some suicide attempts. The researcher does not think of “Lady Lazarus” as a poem that reveals sexual provocation or seduction, but the researcher thinks of it as a reflection of the author’s psyche and life in term of suicide.
B. Review of Related Theories
This part contains theories to help answering the problems that have been formulated in problem formulation. The theories are theories on imagery
(allusion, metaphor and simile will be included to support the theory of imagery) as the part of theories of literature, theories on suicide as the part of theories of psychology, and the relation between literature and biography. 8
In addition, the researcher needs to include the theory on how to discuss a poem. According to Rohrberger and Woods, essentially, what poetry expresses is not different from what either fiction or drama expresses. Plot, characterization, and theme are the absolute essentials of fiction and drama. However, poetry can use all those essentials. In narrative poems, many of the criteria used to judge fiction can be applied, and dramatic poems can be judge as little plays. Most poems are plotless or characterless, but never themeless (Rohrberger and Woods,
1971: 33). “Lady Lazarus” is a narrative poem, which is why the researcher analyses the poem using the technique to analyze a fiction.
1. Theory of Imagery
Imagery is “images” that are taken collectively to make poetry concrete, as opposed to abstract. In modern criticism, imagery is one of the most ambiguous and common term. The applications of imagery range all the way from the
“mental pictures” that are experience by the reader of a poem to the totality of elements which make up a poem. In this case, an image can be a picture made out of word, and the poem may itself be an image composed from a multiplicity of images (Abrams, 1981: 78)
There are three different kinds of imagery, they are as follows. Firstly imagery is used to signify all objects and qualities of sense perception in literary works. It can be made out of literal description, allusion, or in the analogues used in its similes and metaphors. The imagery includes the literal objects the poem refers to. Some readers of the passage experience visual images and some do not, 9
among those who do, the explicitness and detail of the mind pictures vary greatly.
Imagery also includes auditory (sound), tactile (touch), thermal (heat and cold), olfactory (smell), gustatory (taste), or kinesthetic (sensation of movement), as well as visual qualities. Secondly, imagery can be used more narrowly to signify only descriptions of visual objects and scenes, especially if the description is vivid and particularized. Thirdly, imagery can also be used to signify figurative language, especially the vehicles of metaphors and similes (Abrams, 1981: 78 –
79).
Images, as they function in comparisons of various sorts, are important devices for interpretation. In that case, imagery shall not be idle and meaningless, dead or inert, or distracting or self-serving. Every bit of image ought to “make sense” and to aid the poem in its making sense the reader has to be open-minded, because there are many ways in which imagery may make its sense. The reader can only judge the accuracy of the images by understanding the context of the poem, because in this case, the images and the context become one unity (Brooks,
1960: 269 – 273)
Imagery does not only give setting or stimulates imagination or furnish pictures pleasing in themselves, but, it has everything to do with what the poem says. Imagery is an integral part of the poem that the reader should be on the alert for the implications of the imagery and for the relation of the imagery to the full meaning of the poem. Because, in some poem, the uses of metaphors have been reduced to one term, which is to make implicit rather than explicit. This kind of 10
metaphor gives the effect of powerful description and comparison (Brooks, 1960:
269 – 273).
The researcher will need to include the definition of allusion, metaphor and simile in order to recognize the imagery in the poem.
1. Allusion is a reference, explicit or indirect, to a person, place, or event, or
to another literary work or passage. In another word, allusion is a reference
that is used by the author based on the author’s private readings and
experiences, in order to know the exact meaning, which the allusion
signifies, the reader must understand the reference used by the author, the
reader must study the background of the author. The uses of allusions are
to expand upon or enhance a subject, but some are used in order to
undercut it ironically by the discrepancy between the subject and the
allusion (Abrams, 1981: 8). There are many kinds of allusion exist today,
according to Jon Rosenblatt, there are at least four allusions used in the
poem “Lady Lazarus,” biblical, historical, political, and personal allusion.
However, the researcher finds that there is another allusion used in the
poem, which is mythical allusion (www.english.uiuc.edu).
2. Metaphor is a literal usage of word to denote one kind of thing, quality, or
action, which is applied to another, in the form of identity instead of
comparison (Abrams, 1981: 65). For an example, in “O my love is a red,
red rose,” the word “is” is the key to denote the identity of the word “my
love.” “A red, red rose” is the identity of “my love.” The image “a red, red 11
rose,” signifies the identity of “my love” instead of giving comparison of
visual description although a red rose is a visual object.
3. Simile is a comparison between two distinctly different things that is
indicated by the word “like” or “as” (Abrams, 1981: 65). For an example,
“Heavy as frost, and deep almost as life,” the word “as” is the key to
compare “heavy” to “frost” and “deep” to “life.”
2. Theories of Suicide
According to Jim Smith in his book Abnormal Behaviors, suicide is “the act of intentionally destroying oneself,” he also adds that suicide can be called as
“a violent self-inflicted destructive action resulting in death.” He explains that the decision to commit suicide is usually a combination of a wish to live and a wish to die, this situation he explains as an ambivalence, which is meant to be a cry for help (1984: 129).
Durkheim grouped suicide into four basic groups. They are, egoistic, altruistic, anomic, and fatalistic. Egoistic is when a person no longer finds a basis for existence in life or unable to find the reason to live. Altruistic is when a person is positioned into a heroic situation, he dedicates his life to a cause. Anomic means
“deregulation,” it is when a person suffers from a great change in which he is not ready to deal with. Fatalistic is when a person is in an excessive regulation, this condition usually happens among prisoners, slaves and others suffering the same burdens. Durkheim measures the suicide rate based on the strengths and 12
weaknesses of society. The causes are external or environmentally determined
(Smith, 1984: 129-130).
James C. Coleman of University of California at Los Angeles declares that there are four causes of suicide. He calls it as stress factors in suicide. Paykel,
Prusoff, and Myers detected these causes in 1975. They are, interpersonal crises, failure and self-devaluation, inner conflict, and loss the meaning and hope (1976:
606-608).
Interpersonal crises are interpersonal conflict and disruptions. These kinds of conflicts are often found within the marital conflict, separation, divorce, or the loss of loved ones through death may result in severe stress and suicidal behavior.
It is a combination of stressful factors such as frustration and hostility over feeling rejected, a wish for revenge, and a desire to withdraw from the highly conflictful and hurtful relationship but on which the individual feel dependent. In other case it also happens on the death of a loved one on whom the person felt dependent for emotional support and meaning in life (Coleman, 1976: 606-607). Failure and self-devaluation is the feelings of having failed in some enterprises which often involving occupational aspirations and accomplishments (Coleman, 1976: 607).
Inner conflict is when a person is situated on a debate with his own mind. He may be anxious and confused, struggle with the meaning of life and death, and decide that he should not continue the struggle any longer (Coleman, 1976: 607). Loss of meaning and hope is when a person has no desire to live (Coleman, 1976: 607).
According to Sigmund Freud, both life and death forces are in constant conflict in every person, even though they are unconscious. Freud viewed suicidal 13
urges as a problem within the individual. The causes are frustrations that trigger an aggression to be directed inward, ambivalence that is a love-hate situation toward a lost parent or lost object, and grief work that is an abnormal desire to be reunited with a loved one (Smith, 1984: 130).
Sigmund Freud was the first to suggest that the unconscious, not the conscious governs a large part of human’s actions. This irrational part of human psyche, the unconscious, receives and stores hidden desire, ambitions, fears, passion, and irrational thoughts. Freud dramatically redefined the unconscious, believing it to be a dynamic system that not only contains biographical memories but also stores suppressed and unresolved conflicts in human mind. Still according to Freud, the unconscious is the storehouse of disguised truths and desires that want to be revealed in and through the conscious (Bressler, 1999: 149-150).
3. The Relationship between Literature and Biography
According to Rohrberger and Woods, a work of art is a reflection of a personality, that in esthetic experience the reader shares the author’s consciousness, and that at least part of the reader’s response is to the author’s personality. Furthermore, Rohrberger says that they attempt to learn as much as they can about the life and development of the author and to apply this knowledge in their attempt to understand the author’s writing (Rohrberger and Woods, 1971:
8). In another word, a literary work has always been involved with the author.
Wellek and Warren in their book Theory of Literature state that biography in relation to the light it throws on the actual production of poetry as an 14
investigation of the personality and the life of the author, it is a study of the man of genius, of his moral, intellectual, and emotional development, in which it has its own intrinsic interest. Biography can be used as affording materials for a systematic study of the psychology of the poet and of the poetic process (1956:
75). Furthermore, they claim that the most obvious cause of a work of art is its creator (Wellek and Waren, 1956: 75).
As the affording materials for systematic study of the psychology of the poet, the biography of the author is needed to study to reveal the author’s suicidal manner that lead her to some suicide attempts. There must be some explanation in psychology about Silvia Plath’s suicidal manner.
There are three points of view to be understood about biography. First, it explains and illuminates the actual product of poetry. The second advocates the intrinsic interest of biography, shifts the centre of attention to human personality.
The third considers biography as material for science or future science, the psychology of artistic of creation (Wellek and Warren, 1956: 75).
D. Review on Sylvia Plath’s Personal Life
Review on the author’s life in this thesis is needed to learn the personal life of the author and to analyze to what extent the life of the author is reflected in her poem. In addition, by learning the personal life of the author, the researcher might find the intention of the author in writing the poem. The review on the author’s life is taken from the book Rough Magic: A Biography of Sylvia Plath by
Paul Alexander. 15
Sylvia Plath, a daughter of German immigrant parents, was born on
October 27, 1932. Her father was a professor of biology at Boston University
(Alexander, 1999: 12), who died of diabetes on November 5, 1940 when Sylvia
Plath was eight years old. Hearing her father died Sylvia Plath swore, “I’ll never speak to God again.” Her mother, Aurelia, then worked at two jobs to support
Sylvia and her brother Warren, but in her diary, Plath reveals her hatred for her mother (Alexander, 1999: 34-36).
1941 was the first publication of Sylvia Plath’s work, it was a collection of poems book simply entitled Poem about what she saw and heard on hot summer nights. The collection was printed in children’s section of the Boston Herald,
Sylvia Plath accelerated to make more poems and other literary works ever since.
In late summer of 1942 when Sylvia Plath was almost 10, Aurelia started to ask little Sylvia and Warren the idea about moving out of Winthrop. It made Sylvia
Plath became frustrated, that later Sylvia Plath when she was twenty years old, explained her friend Eddie that she committed suicide, “she swam out into the ocean alone and tried to drown herself.” However, she was unable to finish her will to commit suicide (Alexander, 1999: 121). There is also evidence that proves
Sylvia Plath slit her own throat when she was ten (Alexander, 1999: 135).
On October 1942 the whole family moved to Wellesley where little Sylvia had to deal with new neighborhood; moreover she had to lose her past memories about her beloved father when she was informed that the house had been sold right after her tenth birthday. Her mother, Aurelia, sold the old house and bought the new one which was located on 26 Elmwood Road, fifteen miles west of the 16
city, she felt that she had lost many elements of her old life ever since. Later she had to make new friends, adjust to different school, and learn the way around unfamiliar places. Nevertheless, her most depressive element in life was the pain she still felt over the death of her father (Alexander, 1999: 36-41).
In February 1943, Aurelia had a terrible sickness for which she was hospitalized for three weeks and another week of recovery at home before she could continue her regular routine. Unlike dealing with their father sickness, little
Sylvia and Warren were not so depressed about Aurelia’s sickness (Alexander,
1999: 42).
At school, Sylvia Plath appeared to be a model student. She won prizes and scholarship. She studied at Gamaliel Bradford Senior High School (now
Wellesley High School) and then took her degree at the Smith College from 1950 to 1955 (Alexander, 1999: 60-174).
In 1952, her first awarded story, “Sunday at the Mintons,” was published in Mademoiselle Magazine while she was at college. In 1953, Sylvia Plath worked on the college editorial board at the same magazine and suffered a mental breakdown, which led to a suicide attempt for the second time. She describe this period of her life in The Bell Jar, her autobiographical novel, which was published under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas in 1963, a month before her death
(Alexander, 1999: 124).
Not until April 1954, she wrote poetry again, and changed her appearance to indicate a new beginning. In October 1955, Sylvia Plath attended Newham
College at Cambridge University on a Fulbright scholarship, where she met Ted 17
Hughes at a St. Botolph’s party on February 25, 1956, and they were married on
June 16 1956, although many of her friends had reminded her that Ted Hughes was the biggest seducer in Cambridge (Alexander, 1999: 176 -189).
Their happy married life only lasted a while. Later on, Sylvia started to accuse Ted on having many affairs with some girls. After six years of marriage and having two children, in July 1962, Sylvia finally discovered Ted’s newest affair with Assia Wefill, a wife of Canadian poet David Weffil, a couple whom they shared the apartment with. Sylvia and Ted separated in September, and in
December, Sylvia and the children moved into an apartment at 23 Fitzroy Road
(Alexander, 1999: 282 – 313).
On February 11, after preparing breakfast for the children Sylvia went into the kitchen and sealed the door to commit suicide with gas from the oven. The baby sitter who came in the morning found her body (Alexander, 1999: 330).
D. Theoretical Framework
The reviews and theories above are needed to answer the problem formulation. The reviews will be applied as the references towards the analysis, while the theories will be applied as the basic understanding to analyze the problems. Both the reviews and theories support one another, which the combination of both will be able to answer the problems of this study.
To answer the first problem formulation, that is how the imagery in “Lady
Lazarus” inferred. The theory of imagery (allusion, metaphor and simile as the 18
parts of theory of imagery are included) will be applied to analyze how the imagery inferred.
The second problem formulation tries to describe how the imagery reflects
Sylvia Plath’s suicidal manner and suicide attempts. The second problem will be analyzed by comparing Sylvia Plath’s suicide attempts in her biography and the inference of the imagery. The theories of suicide will be needed to understand the backgrounds of Sylvia Plath’s suicidal manner. Understanding the backgrounds of
Sylvia Plath’s suicidal manner will help to know the relation between the inference of the imagery and the author’s suicidal manner. The relationship between literature and biography will be applied to understand the significance and the relation of the author life and his works.
19
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
The object that is analyzed in this study is “Lady Lazarus,” a narrative poem by Sylvia Plath, an author who was born in Massachusetts on October 27,
1932 and committed suicide on February 11, 1963. “Lady Lazarus” was written within a week from 23 to 28 October, 1962. It is so ironic that “Lady Lazarus” was first published in 1965, two years after Plath’s death of suicide. Although
Sylvia Plath’s life was brief in conventional terms, her life was rich in experiences. She received accolades in the form of prizes, awards, and scholarships. She had literary successes, although none as great as those that were endowed on her post-humously. In 1982, she received the Pulitzer Prize for poetry for her collected poems; “Lady Lazarus” is one of many of her great poems in the collection and had most response from the experts. “Lady Lazarus” is included in her Ariel, her famous collected poems.
The poem that is used in this study was taken from Donald McQuade’s
Single Volume American Literature II, the third edition, published by Addison
Wesley Longman, Inc. in 1999. “Lady Lazarus” contains of 28 (twenty-eight) stanzas of 84 (eighty-four) lines.
The speaker in “Lady Lazarus” is about a thirty-year-old woman who confesses to have done another suicide after two failed suicides. She calls herself as a walking miracle, and challenges her enemy, showing the enemy that she has 20
guts because she has nine lives like the cat. Assuming her life is such a trash she annihilate each decade by committing suicide, this time is number three. The speaker blames everybody who makes her life so bitter, and blames everybody who tries to rescue her. Because she would be able to live again without their rescue, there is no need to keep her life when there is nothing in it anymore.
Furthermore, she said that she is going to rise again and do revenge.
B. Approach of the Study
For the approach, the researcher uses the biographical approach because it is the most suitable approach to answer the question stated in the problem formulation. Since the researcher tends to analyze the relation between the author’s life (suicidal manner and suicide attempts of the author) and the poem, the biographical approach provides suitable explanation because this approach stresses on the reflection of the author’s life.
The biographical approach is very useful to analyze the background and biography of the author. The biographical approach is to understand the life of
Sylvia Plath’s to find out her abnormal behavior (psychology) that led her to some suicide attempts. In A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature, Wilfred
Guerin states that “the biographical approach is a reflection of its author’s life and times or the life and times of the characters in the work” (Guerin, 1979: 25).
Biographical material definitely can provide useful facts that help the researcher to understand and appreciate the literary object.
21
C. Method of the Study
The researcher uses the library research to collect the data for this study.
Those data are divided into two categories, they are, primary data and secondary data taken as the sources.
The primary data is the poem by Sylvia Plath “Lady Lazarus” taken from
McQuade’s The Harper Single Volume American Literature II, which is the object of the analysis. Besides the poem “Lady Lazarus” the researcher used other sources as the secondary sources. Most were books of psychology to support the theories of psychology, books concerned with literature theories, and Silvia
Plath’s life history. The books of psychology are James C. Coleman’s Abnormal
Psychology and Modern Life, Jim Smith’s Abnormal Behaviors: Outline
References. Books of literature theories are Abrams’ A Glossary of Literature
Terms, Wellek and Warren’s Theory of Literature, Bressler’s Literary Criticism,
Donald McQuade’s Single Volume American Literature, Wilfred Guerin’s A
Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature, Cleanth Brooks’ Modern Poetry, and Rohrberger and Woods’ Reading and Writing about Literature. The author’s biography is taken from Rough Magic: A Biography of Sylvia Plath by Paul
Alexander. The researcher also takes some data that cannot be found from those books from the internet. They are reviews from Helen Vendler and Kathleen
Margaret Lant at
In researching the work, the researcher used several stages to help to analyze the thesis. The first stage was to read “Lady Lazarus” by Sylvia Plath 22
repeatedly to find the problem in the poem to analyze, and then paraphrased the poem to help to find the intrinsic elements needed to analyze. When the researcher found some interesting problems, the next thing was to find what many experts have said about Sylvia Plath’s “Lady Lazarus,” and to find out what important subject to analyze that had never been discussed before from the internet. This way was taken to avoid plagiarism in order to have a fresh topic for the analysis.
After the second stage was completed, the researcher formulated those problems into problem formulations and figured the most suitable approach for the analysis.
Soon after the approach had been decided, the researcher was to find the theories from the books to support the analysis. After all those stages had been completed, the researcher started to analyze the poem by inferring the imagery in the poem and then related the result of the inference (what the images signify and depict) of the imagery to the biography of the author using all the data and theories. Finally, after finished analyzing the poem, the researcher drew a conclusion from the analysis.
23
CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
This chapter is divided into three main parts, the first part contains the explication of the poem, and then the other two parts contain the analysis of the problem formulations stated in Chapter I. The first analysis will discuss how the imagery of the poem “Lady Lazarus” inferred. The second analysis will describe how the inference of the imagery in “Lady Lazarus” reflects Sylvia Plath’s suicidal manner and suicide attempts.
A. The Explication of “Lady Lazarus”
“Lady Lazarus” is divided into twenty eight stanzas, three lines in each stanza. “Lady Lazarus was made within a week and it was finished on October 28
1962, one day after her thirtieth birthday. The poem sounds like demonic possession (Alexander, 1999: 303), which is filled with anger and hatred.
The poem “Lady Lazarus” is spoken by a thirty-year-old woman who calls herself as Lady Lazarus. It can be seen from the title, “Lady Lazarus,” in which the speaker uses the first person point of view “I” as to refer to the title. The name
Lazarus is taken from a Bible story about Jewish follower of Christ, brother of
Mary and Martha who was dead of some illness and resurrected by Christ. The story can be found in the Gospel according to John chapter eleven (John, 11: 1-
44). The poem is closely related to the biblical Lazarus, because the poem uses several biblical allusions from the story of biblical Lazarus in the Bible. 24
The explication will be discussed per-stanza, but sometimes to get a better understanding, some stanzas will be grouped based on the continuity.
I have done it again One year in every ten I manage it ----
In the first stanza, the speaker begins with a sentence that invites the reader to question himself, “I have done it again.” This sentence makes the reader to formulate a question like this, “what has she done before?” What the speaker has done again will be explained in the analysis on stanza fifteen as suicide, and when the speaker says “One year in every ten” the reader once again is invited to question himself, “How old is she?” which later in stanza seven will be answered.
However, before those questions are answered the speaker adds “I manage it,” this means the speaker is intended to do the thing she does, which is later in the explication of stanza fifteen will be explained as suicide.
A sort of walking miracle, my skin Bright as a Nazi lampshade, My right foot
A paperweight, My face a featureless, fine Jew linen
“Nazi lampshade,” shows the cruelty of Nazi upon the Jewish, because
“Nazi lampshade” is made of human skin, which is the skin of Jewish. This means the speaker compares her skin with the skin of Jewish. It means the speaker regards herself as a Jewish under the cruelty of Nazi. Then in the second line of the next stanza her assumption is once again emphasized, “My face featureless, fine Jew linen.” 25
Peel off the napkin O my enemy Do I terrify? ----
The stanza four is directed to her enemy, or most possible to challenge.
The speaker asks the enemy to “Peel off the napkin,” so that the enemy can examine her better. In the next line the speaker adds “Do I terrify?” this indicates that the speaker wishes to know the reaction of the enemy after seeing her without the napkin. The speaker wants to know whether she terrifies the enemy or not.
The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth? The sour breath Will vanish in a day.
“The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth, and the sour breath” signify the speaker’s body. The next line, “Will vanish in a day” explains what will happen to the speaker’s body. The function of this sentence is to attract the audience to guess what will happen to the speaker’s body, because in reality, the way a body will vanish in a day is through burning, sprinkled with acid, exploded with a bomb, or perhaps consumed by a wild carnivore.
Soon, soon the flesh The grave cave ate will be At home on me
And I a smiling woman. I am only thirty. And like the cat I have nine times to die.
In stanza six, the speaker gives an image that she is going to be happy upon death soon, because she believes that she is going to resurrect if she dies.
The resurrection is explained in the next line, “The grave cave.” For the first time, the speaker compares herself with the biblical Lazarus, because the grave cave is 26
where the biblical Lazarus was buried (John 11: 38). There is one thing that has always been related to the biblical Lazarus, which is resurrection. In this stanza the speaker seems to regard herself as a holy person that she deserves a resurrection upon her death.
“And I a smiling woman” describes her unregretful of the suicide she has committed. “And like the cat I have nine times to die,” this line seems to agree with the myth that says that a cat has nine lives. In this stanza, the speaker assumes that she also has nine lives, in which to say that she has no worry in dying or even die. This line also indicates that the speaker believes the myth. The second line, “I am only thirty,” answers the question in the analysis of the first stanza, “How old is she?”
This is Number Three. What a trash To annihilate each decade.
“This is Number Three” is a statement that shows disappointment, the word “This” refers to the word “it” in the first line of the first stanza “I have done it again.” “This” and “it” have the same meaning, as explained in stanza fifteen, it is a suicide. It means she is disappointed because she lost her three lives out of nine. In this stanza, the word “trash” refers to the speaker’s life, three decades of life. It is proven by the next line, “To annihilate each decade.” The speaker declares that she had committed three suicides as she is now thirty years old, because she wants to erase or destroy completly each decade.
What a million filaments. The peanut crunching crowd Shoves into see 27
In this stanza, the word “million filaments” refers to something related with electricity, it could be an electric shock therapy, or electrocution. The word
“crowd” according to Hornby means large number of people gathered together
(1995: 280). It means the word “crowd” in the poem most possible means the people around her. “Peanut crunching” depicts the condition of the crowd, which is a noisy crowd. “Shoves into see,” means that the people are scrambling around to watch her dying. In this stanza, the speaker seems to talk about another audience or group of people, not the ones she is talking to now.
Them unwrap me hand and foot ---- The big strip tease. Gentlemen, ladies
“Them unwrap me hand and foot,” and the next line, “the big strip tease,” are to depict humiliation, and the ones who humiliate her are “gentlemen, ladies.”
It means the speaker feels humiliated, because gentlemen and ladies treat her as if an object. They do something to her without her permission and neglect her human rights.
These are my hands My knees. I may be skin and bone,
“These are my hands. My knees” shows that the speaker communicates to the audience by showing her hands. The word “skin and bone” in this stanza depicts the speaker’s body condition, which is skinny or thin, caused by burdens that she has.
Nevertheless I am the same, identical woman. The first time it happened I was ten It was an accident. 28
The word “identical” is used to show that the speaker has not changed a bit. Then in the next line, the speaker explains what she has not changed from, that is from what happened when she was ten, she still has the same wish and desire. The last line, “It was an accident,” explains what happened when she was ten, but she does not mention what it was. However, the “accident” refers to the second line of the first stanza that says “One year in every ten.” The speaker keeps the audience questioning about the thing she does right now, but in the next stanza the speaker starts to explain what it is.
The second time I meant To last it out and not come back at all. I rocked shut
In this stanza, the speaker finally gives a clue about what she does in every ten years, which is a suicide. Because “to last it out” means to give it a stop, or to end it, and the word “it” here means the speaker’s life. This stanza explains the second suicide, so it means the word “first” in the previous stanza means suicide too. The word “come back” is used to show that the speaker had been brought back to life or reborn once, although she meant to last it out. The word, “rocked shut,” signifies the failure of the suicide.
As a seashell. They had to call and call And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls.
In this stanza, the speaker compares herself to a seashell, a water animal that lives inside its hard outer. They had to call and call” explains what people did to safe her. The next line, “like sticky pearls,” she compares “worms” that people pick to “sticky pearls.” Pearl is a small, hard, shiny white or bluish-grey ball that 29
forms inside the shells of a certain oysters and is of great value as a jewel
(Hornby, 1995: 853). The speaker tries to show that people regard her as a valuable woman that they value the most disgusting of her, the worms. The speaker tries to say that the people were trying to save her, while she wished to die back then.
Dying is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well.
“Dying is an art,” shows that the speaker thinks that dying is just like art, and then she adds, “like everything else.” According to Hornby, art means the expression of human creative talent (1995: 56). This means according to speaker, dying can become an expression that she does it as well as she can. In this stanza, the speaker seems to have a subjective thought towards dying. This is where the word “it” in the first line of the first stanza, “I have done it again” is given meaning. The “it” is “suicide,” it refers to the third line of the first stanza, “I manage it,” so it is an on-purpose-dying. This also answers the question of the first stanza, “What has she done before?” and this stanza also gives meaning to the words “first” and the “second” in stanza twelve and thirteen.
I do it so it feels like hell. I do it so it feels real. I guess you could say I’ve a call.
The word “hell” in “so it feels like hell,” according to Hornby is a state or place of great suffering or wickedness, a very unpleasant experience (1995: 556).
The word “hell” depicts the unspeakable pain or the suffering the speaker feels when dying. This means she commits suicide to feel the unspeakable pain. The 30
second line, “I do it so it feels real” refers to an event where someone thinks that he is dreaming, and then he pinches his arm to feel a small pain to make sure that he is not dreaming. It triggers this question “Why do you have to commit suicide just to know that you are not dreaming?” the reader does not have to wait long to get the answer, the next line, “I guess you could say I’ve a call,” answers the question.
It’s easy enough to do it in a cell. It’s easy enough to do it and stay put. It’s the theatrical
The word “cell” of the first line in this stanza, “It’s easy enough to do it in a cell,” depicts the miserable condition of the speaker. Cell is a very small room for one or more prisoners in a prison (Hornby, 1995: 178). This gives an image of the speaker’s condition, she feels imprisoned, or under a great depression. The word “theatrical” in “It’s the theatrical” means not natural or done in order to create an effect (Hornby, 1995: 1237). This stanza tries to say that the interesting part of the speaker’s suicide is the reason of doing it that makes her does not turn back or “stay put,” which is why it is designed to be succeeded to create an effect.
Comeback in broad day To the same place, the same face, the same brute Amused shout:
‘A miracle!’ That knocks me out. There is a charge
In this stanza, the word “A miracle” which according to the speaker, it is only an “amused shout” is used as a mock to the people if the speaker is once again saved. Because it would only knocks her out. If it is related to the previous 31
stanza, in the second line, “Comeback in a broad day/To the same place, the same face, the same brute,” then it is clear that the speaker does not want to go back.
She will charge the people or ask responsibility for that. These two stanzas try to say that although the speaker’s reborn can be called a miracle, for her it is a curse, or bad luck, that is why she does not want to be saved.
For the eyeing my scars, there is a charge For the hearing of my heart ---- It really goes
And there is a charge, a very large charge For a word or a touch Or a bit of blood
Or a piece of my hair or my clothes So, so, Herr Doktor. So, Herr Enemy.
In stanza twenty, twenty-one, and the first line of stanza twenty-two, the speaker assumes herself as an extraordinary person that she can charge people for seeing her scars and hearing of her heart, touching, speaking to her, and even taking a bit of her blood, as if she has the right to charge after giving a big thrill or entertainment to the people. The last line of stanza twenty, “It really goes” shows the seriousness of the speaker about the charge. The speaker seems to have regarded herself very precious. However, if these stanzas are related to the last line of stanza seventeen, “It’s the theatrical,” then the speaker must have considered her act of suicide as a worth-seeing event, which she can charge people for giving them such a big thrill. When the speaker mentions Herr Enemy and Herr Doktor in stanza twenty-two, she starts to direct her speech to them. “So, so Herr Doktor/So Herr Enemy,” indicates that the speaker is trying to draw their 32
attention. The use of “Herr” before their names shows how the speaker judges them as Nazis.
I am your opus, I am your valuable, The pure gold baby
That melts to a shriek. I turn and burn. Do not think I underestimate your great concern.
Stanza twenty-three and twenty-four are directed to Herr Doktor and Herr
Enemy. Stanza twenty-three determines the speaker’s position for Herr Doktor and Herr Enemy. First, she considers herself as their opus, and then as their valuable and pure gold baby. The word “opus” in “I’m your opus” means each musical composition of a composer, or it can be a work of art (Hornby, 1995:
814). A musical composition or a work of art can be identified in this poem as creation. It means, she thinks that Herr Doktor and Herr Enemy have made her become who she is now, but in a negative way. Then in the next line, “I am your valuable,” the speaker exaggerates her assumption to mock Herr Doktor and Herr
Enemy in order to be heard. The last line, “The pure gold baby,” has the same function with the two lines before. With stanza twenty three she put herself as something precious for Herr Doktor and Herr Enemy, but in the next stanza she shows how she turns into something worthless. She melts into a shriek, and she turns and burns. The word shriek in “That melts to a shriek,” means to give a sudden shout in a loud high voice (Hornby, 1995: 1094). The researcher assumes that the shout is a shout of disappointment, when a person is situated in an emotional difficult position 33
In stanza twenty-four, the speaker begins to turn from proud of who she is, into angry for not being appreciated by Herr Doktor and Herr Enemy. It can be seen in the last line of this stanza, “Do not think I underestimate your great concern,” that reflects blameworthiness of Herr Doktor and Herr Enemy.
Ash, ash ---- You poke and stir. Flesh, bone, there is nothing there ----
Stanza twenty-five is also directed to Herr Doktor and Herr Enemy. “Ash” is the remains of burning or cremating (Hornby, 1995: 59). The word “ash” gives the image of death. In the second line, the word “you” refers to “Herr Doktor” and
“Herr Enemy,” who poke and stir her like an object. “Flesh” and “bone” signify the speaker’s body, or physical appearance. The speaker thinks that there is nothing in her physical appearance. In this stanza, the speaker seems to put the blames on “Herr Doktor” and “Herr Enemy.”
A cake of soap, A wedding ring, A gold filling.
The last line of this stanza, “A gold filling” is an item left in the crematoria after the bodies of Jewish prisoners had been burned in the Nazi concentration camps (McQuade, 1999: 2531). After the cremation, there would be some rendered fat of the bodies in the crematoria, and the rendered fat was used to make soap (McQuade, 1999: 2531). It explains the next line, “A cake of soap.” Then “A wedding ring” indicates a marriage, obviously the speaker’s marriage. She equals
“A wedding ring” to “A cake of soap.” This stanza is to be related to the last line 34
of the previous stanza “Flesh, bone, there is nothing there,” which means to say that no physical forms are valuable.
Herr God, Herr Lucifer Beware Beware.
Once again the speaker judges others as Nazis, this time she judges “God” and “Lucifer” as Nazis by putting “Herr” before their names. Then she uses a repetition of the word “Beware.” This repetition is used to threat “Herr God” and
“Herr Lucifer.” The speaker seems to have a hateful grudge against “Herr God” and “Herr Lucifer.”
Out of the ash I rise with my red hair And I eat men like air.
The first line, “Out of the ash,” refers to the phoenix myth of resurrection
(www.english.uiuc.edu). According to the myth, a phoenix bird will burn its body when it gets old, like a self-combustion, and then from the ash, a baby phoenix will be born. The first line can be identified as the moment of resurrection. Then she will rise with her red hair and eat men like air. This stanza shows that she has a hateful grudge against men that she will eat them as soon as she has the power to do it.
B. The Analysis on the Imagery of “Lady Lazarus”
The speaker uses images to describe herself, and to give picture about her suicide attempts. The skill and knowledge of the author, Sylvia Plath can be seen 35
on how she includes some historical, biblical, mythical, and personal references or allusion to enrich the imagery in the poem.
The function of the images in this poem is as a way to help the interpretation in comparisons of various sorts. The accuracy of the images can be gathered by looking closer at the context (Brooks, 1960: 269 – 273). In that case, the researcher tries to analyze the poem from the very beginning to the end. The full meaning of this poem relies in the implications of the imagery, in which some of the metaphors have been reduced to one term to make it implicit (Brooks,
1960: 269 – 273).
The inference of the imagery will be discussed per-stanza, but sometimes the discussion of the stanzas will be grouped based on the continuity to get a better understanding.
I have done it again One year in every ten I manage it ----
From the very first stanza, the speaker has given a picture to the reader about what she does over and over again. She says that she has done something again at the time of speaking. The time setting can be seen from the present tense she uses. The last stanza, “I manage it ----,“ is an image that signifies a visual scene. This image depicts a planned-act that takes place one year in every decade
(ten years).
A sort of walking miracle, my skin Bright as a Nazi lampshade, My right foot
A paperweight, My face a featureless, fine 36
Jew linen
In stanza two, she describes her skin as a “walking miracle,” an image that is made out of metaphor. According to Hornby, miracle is an act or event that does not follow the known laws of nature (1995: 743), as if to suggest that her skin is the result of a miraculous act. Then she compares her skin to a Nazi lampshade in the next line. The Nazi lampshade is an image that signifies quality of sense perception using allusion, historical allusion. The term Nazi lampshade comes from the Second World War period. The Nazis, in concentration camps, made lampshades of human skins, skins of Jewish (McQuade, 1999:2529).
The Nazi lampshade shows the cruelty of Nazi upon the Jewish during the
Second World War. It gives the image of oppression that she regards her skin as the result of cruelty done by Nazi. Then, “my right foot/a paperweight” is an image that signifies the description of visual object. It gives an image of suffering.
As if to declare that her suffering has made her so skinny that her right foot is very thin and light. Later, she describes her face as featureless fine Jew linen. The description of her face is an image that is made out of allusion, biblical allusion
(Jew linen). This image depicts her assumption about being a result of a miraculous act too.
There is one important thing about fine Jew linen, that is stated in the Holy
Bible. When Jesus died, an honorable counselor, Joseph of Arimathaea asked
Pilate to give him the body of Jesus, and then he bought fine linen, took Jesus’ body down and wrapped him in the linen and laid him in a sepulcher (Mark 15: 43
– 46). Implicitly, the speaker is trying to say is that she felt oppressed by some 37
figures that she regards them as Nazi. It can be seen from how she assumes herself as Jewish under the oppression of Nazi. In terms of good and evil, she thinks that those figures of Nazi represent the evil, and she, as a Jewish, represents the good or the victim.
Peel off the napkin O my enemy Do I terrify? ----
In stanza four, the speaker, as she uses biblical allusion, relates herself with the biblical Lazarus. The napkin, according to the Holy Bible, covered the face of the biblical Lazarus when Jesus resurrected him (John, 11: 44). This means, the speaker compares her face to the face of biblical Lazarus in term of quality, not visual. The speaker seems to try to build an assumption that she has the quality of the biblical Lazarus whether in term of resurrection and in term of
Jewish (biblical Lazarus is a Jewish). The last line, “Do I terrify?” draws a conclusion to the whole description of the speaker’s body. By asking the question,
“Do I terrify?” to her enemy, the speaker seems to try to make a picture about the condition of her body. Implicitly, the speaker tries to describe that her body looks terrifying because of the oppression of the figures of Nazi (related to the analysis of the previous stanzas). This stanza is directed to the enemy, which is of course one of the figures that she calls Nazi.
The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth? The sour breath Will vanish in a day.
Soon, soon the flesh The grave cave ate will be At home on me
38
With stanza five and six the speaker gives an image that depicts what will happen to her body in any time soon. “The sour breath” is an olfactory (smell) image that depicts the speaker’s condition, which is about to die. In daily life the word “sour breath” indicates a condition when a person finds it hard to breathe, in term of dying, and he manages to breathe through his mouth to gain a better inhale and exhale. The exhale will taste sour because it carries the smell of the dry mouth.
Healthy person can experience the same thing too, that is when the person talks too much. For examples, when a person finds that he needs to drink after delivering a speech or a lecture. “Will vanish in a day” is an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts a tragic death. The stanza six, “Soon, soon the flesh/The grave cave ate will be/At home on me,” explains that what she wishes is going to be fulfilled soon, which is a resurrection after death as the representation of innocence. It can be seen from the use of the allusion to make the image, which is the grave cave, it is where the biblical Lazarus was buried and resurrected (John 11: 38).
And I a smiling woman. I am only thirty. And like the cat I have nine times to die.
“And I a smiling woman” is an image that signifies the description of visual scene, it depicts what she feels upon dying and what may come afterward, and it also determines the sex of the speaker (woman). “I am only thirty” is an image of visual object that can depict the speaker’s physical shape and simply tells the speaker age, because in daily life, people can imagine someone’s physical 39
shape base on the age. “And like the cat I have nine times to die” is an image that is made of allusion, mythical allusion. According to the myth, a cat has nine lives.
It depicts how the speaker has no worries in dying.
This is Number Three. What a trash To annihilate each decade.
“What a trash,” if related to the previous line, “this is Number Three,” is the metaphor of the previous line, as if to say that the Number Three is a trash (in form of identity). However, it can also be an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts her disappointment of her third decade of life.
Because, the analysis of the first stanza mentions that the speaker commits suicide every decade, it means the third suicide (“this” of “this is Number Three” means suicide) represent her third decade of life. The use of capital letters upon “Number
Three” is as a sign to be noticed, or as element to draw attention. The word annihilate in “To annihilate each decade” means to destroy something completely
(Hornby, 1995: 40). It means the function of the suicide is to destroy each decade completely.
What a million filaments. The peanut crunching crowd Shoves into see
“What a million filaments” refers to something related to electricity, it could be an electric shock therapy, or electrocution. The word filament means slender thread of wire in an electric lamb bulb (Hornby, 1995: 433). Based on the context, “million filaments” can be identified as an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts a process of electric shock therapy or 40
electrocution. Like in the second line of previous stanza, the word “what a” is used to described the speaker’s disappointment, which is of the shock therapy, or the electrocution.
“The peanut crunching crowd” is an auditory (sound) image that depicts the crowd, how they make noisy or disturbing sound. “Crowd” means large number of people gathered together (Hornby, 1995: 280). “Crunch” means crush something (peanut, a crunchy food) noisily with the teeth when eating (Hornby,
1995: 282). “Shoves into see” is a kinesthetic (sensation of movement) image that depicts the crowd, how they push to watch the speaker. Through these images the speaker tries to say that the noisy crowd, in which she considers as a unity (shoves
– singular), comes to watch her. This stanza may mean that the electric shock therapy or electrocution is meaningless, that it only invites disturbing people to watch.
Them unwrap me hand and foot ---- The big strip tease. Gentlemen, ladies
“Them unwrap me hand and foot” is a kinesthetic (sensation of movement) image. It shows how the crowd treats her like a piece of material, and then the crowd makes a big striptease of her. “The big striptease” is an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts humiliation. Unlike in a striptease show where the artist takes off her clothes by her own will in search of money, denying her own shame. The speaker feels that the crowd makes a show of her by denying what she wants. The last line simply tells the members of the crowd, they are gentlemen and ladies. 41
These are my hands My knees. I may be skin and bone,
The image in the last line, “I may be skin and bone,” signify a description of vivid visual objects, which is the body of the speaker, because “hands” and
“knees” represent the body of the speaker. The image depicts the condition of the speaker’s body, which is skinny or thin.
Nevertheless I am the same, identical woman. The first time it happened I was ten It was an accident.
The image in the first line, “identical woman” signifies the quality of sense perception that refers to the speaker self in form of identity using metaphor (I am).
This identity represents her perceptions, feelings, wishes, and thoughts instead of visual description of her physical appearance. This metaphor will be proven in the analysis of the second problem formulation. The second line, “The first time it happened I was ten” gives a setting of the first suicide, represents the first decade of her life. The last line simply explains her assumption towards the first suicide.
She assumes her first suicide as an accident.
The second time I meant To last it out and not come back at all. I rocked shut
This stanza gives setting that indicates the speaker’s second suicide, represents the second decade of her life. “I meant to last it out and not come back at all” simply explains her seriousness towards the suicide, based on the context, it can also be an image of visual scene that depicts the speaker’s second suicide.
Then the last line, “I rocked shut” builds an image of visual scene that depicts 42
what happens to the speaker’s second suicide. The researcher tries to find the exact meaning of “rocked shut.” The word “rocked” means move backwards and forwards or from side to side (exp. our boat was rocked by the waves), or shake violently (Hornby, 1995: 1017), while the word “shut” means stop or close
(Hornby, 1995: 1096). Based on the on the diction, “I rocked shut” may mean “ I shook stop.”
As a seashell. They had to call and call And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls.
“As a seashell” is an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts the location of the suicide. “They had to call and call and pick the worms off me” is an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts what the people (they) did to save her, or to stop the speaker’s second suicide to take effect. It is a combination of auditory (sound), “they had to call and call” and kinesthetic (sensation of movement), “and pick the worms off me.” The comparison between the worms and the sticky pearls also builds a description of visual scene that has an implicit meaning. The “worms” is a description of visual object that depicts a valueless material, while the “sticky pearls” is also a description of visual object that depicts the opposite, valuable material. The implication of the comparison is that the speaker does not value her own life while the people value her life as precious.
Dying is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well. 43
“Dying is an art” is an image that signifies the quality of sense perception in form of identity using its metaphor (is) that gives dying an identity, which is an expression of human creative talent. Then, “like everything else” is an image that signifies the quality of sense perception in form of comparison using its simile
(like) that depicts the attributes or details of the art of dying. “I do it exceptionally well” gives an image of visual scene that depicts the speaker’s seriousness towards suicide.
I do it so it feels like hell. I do it so it feels real. I guess you could say I’ve a call.
The word “hell” in “so it feels like hell,” according to Hornby is a state or place of great suffering or wickedness, a very unpleasant experience (1995: 556).
The word hell gives an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts what the speaker could do to hurt herself. The speaker tries to describe the aim of the suicide. What she means is that she does the suicide to be able to feel the unspeakable pain or great suffering. “I do it so it feels real” is another aim of the suicide that gives an image of visual scene that depicts what the speaker could do to herself. It refers to an event when someone is position in a condition where he thinks he is dreaming, and to make sure that he is not dreaming he has got to do something, such as pinching his hand. Instead of pinching her hand, the speaker prefers to commit suicide. The implication of this statement depicts the state of dreaming she is positioned, which is negative, or in another word nightmare. “I guess you could say I’ve a call” is an auditory (sound) image that depicts the speaker condition, a condition that invites her to commit suicide. 44
It’s easy enough to do it in a cell. It’s easy enough to do it and stay put. It’s the theatrical
The word “cell” of the first line is an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts condition of the speaker. “Cell” means a very small room for one or more prisoners in a prison (Hornby, 1995: 178). This time the speaker compares her condition or her life to a cell. She implicitly says that it is easy to commit suicide when she feels imprisoned. The next line shows her reaction towards the suicide, as she states that she is not going to turn back. The second line “It’s easy enough to do it and stay put” is also an image that signifies the description of visual scene. The phrase “stay put” is related to the previous image
“cell.” It invites the reader to imagine that the speaker is in a nowhere-to-run position, as to say that she has no option. The word “theatrical” in “It’s the theatrical” means unnatural or designed for effect (Hornby, 1995: 1237), which is an image that signifies the description of visual scene that concludes the previous images. The speaker implicitly says that the suicide is unnatural, because she wishes it to make effect.
Comeback in broad day To the same place, the same face, the same brute Amused shout:
The word “comeback” in the first line is an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts the speaker’s resurrection (refers to the miraculous act in the stanza two and three). The image “same brute” concludes the images of the second line, which is an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts the terrible condition or life of the speaker that is 45
mentioned in the previous stanza. It also gives an implicit statement that depicts the speaker’s wish for a different condition, or the opposite, or in another word, she wants to leave it all behind.
‘A miracle!’ That knocks me out. There is a charge
“A miracle” is related to the last line of the previous stanza, “Amused shout” in which to state that “a miracle” is the “amused shout.” “A miracle” is a combination of auditory (sound) and kinesthetic (sensation of movement) image.
It invites the reader to imagine the reaction of the people, how they are shouting
(auditory) and making surprised movements (kinesthetic), when they see the speaker’s resurrection. Then the second line, “that knocks me out,” is an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts the speaker’s reaction towards the people’s reaction. Knock someone out as figurative language means overwhelm with surprised, have a strong emotional effect, or put someone into unconsciousness (Hornby, 1995: 655). The last line, “There is a charge,” is an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts the speaker’s anger. It is as serial reaction of the speaker, but this time in form of statement or threat, because “there is a charge” can be interpreted as “you’ll pay for this.” It is directed to the people or the “crowd” that had been mentioned in stanza nine.
For the eyeing my scars, there is a charge For the hearing of my heart ---- It really goes
And there is a charge, a very large charge For a word or a touch Or a bit of blood
46
Or a piece of my hair or my clothes So, so, Herr Doktor. So, Herr Enemy.
Stanzas twenty to twenty-two are the description of the acts that are done by the crowd worth the speaker’s threat (refers to the analysis on stanza nineteen).
However, those acts lead the readers to imagine some images as follows. “For the eyeing my scars” is an image that signifies the description of visual object, which is the scars of the speaker. “For the hearing of my heart” is an auditory (sound) image. The most important imagery in stanza twenty is the image in the last line,
“it really goes.” This is an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts the real existence of the threat. The word “word” in “For a word or a touch” can mean comment or conversation, it is an auditory (sound) image, while
“touch” is a kinesthetic (sensations of movement) image. “A bit of blood” is an image that signifies the description of visual object, which is the blood of the speaker. “A piece of my hair” is an image of visual object, which is the speaker single hair, while “my clothes” is also an image of visual object, which is the speaker clothes.
In second and third line of stanza twenty-two the speaker seems to change the direction of her speech from the crowd to Herr Doktor and Herr Enemy that leads the readers to imagine two male figures. “Herr Doktor” and “Herr Enemy” are images that signifies the description of visual objects that depict two Nazi male figures. “Herr” was used to call upon the leader of Nazi, “Herr Hitler,” and other Nazi gentlemen. In stanzas two to four the speaker has mentioned that her 47
oppression and suffering are done by Nazi, means the implication of this stanza is to denote the doers of her oppression and suffering.
I am your opus, I am your valuable, The pure gold baby
“Opus” means each musical composition of a composer, or it can be a work of art (Hornby, 1995: 814). “Opus” is an image that signifies the quality of sense perception to give the picture about the speaker in form of identity, as it uses metaphor (I am). The next images, “valuable” and “pure gold baby” are similar to the previous one, “opus.”
That melts to a shriek. I turn and burn. Do not think I underestimate your great concern.
The first line of stanza twenty-four, “That melts to a shriek” cancels everything the speaker says in previous stanza. “Melts” is an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts a transformation, because “melt” means a changing form into liquid through heating (Hornby, 1995: 730). “Shriek” means to give a sudden shout in a loud high voice (Hornby, 1995: 1094), which is an auditory (sound) image that depicts misery. The researcher thinks that the word shriek is chosen, instead of scream or shout, because shriek is usually used as an expression of unspeakable pain or fear of torture, like in horror or thriller novel. “I turn and burn” is an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts the ending part of the transformation process, which is destruction, because “burn” means to destroy something by fire (Hornby, 1995: 150).
Ash, ash ---- You poke and stir. 48
Flesh, bone, there is nothing there ----
“Ash” is an image that signifies a description of visual object that depicts the result of the transformation process in the previous stanza (I turn and burn). It can also depict a death by fire, because “Ash” is the remains of burning or cremating (Hornby, 1995: 59). The words “poke” and “stir” are kinesthetic
(sensation of movement) images, and “you” is directed to Herr Doktor and Herr
Enemy. The speaker uses “poke” and “stir” instead of “suggest” and “direct,” which means the implicit meaning of this line is that the speaker thinks that Herr
Doktor and Herr Enemy treat her like a piece of material or dead object. “Flesh” and “bone” are images that signify the description of visual objects that depict physical form of the speaker. “There is nothing there” explains the meaninglessness of “flesh” and “bone.”
A cake of soap, A wedding ring, A gold filling.
“A gold filling” is an item left in the crematoria after the bodies of Jewish prisoners had been burned in the Nazi concentration camps (McQuade, 1999:
2531), it is an image that signifies the description of visual object using historical allusion that depicts the result of the cruelty of Nazi figures (Herr Doktor and Herr
Enemy). “A cake of soap” is the result of the cremation. After the cremation, there would be some rendered fat of the bodies in the crematoria, and the rendered fat was used to make soap (McQuade, 1999: 2531), it is an image that signifies the description of visual object using historical allusion that depict the result of cruelty of Nazi. “A wedding ring” means a ring that is used in a wedding 49
ceremony as a symbol of unity of a husband and a wife. The couple in marriage will wear the ring for the rest of their life until death does them apart. It is also an image that signifies the description of visual object that depicts a physical symbol of marriage. These three dead objects or physical form are considered worthless by the speaker (related to the previous stanza “there is nothing there”).
The researcher tries to analyze the implication of these images. The gold filling and cake of soap depict the result of cruelty of Nazi that reminds the reader about the cruelties of Nazi that are mentioned in the beginning stanzas, so that the reader relates those cruelties to Herr Doktor and Herr Enemy in stanza twenty-two as the doers of those cruelties, because this stanza is directed to Herr Doktor and
Herr Enemy. The “wedding ring” is considered equal to “gold filling” and “cake of soap,” it position the “wedding ring” as the result of cruelty of Nazi.
Herr God, Herr Lucifer Beware Beware.
“Beware,” means be cautious (Hornby, 1995: 103), is a warning that is directed to Herr God and Herr Lucifer. “Herr God” and “Herr Lucifer” are images that signify the description of visual objects using biblical allusion that depict
Nazi male figures (Herr). The use of Herr before God and Lucifer is to position them as Nazi. This stanza means to warn or threat God and Lucifer whom the speaker considers as Nazi.
Out of the ash I rise with my red hair And I eat men like air. 50
The first line, “Out of the ash,” refers to the phoenix myth of resurrection
(www.english.uiuc.edu). According to the myth, a phoenix bird will burn its body when it gets old, a kind of self-combustion, and then from the ash, a baby phoenix will be born. It is an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts the speaker’s resurrection. However, it can also depict a suicide or tragic death by fire (ash, the result of cremation). The second line also talks about resurrection, only this time the speaker adds a detail on the image, which is the
“red hair,” which is an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts the speaker’s transformation, which is into a demonic figure. The word
“eat” in the last line of this stanza is an image that signifies the description of visual scene that depicts a process of revenge. The revenge is directed to the figures in which she calls upon them as “Herr,” because “Herr” is like “sir” in
English, it refers to male figures (men).
C. Sylvia Plath’s Suicidal Manner and Suicide Attempts Reflected in the
Imagery of “Lady Lazarus”
In this analysis, the researcher tries to prove that there are connections between imagery and the author’s suicidal manner and suicide attempts. The researcher believes that the poem is the reflection of the author’s life because the author’s life explains and illuminates the actual product of poetry (Wellek and
Warren, 1956:75). The author’s biography can give clues about the author’s psychology of artistic of creation, in which later in this analysis, the researcher 51
will analyze the psychology of the author to study how far the poem reflect the personality and consciousness of the author (Rohrberger and Woods, 1971: 8).
The researcher will analyze the relation between the author’s suicidal manner and the poem using the theory of suicide to prove that the imagery reflects the author’s suicidal manner. The researcher will also analyze the relation between the author’s suicide attempts in the biography and the poem using the biography of the author to prove that the imagery reflects the author’s suicide attempts. As affording materials for a systematic study of the psychology of the poet and of the poetic process (Wellek and Warren, 1956: 75) the researcher must relate the work and the author’s biography. The researcher also uses the biography as material for science or future science, the psychology of artistic of creation
(Wellek and Warren, 1956: 75). The poem must be analyzed from the first stanza to the last one in order to find the exact connections and similarities. The stanzas will be analyzed one by one, but to get a better understanding they will be grouped based on the continuity occasionally.
I have done it again One year in every ten I manage it ----
There is a similarity between the image and the author’s third suicide in this stanza. The speaker says that she manages to commit suicide at the time of speaking, “I manage it (“it” means suicide, see the analysis on stanza fifteen). The researcher believes that the author, Sylvia Plath, started to manage the third suicide at this point, and waited for the right time to commit. The author’s suicide can be called as a planned act, because in fact, the author had committed suicide 52
on February 11, 1963 (Alexander, 1999: 330), a hundred and six days after she finished “Lady Lazarus.” Plath’s final suicide proves that she had planed to commit suicide the third time when she wrote “Lady Lazarus.” Plath’s final suicide and the speaker’s newest suicide are related to one another. The analysis on stanza twenty eight will explain the relation between Plath’s final suicide and the speaker’s newest suicide. Sylvia Plath had committed three suicides during her lifetime, including the final suicide. In fact, those suicides happened one in every ten years. The details of the suicides will be explained in the analysis on stanza twelve, thirteen, and twenty-eight.
A sort of walking miracle, my skin Bright as a Nazi lampshade, My right foot
A paperweight, My face a featureless, fine Jew linen
“A sort of walking miracle my skin” indicates the era after the second suicide attempt (before the third suicide attempt). After the second attempt Sylvia
Plath felt that miracle had happened to her (being the result of miraculous act), she felt reborn, or being brought back to life (resurrected), she changed herself into a different person, she even changed her hair color to indicate her changing.
Before the second suicide attempt, Sylvia was a person who was not going to let any boy to have a sexual intercourse with her. She even had a powerful physical drive toward sex that according to her friend, Eddie, it was a great barrier.
However, felt being reborn, she had her first sexual intercourse with her friend
Phillip McCurdy in the car, in front of her house on 26 Elmwood Road. After the 53
second sexual intercourse with Phillip McCurdy, Sylvia started to explore her sex activities with many other guys. She even dated two guys at the same time, and had sexual intercourse with every one of them. Later she even begged Eddie to scold her and told him that she was a whore and a slut (Alexander, 1999: 135-
191).
The next line, “bright as Nazi lampshade,” shows that the author is the victim of the ones that she considers as Nazi (Herr). This line will be analyzed later in the analysis of stanza twenty two. The same thing happens to “my skin is featureless fine Jew linen,” only this time the author position herself as a Jewish
(most hated race of Nazi or the victim of Nazi era). “My right foot – is – A paperweight” will be explained in the analysis of stanza eleven, because it is related to “I may be skin and bone” in stanza eleven.
In this poem, Sylvia Plath uses the term Nazi to represent the evil or the oppressor. The reason Sylvia Plath uses Nazi as the representation of evil is because although she has a so-called superior Aryan (the race of Nazis) blood runs in veins, she felt that she stood on the side of the oppressed ones, the Jewish.
Her grandparents from her father side were German immigrants who came to
America to seek a better fortune. However, as well as many Jewish, they did not belong in Germany, because at that time Germany reformed land ownership and industrialized its economy. Many low-class German were indirectly driven out of
Germany and set out their journey to America (Alexander, 1999: 15-19).
Peel of the napkin O my enemy Do I terrify? ----
54
Sylvia Plath did not have many enemies in her life. In fact, she made a lot of friends in many big cities in the world like London, Paris, Madrid, and Boston.
But, one morning on February the 8th 1963, for two hours she shared her friend
Jillian that her ideal marriage had now ended, and she cursed Ted, Assia, and the entire Hughes family. However, it was Ted Hughes alone she had to blame for every bad thing in her third-decade of life. Not only that, after knowing that Ted
Hughes would agree to divorce, to her mother Sylvia Plath claimed that she had never been happy in years. Now she could get on with her life. She wished that he would marry Assia to have the “honor” of being Assia’s forth husband. She also whished that Ted, whom she regarded as a bastard and a criminal, had admitted to her years ago, that he had wanted to leave her. That way she should be able to date someone who would appreciate her for who she was (Alexander, 1999:298).
“The mention of his (Ted Hughes) name could sometimes throw her into a rage (Alexander, 1999:309).” In her opinion, she had done countless sacrifices to help his career for nothing, that now Assia who enjoyed his success. For this, he called Ted as a bastard and a gigolo (Alexander, 1999: 309-310). “She could hardly bear to think of him living in an elegant flat, meeting important literary and publishing figures for supper, and taking carefree vacation with his girlfriend when it had been she -Sylvia!- who had worked so hard to put them in a position to enjoy the better things in life (Alexander, 1999: 319).” He even forced her to work part-time jobs during their marriage time when they lack of money. This situation indicates that Sylvia Plath suffered what is called as Anomic situation or deregulation, because she suffered from a great change in which she was not 55
ready to deal with (Smith, 1984: 129 – 130). What made her believe that she should be happy about the divorce was her conscious. However, her unconscious stimulated her vindictive thoughts of Ted Hughes and created a wish for revenge
(interpersonal crises). Implicitly, Sylvia Plath wanted Ted Hughes to look closer to her suffering (Peel off the napkin). Sylvia Plath tried to compare herself to the biblical Lazarus in term of resurrection and Jewish (as the victim of Nazi) using the term “napkin.” The term “napkin” has another function in this stanza, which is to tell Ted Hughes when to look closer to her suffering, which is obviously after she died, because the “napkin” according to the Holy Bible covered the face of
Lazarus when he died, and because the researcher believes that Sylvia Plath expected and believed that Ted Hughes would look closer to her suffering after she died. This issue will be explained in the analysis on stanza twenty-eight, as it has a relation with the effect she mentioned in stanza seventeen.
The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth? The sour breath Will vanish in a day.
Soon, soon the flesh The grave cave ate will be At home on me
“Will vanish in a day” shows that the author suffered from egoistic, how she wished to disappear, not being existed. Sylvia Plath thought that she had lost the reasons of her existence, unable to find the reason to live (Smith, 1984: 129 –
130). The fifth and sixth stanzas are to tell what kind of suicide she would do.
From the images, it is obvious that the suicide is a sort of tragic suicide that will consume her body into inexistence. Most possible a death by fire, probably she 56
would burn herself. This will be explained in the analysis on stanza twenty four to twenty eight. The use of the term grave cave is to emphasize her assumption about being the result of some miraculous act (stanza two and three) and being innocence.
And I a smiling woman. I am only thirty. And like the cat I have nine times to die.
“And I a smiling woman” expresses Sylvia Plath’s psyche, which was not very healthy, because she claimed that she smiled toward suicide. “And like the cat I have nine times to die,” nobody has nine lives, if anybody says so means he is out of his mind. It shows that Sylvia Plath had no worries towards her plan to commit suicide the third time. It can be seen that basically she was situated on a debate with her own mind. She might be anxious and confused, that she struggled with the meaning of life and death. It indicates that she was suffered from inner conflict. This stanza shows that she was not afraid to do it, and she had no worries at all. On the contrary, she was so excited about it. She was thinking that the only way to end all her miseries was to commit suicide (Alexander, 1999: 315-318).
This is Number Three. What a trash To annihilate each decade.
When the speaker says “this is Number Three” obviously she is speaking for Sylvia Plath, declaring the suicide she is doing is the third. In reality Sylvia
Plath had committed the third suicide, it was a successful one. The use of capital letter indicates that Sylvia Plath wanted her third suicide plan to be known. On late November, 1962, not too long after she finished “Lady Lazarus,” she read 57
Alvarez, a friend who was sympathetic to her poetry, the poem “Lady Lazarus.”
In fact, Alvarez was very expert in analyzing poetry using psychological approach
(Alexander, 1999: 314 – 315). The researcher believes that Sylvia Plath wanted the third suicide to be known to activate the effect that is discussed in the analysis on stanza seventeen, “It’s the theatrical.”
“What a trash” is to draw a picture about Sylvia Plath’s life according to herself. She even said to her mother near-franticly on July 17, 1953 (one month before her second suicide), “Oh, Mother, the world is so rotten! I want to die!
Let’s die together! (Alexander, 1999: 118).” Her life was so miserable and full of bad experiences. First decade of her life she lost her most loved person, her father.
Second decade of her life she felt that she had lost her talent in writing, which was her only way to entertain herself in dealing with bitter experiences in life
(Alexander, 1999: 298). Third decade of her life she again lost her most loved person, Ted Hughes. This lost reminded her of her previous lost. She even sensed the same feelings and torn her apart as well (Alexander, 1999: 315). Those are the reasons why Sylvia Plath wanted to destroy each decade completely. This stanza tells that the suicide she was going to commit was the third time. This stanza also tells the reason why she felt so much oppressed. The reason was she felt that her life was worthless, and every decade of her life was filled with disappointment.
What a million filaments. The peanut crunching crowd Shoves into see
Them unwrap me hand and foot ---- The big strip tease. Gentlemen, ladies 58
The first line of stanza nine, “What a million filaments,” refers to the electroshock therapy on Sylvia Plath’s mental breakdown at Valley Head
Hospital, which is considered useless (“what a”). On July 17, 1953, about a month before her second suicide, Sylvia told her mother, Aurelia, that she wanted to die.
Aurelia contacted a psychiatrist, Dr. J. Peter Thornton the following day to prevent the mental breakdown to take effect on Sylvia Plath. Thornton said that
Sylvia Plath suffered from a severe depression that triggered a nervous collapse, and he recommended an electroshock therapy. Sylvia Plath was electro shocked four times during the treatment at Valley Head Hospital, cost her twenty-five dollars each. However, the electroshock therapy showed slight signs of improvement. On the contrary, the electroshock therapy was believed to be the cause to Sylvia Plath’s second suicide (Alexander, 1999: 118 – 120).
“The peanut crunching crowd” indicates the debate regarding the electroshock therapy. Sylvia Plath was very reluctant to discuss her depression.
On the other side, people (Aurelia Plath, Olive Higgins Prouty, and the doctors) were debating to decide whether the therapy to be taken or not. Considering
Sylvia Plath’s safety, Aurelia thought that the Doctor was too young
(inexperienced) and the therapy did not provide full hospitalization. However, considering the Sylvia Plath’s mental breakdown, the electroshock therapy seemed to be the only option at that time, so it went on. The debate was disturbing for Sylvia Plath as she did not want to talk about it (Alexander, 1999: 118 – 120).
“Shoves into see” indicates what the people do during the therapy weeks.
Right after every session of the electroshock therapy, Sylvia Plath (nearly 59
unconscious, unable to communicate, barely needed support) was observed by the doctors and staffs, and the family to see the improvement. However, they were not there, when Sylvia Plath (sober) needed them the most, during the recovery period
(to recover physical effects of the shock therapy). Being left alone, Sylvia Plath felt that no one was on her side as she became haunted by thoughts of abandonment, because she had no one to turn to. As if to say that they were only there to see the electroshock instead of to give support (Alexander, 1999: 118 –
120).
The researcher thinks that “Them unwrap me hand and foot” refers to
Sylvia Plath unconsciousness during the session of electroshock therapy, in which of course she could not move and had other people (gentlemen, ladies) to change her clothes (the big striptease) and she could do nothing about it.
These are my hands My knees. I may be skin and bone,
October 17th 1962, 11 days before she finished writing “Lady Lazarus,”
Sylvia Plath was informed by the Health Visitor that she had lost her weight a lot, at least twenty pounds, or approximately nine kilograms (Alexander, 1999:300).
She must have been quite skin and bone in that period. Sylvia Plath was five feet nine inches tall (175 cm) and her average weight was 140 pounds (63.5 kg), it is a proportional shape for a woman, which means, if she lost twenty pounds her weight became 120 pounds (54.4 kg), which is not even close to proportional shape (skinny). In fact, she was ill, and not to mention that she was also under great interpersonal crises depression that time (Alexander, 1999: 298 – 300). 60
Nevertheless I am the same, identical woman. The first time it happened I was ten It was an accident.
In this stanza, the speaker mentions that she is still the same identical woman, and then in the next line she mentions about her first suicide which was an accident. The mention of the first suicide is most possible to indicate that she is still the same identical woman as the way she was when the first suicide happened. She was ten years back then. In fact, Sylvia Plath was ten years old when she committed her first suicide. It was because she could not bear to lose her father. “She (Sylvia Plath) swam out into the ocean alone and tried to drown herself. She was saved, she said, because she finally could not force her body to give in to the destructive wishes of her mind (Alexander, 1999: 121).” Her failure to commit the first suicide can be called as an accident, an accident that made the suicide unsuccessful. Accident is an event that happens unexpectedly and is not planned in advance (Hornby, 1995: 7). Her logic rejected her own wish to commit suicide. The first suicide proves that Sylvia Plath suffered from a grief work, which is an abnormal desire to be reunited with a loved one (Smith, 1984: 130).
How about “I am the same identical woman”? Once Sylvia Plath wrote
“My father died, we moved inland. Whereupon those nine first years of my life sealed themselves off like a ship in a bottle – beautiful, inaccessible, obsolete, a fine, white flying myth (Alexander, 1999:38).” The memories of her father had become one subject that occupied her subconscious for the rest of her life. She had never changed, not even a bit. The memories of her father hunted her life 61
(Alexander, 1999:118). Her friend, Alvarez, once gave comment towards the state of Sylvia Plath’s psyche.
Ted’s desertion had obviously triggered in her same feelings of isolation that had tormented her following her father’s death. All the anguish she had experienced at her father’s death was reactivated. Despite herself, she felt abandoned, injured, enraged, and bereaved as purely and defenselessly as she had as a child twenty years ago (Alexander, 1999: 315)
It means, what she felt when Ted Hughes abandoned her is the same feeling she felt when her father abandoned her, the feeling is identical.
When she felt abandoned by a male romantic figure, she subconsciously experienced the sense of loss she harbored over the death of her father” (Alexander, 1999: 183)
Sylvia Plath was still the same identical woman in term of psyche (not physical) at the time she wrote “Lady Lazarus.” The lost of Ted Hughes reminded her of the lost of her father, because she underwent the same feelings.
The second time I meant To last it out and not come back at all. I rocked shut
As a seashell. They had to call and call And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls.
The speaker claims that her second suicide attempt was to end everything, or meant to be the successful one. However, she shook stop. On the second suicide attempt, Sylvia Plath made a great plan for the success of the suicide. On
Monday, August 24, 1953, around 2:00 P.M, she waited till everybody left, then she took her sleeping-pill bottle and a blanket and she propped a note: “Have gone for a long walk. Will be home tomorrow” on the dining table, so that no one would search her inside the house. After that, she went to the cellar and hid 62
herself to the small unseen place. There she took one by one of the pills of forty. It was a perfect plan until she stopped it accidentally. Because the pills were too many for her that she became ill, or in drugged state like when someone is drunk or suffers sea sick or airsick, and threw up a significant number of them
(Alexander, 1999: 123 - 124). The last line “I rocked shut” seems to depict this incident. “I rocked shut” can be interpreted as “I threw up the pills and incidentally stopped the suicide.”
Her second suicide was driven by her fear of losing her talent after being rejected by Frank O’Connor’s class at Harvard Summer School. She was very disappointed back then, and she felt that she was not good enough to be a talented author (Alexander, 1999: 112 – 116). Her second suicide shows that she suffered from self-devaluation, feelings of having failed in some enterprises which often involving occupational aspirations and accomplishments (Coleman, 1976: 606 –
608).
“As a seashell” explains the location of the second suicide, which is a hidden place that she had to crawl into a tiny two-and-a-half-foot entrance after she put aside a stack of firewood that blocked it (Alexander, 1999: 121). The second line, “They had to call and call,” depicts what the people did when they found her and saved her. Her Grammy (Grammy, instead of Granny, is a call she used to call upon her grandmother) accidentally found her covered with her own dried vomit in the cellar. She immediately summoned Warren, her brother, and both of them hurrying upstairs and told the news to Aurelia, her mother, and
Grampy (grandfather), and then they went back downstairs together (Alexander, 63
1999: 124). The last line “And pick the worms off me like sticky pears” refers to the recovery that Sylvia Plath had after the second suicide. Aurelia, the rest of the family, and Olive Higgins Prouty (a sponsor who helped the recovery expenses) spent a lot of money at three different hospitals (Newton-Wellesley Hospital,
Massachusetts General Hospital, and Mclean Hospital) for the recovery
(Alexander, 1999: 126 – 132). Sylvia Plath did not value her own life that she committed suicide, while people spent a lot of money for her recovery.
Dying is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well.
In this stanza, the speaker tells the readers that at this particular moment, the speaker is dying, and she is enjoying it. She sees it as an expression of creative human talent or natural skill (Hornby, 1995: 1219) like any other arts, she even does it perfectly that she complements herself for doing it. Sylvia Plath also thought of suicide as a creative work, only in her case she used it as an expression of her feeling although she never said it, and she was talented in suicide. It can be seen through the second and third suicide she committed. The details of her creative works (second and third suicide) are analyzed in the analysis on stanza thirteen (second suicide) and stanza twenty-eight (third suicide).
I do it so it feels like hell. I do it so it feels real. I guess you could say I’ve a call.
There are some reasons why the speaker does suicide. She does it to hurts herself, to be real (make sure that she is not dreaming), and to answer the call. The author, Sylvia Plath, also had the indication that she was going to hurt herself on 64
the time when she felt she had lost Ted Hughes completely. Two weeks before the poem “Lady Lazarus” was finished, Sylvia Plath wished to hurt herself when
Edith, Ted Hughes’ mother, asked her to stop her yearly maintenance request to
Ted Hughes (Alexander, 1999: 300). She could not believe that she had lost Ted
Hughes. On October 1, she wrote to her mother that she did not want to flee of his fame (Alexander, 1999: 296). She wished to divorce Ted Hughes in one side, but she also wished to be near to Ted whatsoever in the other side. This condition is reflected in the second line of stanza sixteen “I do it so it feels real,” because loosing Ted Hughes was a nightmare for her. This condition is called as interpersonal crises or interpersonal conflict and disruption.
Sylvia Plath just could not get away from the thoughts about suicide anyway, and whenever she got away from the thoughts about suicide, she had someone to remind her. This time, Ted Hughes was the one. He speculated that
Sylvia Plath would kill herself in light of her past emotional problems, and he also told Sylvia Plath that he would sell the Court Green house if she were dead of suicide (Alexander, 1999: 298). According to the researcher, this is why she said that she had a call. It explains the last line of stanza sixteen, “I guess you could say I’ve a call.”
It’s easy enough to do it in a cell. It’s easy enough to do it and stay put. It’s the theatrical
The speaker says it is easy to do a suicide in a cell, and it is easy to do suicide if she can fight the thoughts to turn back, “It’s easy enough to do it and stay put.” The cell shows how her life is under pressure as if a prisoner lives in a 65
cell. The speaker seems to have what is called as Fatalistic, having a big burden of being situated into an excessive regulation (Smith, 1984: 129 – 130). In the last line she adds, “It’s the Theatrical” that indicates how she wishes the suicide to take effects.
Sylvia Plath had the same condition, which was excessive regulation. She felt that everyone wished for her death, everyone wanted to make her suffer, had no one to turn to, she also felt that she was helpless and had no way out (stay put) that was caused by her latest misery, abandoned by Ted Hughes (Alexander,
1999: 326 – 327).
The last line “it’s the theatrical” shows that Sylvia Plath designed her upcoming suicide for effect. How the suicide is designed to make effect is discussed in the analysis on stanza eight (Sylvia Plath activated the effect) and twenty-eight (the suicide was designed to be succeeded).
Comeback in broad day To the same place, the same face, the same brute Amused shout:
‘A miracle!’ That knocks me out. There is a charge
For the eyeing my scars, there is a charge For the hearing of my heart ---- It really goes
And there is a charge, a very large charge For a word or a touch Or a bit of blood
Just like an exhibition or theatre show, there will be a charge for people who want to see the speaker’s scars, and there will be a charge for people who 66
want to hear the beating of her heart starts at the time of speaking. One more thing, she demands a very large charge for people who wish to speak or touch her.
As she assumes herself a miracle, people will pay for every piece of her hair or her clothes. In these stanzas above, Sylvia Plath tried to make a prophecy of what was going to happen after her upcoming suicide. These contents nothing of her past life, but the prophecy of her comeback was based on the period after her second suicide when she had to come to the same place, the same face, and the same brute that lead her to plan another suicide plan, which is the third. The researcher believes that the function of stanzas nineteen, twenty, and twenty-one
(first line) are to show her attitude to carp (in form of threat) people not to save her or fail her upcoming suicide.
Or a piece of my hair or my clothes So, so, Herr Doktor. So, Herr Enemy.
The next thing is now the speaker turns her head to Herr Doktor and Herr
Enemy to show them what becomes of her now. However, who was Herr Doktor for Sylvia Plath? After the second suicide, there was one subject occupied her subconscious she could not admit until her therapy years, it was her father
(Alexander, 1999: 118). Herr Doktor represents her father, Otto Plath. The use of
Herr is to position her father as a person to blame (Nazi figure who oppressed her). After the death of her father, Sylvia Plath thought about the death of her father, she became confused. “How could her father, and international expert, or doctor, in the field of biology, so misdiagnose his own case?” She blamed her 67
father for his own death that she even called it as suicide, which is to say that her father’s on-purpose-death (according to her) oppressed her (Alexander, 1999: 41).
The reason why Herr Enemy, which is Ted Hughes (in the analysis on stanza four), is placed in same stanza with Herr Doktor is that she regarded Ted
Hughes as the substitute of her father. They both had the same position, which are the ones she loved most. One day when she felt abandoned by Ted Hughes, she said. “Isn’t this an image of what I feel my father did to me?” She thought of Ted
Hughes as someone who was aware of her love for her, but he was not there for her, just like his father who left her (died) intentionally, suicide, according to her
(Alexander, 1999: 226).
I am your opus, I am your valuable, The pure gold baby
That melts to a shriek. I turn and burn. Do not think I underestimate your great concern.
Herr Doktor and Herr Enemy are the reason why she becomes like what she is now. They are her maker, “I am your opus,” and it positions her as their valuable, their pure gold baby that only made her filled with disappointments,
“melts to a shriek.” “I turn and burn” is to tell that Sylvia Plath, at the time she wrote the poem, felt that she was worthless, she lost the meaning and hope in life
(Coleman, 1976: 607), and she was going to commit suicide again, this time by fire. The last stanza, “Do not think I underestimate your great concern,” is directed to her father and her husband, (when she wrote the poem, Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes had not been divorced although they agreed to) not to pardon 68
herself, but to mock them. Through these stanzas above, Sylvia Plath blamed her father, Otto Plath, and her husband who had an affair with Assia Weffil, Ted
Hughes, for her upcoming suicide.
Ash, ash ---- You poke and stir. Flesh, bone, there is nothing there ----
A cake of soap, A wedding ring, A gold filling.
“Ash” explains what will be resulted from what Herr Doktor and Herr
Enemy did to Sylvia Plath, which is death. They took control of her mind (poke and stir), which was the most important of her, broke her mental and psyche, and drew so much attention of her mind, in which to say that her physical form (her body) was less important to her, “Flesh, bone, there is nothing there.” Stanza twenty-six is related to the last line of stanza twenty-five, “Flesh, bone there is nothing there.” Sylvia Plath assumed that there is nothing in physical form, like her body. The implication of this line is that Sylvia Plath thought that har father and Ted Hughes should have had care more about her mental and psyche before they did what they did to her (giving too many oppressions and tormenting her).
Physical objects in stanza twenty-six are the physical forms that represent their cruelty. “A cake of soap” and “A gold filling” are the result of the cruelty of Nazi
(Herr Doktor, Otto Plath, and Herr Enemy, Ted Hughes) while “A wedding ring” is what Ted Hughes gave her, a symbol of unity in a marriage, as it is put in the same position with “A cake of soap” and “A gold filling,” it can also be 69
understood as the representation of cruelty done by Nazi. Means, Sylvia Plath assumed her marriage to Ted Hughes as Ted Hughes’ cruelty to her.
Herr God, Herr Lucifer Beware Beware.
Out of the ash I rise with my red hair And I eat men like air.
One day Sylvia Plath told her friend, Nancy, about her sleeping pills suicide, she said,
“The strangest part of the suicide attempt was regaining consciousness in the hospital. I don’t believe in God or in afterlife, and my first reaction when I opened my eyes was “No, it can’t be. There can’t be anything after death (Alexander, 1999:138).”’”
Sylvia Plath did not believe life after death, which means, she did not believe the existence of heaven and hell. It means, she did not believe in God, known as the owner of heaven, and Lucifer, known as the owner of hell. The use of “Herr” to call God and Lucifer is to show that she also had a hateful grudge against them. Following her father’s death Sylvia said that she was not going to talk to God again (Alexander, 1999: 32).
Alvarez, Sylvia Plath’s friend, said that her last poems were made to sound like demonic possession. It explains the use of “red hair” as to depict a demonic possession. The most important of the last stanza is the word “eat” and “men.”
“Eat”, which represents revenge, is directed to the word “men.” The use of the word “Herr” before Doktor, Enemy, God, and, Lucifer are to indicate that they are male figures of Nazi that she would eat. Sylvia Plath’s father, ex-husband, God, and Lucifer are in fact of male figures. 70
With these two stanzas above, Sylvia Plath cursed all men, including God and Lucifer, and she threatened them. Now that all men had made her life miserable, she had no respect to them anymore. She had a hateful grudge against men, and declared her hatred towards men. She wanted to do revenge to Ted
Hughes, as one of those men. It is impossible to do physical revenge after the suicide, because in reality she would not be living at that time. However, she would be able to do revenge, not physically, but mentally. Her death would put
Ted Hughes and other people that had tormented her in guilt. This is the effect she wished for. As a matter of fact, the suicide took effect in reality although maybe it was not the effect she wished for. As Ted Hughes’ lover gave her the burden of living in the shadow of Sylvia Plath that triggered her to suffer deep emotional instability. Assia Gutmann (her real name, as she refused to use her real husband’s name David Weffil) committed suicide, which was the same suicide that Sylvia
Plath committed, a suicide with gas from the oven. She took her daughter
Alexandra Tatiana Elise (her daughter from Ted Hughes) along with her and died together (Alexander, 1999: 346).
As she mentioned the imagery about death by fire such as “I turn and burn,” “ash,” and “out of the ash,” she declared that her future suicide was going to be a tragic death by fire. In fact, her death was caused by gas instead of fire.
According to the researcher, she was planning to burn herself, but in the second thought on the last minute of her decision, she might have considered her children’s safety. The burning of her body would have burn the entire house, because the suicide took place in the kitchen at the basement, while her innocent 71
children was in the same house, in the upper floor. Her second thought changed her final decision, although it lessened the theatrical aspect. She even sealed the door and cracks so that the gas would not go anywhere, for the safety of her children (Alexander, 1999: 330 – 331).
72
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION
By finding out what the images in “Lady Lazarus” signify and depict, the researcher found out that the speaker in “Lady Lazarus” assumes herself as the result of miraculous act in term of resurrection. She is a thirty-year-old woman who regards dying as an art that she manage it well, she even makes it theatrical.
She has committed two suicides before, and now she is doing the third. She thinks she is the same identical woman who is under a great depression and feels very much oppressed as when she did the first suicide. She relates her oppression to the oppressions of the Jewish under The Nazi’s cruelty during the Second World War.
She even regards herself as a Jewish and regards her oppressors as Nazis. She feels like she has all the reasons to commit suicide, and she believes it thoroughly, and she will not change her mind. She convinces the people not to save her or stop her again this time. She regards the people as ones who act as if they care but they do not really care. After all, she has no reason to live, or in her diction, to go back.
Anger, hatred, and disappointment have become a perfect combination that gives a dominant influence in her mind. The combination makes her decision to commit suicide seems right. She blames Herr Doktor and Herr Enemy for all the oppression they made, and for the great depression they put her into. By putting “Herr” before their names, she regards them as the Nazis, because “Herr” is put before name of Nazis, such as Herr Hitler. What the Nazi did to the Jewish reflects what Herr Doktor and Herr Enemy did to her. She is sure that she is going 73
to resurrect again if her suicide is succeeded, and she is going to do revenge to some men she hates.
By analyzing the relation between what the images depict and Sylvia
Plath’s biography, the researcher found out similarities between them. Sylvia
Plath too was a thirty-year-old woman when she wrote the poem, and she had committed two suicides at that time. Like the speaker, she hated the Nazi too, because as an American of German heritage, she felt the stink of anti-German sentiment as a torture. Indirectly the Nazi tortured her too. Her hatred to Nazi formulated the standard judgment on the evil ones or the oppressors, which is the use of Herr is to mark the names of the people she blamed for her oppression.
Sylvia Plath’s first suicide was caused by her grief work on the death of her father whom she called as Herr Doktor, Otto Plath. Her biography explains that whenever she felt abandoned by a male figure, she felt the same misery as when she lost her father. She thought that her father had abandoned her, because she thought that her father committed suicide. This explains that she was very much an identical woman too in term of suicidal manner on her third suicide. She had a troubled mind when she wrote the poem, her husband whom she called as
Herr Enemy, Ted Hughes, left her for another woman. This situation positioned
Ted Hughes in Otto Plath position, because her third suicide was triggered by her interpersonal conflict of anger, hatred, and disappointment toward this male figure, Ted Hughes. This feeling of being abandoned reminded her of what her father did to her.. By finding out the right depictions that have relation with the biography of Sylvia Plath, the researcher found the connection between the poem 74
and the author’s suicidal manner. Definitely, the poem reflects Sylvia Plath’s suicidal manner
Sylvia Plath thought that her second suicide was distracted, and she was disappointed about that. She blamed the people who saved her, because according to her biography, she did not want to be saved. She waited until there was nobody in the house, and hid herself in the darkest, narrowest, and most secluded spot in the basement and committed suicide with sleeping pills. Based on what happen on her second suicide attempt, just like the speaker, Sylvia Plath too did not want to be saved again on her third suicide.
Through what the images depict, the researcher found that she was going to commit suicide again and the suicide will be committed with the burn of fire. In fact she had committed it although it was different. Considering the safety of her children, she committed suicide using gas from the oven after she sealed the entire door and cracks. Through the images she literary tried to explain the reasons of her future suicide and she wished all people who knew her to understand that. The imagery shows that Ted Hughes, Herr Enemy, is the only alive person that she blamed for the future suicide. Besides those reasons, she also had a purpose, as she mentioned it in the last stanza of the poem. That is to do revenge to Ted
Hughes, not physically but mentally. The suicide will make him feel guilty as soon as he had understood the poem. The poem has made the final suicide theatrical. As she had committed the final suicide successfully the final suicide can be called as a planned-act or well-managed. The imagery proves that the speaker suffers from similar severe stresses to Sylvia Plath’s severe stresses. It 75
proves that the poem and Plath’s suicidal manner are connected one another. As a whole, the poem reflects Sylvia Plath’s first and second suicide. The poem also mention about the upcoming suicide (third suicide). Although the third suicide is different from what the poem says through the imagery, the biography of Sylvia
Plath proves that she had the tendency to do the same, but the safety of her children forced her to do differently. It proves that the poem reflects Sylvia
Plath’s suicide attempts. The imagery of the poem definitely reflects Sylvia
Plath’s suicidal manner and suicide attempts.
76
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Alexander, Paul. Rough Magic: A Biography of Sylvia Plath. New York: Da Capo Press, 1999.
Bressler, Charles E. Literary Criticism. New Jersey: Prentice hall, 1999.
Brooks, Cleanth. Modern Poetry. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965.
Coleman, James C. Abnormal Psychology and Modern Life. Los Angeles: Foresman and Company, 1976.
Iwantra, Arvero. “Ngetop Tapi Edan.” For Him Magazine. January 2005: pp. 75- 81
Guerin, Wilfred. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1979.
Lant, Kathleen Margaret. “The Big Striptease: Female Bodies and Male Power in the Poetry of Sylvia Plath.”
McQuade, Donald. The Harper Single Volume American Literature II. New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc, 1999.
Rohrberger, Mary and Samuel H. Woods, Jr. Reading and Writing About Literature. New York: Random House, 1971.
Rosenblatt, Jon. “Sylvia Plath: The Poetry of Initiation.”
Smith, Jim. Abnormal Behaviors: Outline References. Chattanooga: University Press of America, 1983.
Supratiknya. Mengenal Perilaku Abnormal. Yogyakarta: Kanisius, 1995.
Wellek, Rene and Austin Warren. Theory of Literature. New York: Harcount, Brace & World, Inc, 1956.
Welz, Joan. “Sylvia Plath (1932 – 1963).”
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APPENDIX
Lady Lazarus
I have done it again One year in every ten I manage it ----
A sort of walking miracle, my skin Bright as a Nazi lampshade, My right foot
A paperweight, My face a featureless, fine Jew linen
Peel of the napkin O my enemy Do I terrify? ----
The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth? The sour breath Will vanish in a day.
Soon, soon the flesh The grave cave ate will be At home on me
And I a smiling woman. I am only thirty. And like the cat I have nine times to die.
This is Number Three. What a trash To annihilate each decade.
What a million filaments. The peanut crunching crowd Shoves into see
Them unwrap me hand and foot ---- The big strip tease. Gentlemen, ladies These are my hands 78
My knees. I may be skin and bone,
Nevertheless I am the same, identical woman. The first time it happened I was ten It was an accident.
The second time I meant To last it out and not come back at all. I rocked shut
As a seashell. They had to call and call And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls.
Dying is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well.
I do it so it feels like hell. I do it so it feels real. I guess you could say I’ve a call.
It’s easy enough to do it in a cell. It’s easy enough to do it and stay put. It’s the theatrical
Comeback in broad day To the same place, the same face, the same brute Amused shout:
‘A miracle!’ That knocks me out. There is a charge
For the eyeing my scars, there is a charge For the hearing of my heart ---- It really goes
And there is a charge, a very large charge For a word or a touch Or a bit of blood
Or a piece of my hair or my clothes So, so, Herr Doktor. So, Herr enemy. 79
I am your opus, I am your valuable, The pure gold baby
That melts to a shriek. I turn and burn. Do not think I underestimate your great concern.
Ash, ash ---- You poke and stir. Flesh, bone, there is nothing there ----
A cake of soap, A wedding ring, A gold filling.
Herr God, Herr Lucifer Beware Beware.
Out of the ash I rise with my red hair And I eat men like air.
(Sylvia Plath, October 23-28, 1962)