Analysis Of Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar
Sylvia Plath finished her poem, “Lady Lazarus”, only a few days before her suicide in 1963, when her clinical depression she dealt with for most of her life was unbearable. The same year she published her novel The Bel Jar, which is considered to be semi-autobiographical. This paper discusses the references Sylvia Plath makes to The Bell Jar and the parallels between “Lady Lazarus” and the protagonist of The Bell Jar Esther Greenwood. Very significant for the poem is its title “Lady Lazarus”. Lazarus of Bethany is a biblical character featured in the book of John and the Bible says: "The sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that son of God, might be glorified thereby."() “Lady Lazarus” is the speaker of the whole poem and as well as the biblical Lazarus, who died and was resurrected by Jesus, and the character of Esther, she keeps dying (or more likely trying to die) and coming back to life. Within the first three lines of the poem, Plath sends a message to the reader, foreshadowing the atmosphere. She simply proclaims that she has nearly died three times: "I have done it again. / One year in every ten / I manage it ----" (1-3). This may be a reference to the suicide attempts described in The Bell Jar. She claims that she is “only thirty” (). By this line and the first three lines she implies that she made these attempts at the age of ten, twenty, and thirty. However, in the Bell Jar, she has made only one unsuccessful attempt. There is no evidence
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Analysis Of The Bell Jar
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Critical Analysis Of The Bell Jar By Sylvia Plath
1755 Words | 8 PagesThe Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath is a semi-autobiographical novel in which Plath relays her own experiences through protagonist Esther Greenwood by highlighting the struggles she faced in navigating societal expectations, depression, and her own desires. Having spent time in college and later in multiple mental health institutions, Plath tells her story through Esther in a way that blends fiction and reality. Through Esther, we see Plath’s own interpretations of her triumphs, failures, values, and the slow but seemingly inevitable diminishment of her mental health. The story starts with Esther Greenwood in New York City, where she is spending a month working at a magazine because she won a scholarship to a special summer program for female writers.
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2342 Words | 10 Pages‘Unwrap me hand and foot, the big strip tease’ conveys the idea that Plath is being de-clothed, which, contextually, could be a metaphor for being stripped of any passion due to the intensity of her depression, an illness which Plath experienced all her life and ultimately led to her death. This image could be Plath emulating the feeling close to death, having nothing and being exposed. This idea of being exposed could then be linked back to the concept of a performance, where her actions are completely open, unprotected, free to be scrutinised by the public and her peers. The title ‘Lazy Lazarus’, is a biblical reference to a figure whom Jesus raised from the dead, and at the end of the poem, shown in the line ‘Out of the ash’, Plath compares herself to a Phoenix, a mythological bird typically linked with the concept of rebirth. This could suggest that her previous suicide attempts were always attempted with the knowledge that she would return, and be reborn.
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