After reading the long list of possible books for this essay, I made check marks next to the ones I was interested in reading in hopes of finding the perfect book. However, when this method failed to "narrow" down my list in any sense of the word, I had to call in the troops. After prolonged discussions with several valuable sources (my mom, who gave me a short synopsis of each book and a rundown of their benefits and disadvantages; and my sister, who said "That one looks weird. Don't do it."), I finally had about five books on my short list. I still couldn't choose just one, so I chose two!
I am reading both Lolita and Tender Is the Night. After I finish reading them, I will choose which one I am more interested in writing a paper about. They are very different; Lolita would be more of a study into a sick man's mind; Tender Is the Night is both a snapshot in time and a study of human character -- and love.
So far, I haven't decided which book I like more -- but I am sure enjoying both!!
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Lady Lazarus (Cool J Was So Right To Abbreviate That)
Sylvia Plath was a woman tortured by an age that couldn’t help or understand her. Afflicted by a litany of mental ailments, from bipolar disorder to depression, she was suffocated by a culture that favored and promoted men over women to the point of completely ignoring her work and forcing her to close her eyes to her husband’s infidelity. Her difficult family situation, from the early death of her father to her tumultuous relationship with her husband, along with a general societal incomprehension of mental disease, brought much of her tortured inspiration. In the last months of her life, Plath wrote several poems that revealed much of her splintered psyche. “Lady Lazarus,” a poem written shortly before her final and successful attempt at suicide, is interesting on several layers. First, the poetry itself utilizes numerous forms and devices that are mostly successful in getting across Plath’s chaotic order. Secondly, the organization of the poem, thematically and structurally, is notable. Finally, there are multiple layers of meaning to Plath’s poem, from the double-meanings of her words to the various interpretations of her themes and overarching message. The poem is confusing and violent, using many allusions and shocking references to portray Plath’s turbulent emotions and fractured sense of self as her life becomes centered around her suicide attempts.
The poem is structured into four parts, all of it a bizarre contest and sick show-and-tell between the speaker and a constantly mutating audience. In the beginning, (lines 1-12), the speaker refers to herself as an object (whether it be a lampshade or a napkin). This section also plunges the reader into the heavy irony of the poem: in the very first stanza, the speaker claims: “I have done it again. / One year in every ten / I manage it – “ In this disturbing and ironic phrase, the speaker makes her failed suicide a kind of Pyrrhic victory, though who has won exactly is unclear. The speaker feels tortured by the “others” she speaks to, her “enemy” (line 11). She is a resurrected Jew, dead and alive at the same time and referring to the Holocaust in an uncomfortable allusion. Although her body has been made into a product by others, she is still alive, “a sort of walking miracle” (line 4).
In the second section of the poem (lines 13-66), the speaker focuses on imagery having to do with her physical body. She revels in the horror that her decaying form may cause in her audience, juxtaposing herself as a “smiling woman” and a “cat” that has nine lives, ending up as a death-ridden Cheshire Cat (lines 19 and 21). Next, she aggressively demotes her enemy/audience to a consuming “crowd,” watching the deathly strip tease of the speaker. She takes on the fanciful tone of a barker at a freak show, talking to the “Gentlemen, [and] ladies” (line 30). This section also includes a short, impersonal rundown of her attempts at suicide or brushes with death. The speaker reveals again her love/hate, pride/shame relationship with death when she says “Dying / Is an art, like everything else. / I do it exceptionally well” (lines 43-45). She is bitingly ironic, referring to the “charge” for seeing her, as if she is a show or a spectacle for an audience of voyeurrs (line 57). However, in the next stanza, she becomes almost as a saint, her body parts religious artifacts (lines 62-64). This part of the poem puts the speaker on a kind of pedestal, performing a strip-tease on a stage or creating her art of self-hurt in a paradox of guilt and blame, and ending with a reference to her enemy again as a Nazi.
In the third section, the speaker again becomes an object, but not one of death. She is an “opus,” a “valuable,” or a “pure gold baby” (lines 66-67). She is a morbid work of art – but now the creation of someone else. This section is also a reference to the stolen belongings of the killed Jews of the Holocaust – the “gold fillings” found among the “ash” of their cremated bodies (lines 78, 73). Now, too, her enemy is lifted even higher, into the realm of gods – he is “Herr God, Herr Lucifer” (line 80). Furthermore, it is this section which brings another layer to what the peeping public may represent – the enemy is male and German and thinks of her as a baby – much like Plath’s father.
In the final section – the last two stanzas – the speaker becomes supernatural. She warns her enemy to “beware,” and, like an avenging specter, she says “I rise with my red hair. / And I eat men like air “ (line 80, lines 82-84). This spiritual transformation alludes back to the title of the poem, which is a reference to the Biblical Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead as one of his miracles. The reference to men makes the suspicion about Plath’s father stronger, as well as perhaps including her husband, Ted Hughes. This four-part structure, cycling through references to objects, the body, treasured objects, and the spirit – along with complex metaphors involving history, religion, society, and her own past – brings the reader along to a very confusing conclusion.
On the most superficial topic, the physical elements of the writing, “Lady Lazarus” is a confessional poem (according to some) with a sort of part-time terza rima and iambic structure. Plath uses several literary devices to make her poetry interesting. First, the use of irony is heavy throughout her sarcastic and rebellious poem. She challenges her enemy, making him a reviled and ridiculous figure. Plath also relies on disturbing imagery to affect the reader with frank portrayals of death and Nazi atrocities. She also brings in much metaphor (“My face a featureless, fine / Jew linen,” lines 8/9) and simile (“worms…like sticky pearls,” line 42)). Her enemy is personified in many forms (Herr Doktor / Herr Enemy / Herr God / Herr Lucifer) and spoken to with apostrophe. Plath uses slant rhyme (eg, “enemy/terrify,” lines 11/12) as well as some direct rhyming (mostly masculine), in addition to rhymes within her lines (“grave cave ate”, line 17). She plays with words, including repetition (lines 58/59, 46-50) as well as a mix of enjambment and end-stopped lines. This mix allows the double-meanings of her words to shine through: for example, lines 52-54 could easily be read as an allusion to her husband (“the same place, the same face, the same brute”) until you get to the next line and see that “brute” is actually an adjective, not a noun. In general, the poem’s vocabulary is a mix of sophisticated allusions and conversational and simple words.
So, how can we interpret this mishmash of death and defiance? The poem has been argued about and many critics have many, many different ideas on how to view this poem – if, indeed, it is even worth looking into at all. Much like the four-part structure of the poem, I found four ways of looking at this work that I found both deep and disturbing. First, as the speaker’s (and Plath’s) relationship with suicide; secondly, as her relationship with society; thirdly, as her relationship with men; and, finally, as her relationship with herself. All of these bonds are strained and scary, confused through the speaker’s strange outlook on things (perhaps caused by mental delusion) as well as the sense of pride and shame evident in every line. Finally, I think that the poem is very clearly a cry for help, the swan song of a women trapped in an unhappy marriage, an unhappy mind, and an unhappy body, completely out of control and with only her poetry as a means of escape.
(1294)
Sources:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1031006/the_manifestation_of_mental_illness.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A688197
http://www.womenwriters.net/editorials/whitton0500.htm
The poem is structured into four parts, all of it a bizarre contest and sick show-and-tell between the speaker and a constantly mutating audience. In the beginning, (lines 1-12), the speaker refers to herself as an object (whether it be a lampshade or a napkin). This section also plunges the reader into the heavy irony of the poem: in the very first stanza, the speaker claims: “I have done it again. / One year in every ten / I manage it – “ In this disturbing and ironic phrase, the speaker makes her failed suicide a kind of Pyrrhic victory, though who has won exactly is unclear. The speaker feels tortured by the “others” she speaks to, her “enemy” (line 11). She is a resurrected Jew, dead and alive at the same time and referring to the Holocaust in an uncomfortable allusion. Although her body has been made into a product by others, she is still alive, “a sort of walking miracle” (line 4).
In the second section of the poem (lines 13-66), the speaker focuses on imagery having to do with her physical body. She revels in the horror that her decaying form may cause in her audience, juxtaposing herself as a “smiling woman” and a “cat” that has nine lives, ending up as a death-ridden Cheshire Cat (lines 19 and 21). Next, she aggressively demotes her enemy/audience to a consuming “crowd,” watching the deathly strip tease of the speaker. She takes on the fanciful tone of a barker at a freak show, talking to the “Gentlemen, [and] ladies” (line 30). This section also includes a short, impersonal rundown of her attempts at suicide or brushes with death. The speaker reveals again her love/hate, pride/shame relationship with death when she says “Dying / Is an art, like everything else. / I do it exceptionally well” (lines 43-45). She is bitingly ironic, referring to the “charge” for seeing her, as if she is a show or a spectacle for an audience of voyeurrs (line 57). However, in the next stanza, she becomes almost as a saint, her body parts religious artifacts (lines 62-64). This part of the poem puts the speaker on a kind of pedestal, performing a strip-tease on a stage or creating her art of self-hurt in a paradox of guilt and blame, and ending with a reference to her enemy again as a Nazi.
In the third section, the speaker again becomes an object, but not one of death. She is an “opus,” a “valuable,” or a “pure gold baby” (lines 66-67). She is a morbid work of art – but now the creation of someone else. This section is also a reference to the stolen belongings of the killed Jews of the Holocaust – the “gold fillings” found among the “ash” of their cremated bodies (lines 78, 73). Now, too, her enemy is lifted even higher, into the realm of gods – he is “Herr God, Herr Lucifer” (line 80). Furthermore, it is this section which brings another layer to what the peeping public may represent – the enemy is male and German and thinks of her as a baby – much like Plath’s father.
In the final section – the last two stanzas – the speaker becomes supernatural. She warns her enemy to “beware,” and, like an avenging specter, she says “I rise with my red hair. / And I eat men like air “ (line 80, lines 82-84). This spiritual transformation alludes back to the title of the poem, which is a reference to the Biblical Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead as one of his miracles. The reference to men makes the suspicion about Plath’s father stronger, as well as perhaps including her husband, Ted Hughes. This four-part structure, cycling through references to objects, the body, treasured objects, and the spirit – along with complex metaphors involving history, religion, society, and her own past – brings the reader along to a very confusing conclusion.
On the most superficial topic, the physical elements of the writing, “Lady Lazarus” is a confessional poem (according to some) with a sort of part-time terza rima and iambic structure. Plath uses several literary devices to make her poetry interesting. First, the use of irony is heavy throughout her sarcastic and rebellious poem. She challenges her enemy, making him a reviled and ridiculous figure. Plath also relies on disturbing imagery to affect the reader with frank portrayals of death and Nazi atrocities. She also brings in much metaphor (“My face a featureless, fine / Jew linen,” lines 8/9) and simile (“worms…like sticky pearls,” line 42)). Her enemy is personified in many forms (Herr Doktor / Herr Enemy / Herr God / Herr Lucifer) and spoken to with apostrophe. Plath uses slant rhyme (eg, “enemy/terrify,” lines 11/12) as well as some direct rhyming (mostly masculine), in addition to rhymes within her lines (“grave cave ate”, line 17). She plays with words, including repetition (lines 58/59, 46-50) as well as a mix of enjambment and end-stopped lines. This mix allows the double-meanings of her words to shine through: for example, lines 52-54 could easily be read as an allusion to her husband (“the same place, the same face, the same brute”) until you get to the next line and see that “brute” is actually an adjective, not a noun. In general, the poem’s vocabulary is a mix of sophisticated allusions and conversational and simple words.
So, how can we interpret this mishmash of death and defiance? The poem has been argued about and many critics have many, many different ideas on how to view this poem – if, indeed, it is even worth looking into at all. Much like the four-part structure of the poem, I found four ways of looking at this work that I found both deep and disturbing. First, as the speaker’s (and Plath’s) relationship with suicide; secondly, as her relationship with society; thirdly, as her relationship with men; and, finally, as her relationship with herself. All of these bonds are strained and scary, confused through the speaker’s strange outlook on things (perhaps caused by mental delusion) as well as the sense of pride and shame evident in every line. Finally, I think that the poem is very clearly a cry for help, the swan song of a women trapped in an unhappy marriage, an unhappy mind, and an unhappy body, completely out of control and with only her poetry as a means of escape.
(1294)
Sources:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1031006/the_manifestation_of_mental_illness.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A688197
http://www.womenwriters.net/editorials/whitton0500.htm
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