Lady Lazarus Poem Analysis

The literary comparison shall explore the following pieces: Plath’s “Lady Lazarus,” Woolf’s “A Haunted House,” and Atwood’s “Siren Song,” and “Happy Ending.” The first comparison is between Lady Lazarus and Siren Song, both poems contain themes of manipulation and the role of women in a patriarchal society. Furthermore, Plath’s “Lady Lazarus” contains two major ideas to be studied: role of women and manipulation. The role of women can be seen as the speaker struggles in her life as revealed by her suicide attempts. The quotes, “I have done it again / one year in every ten” and “I am only thirty / And like the cat I have nine times to die” reveal that she has tried it, it is now a tradition for her to attempt and cause her own death (Plath 1-2,

20-21). She feels oppressed in a patriarchal society that has forced her to attempt murder, yet she rises and becomes stronger -despite depressed. The speaker highlights her strength: dying. “Dying / Is an art, like everything else / I do exceptionally well” the art makes her a performer, she now does it for the show and the experience (Plath 43-45).

Even if she successfully committed suicide, her imaginative self, the divine person that performed the show, will survive. As any performer, and manipulative persona, the speaker -mimicking Sylvia- is always aware of the effect and power over others. As she now “eat[s] men like hair,” she has grasped her new self that has been reborn after the last attempt: A woman that knows and controls the arts of manipulation and dying in order to survive in a patriarchal and oppressive society (Plath 84). Similarly, Atwood’s “Siren Song” contains the same themes; the Siren is isolated but a men devourer, she does not fear males because she is just like the speaker of Lazarus at the end: manipulative. In her Song, the Siren explains the consequences of listening to her anthem. However, while attempting to scare and alert about her song, she sings it. The beginning sentences “this is the one song everyone / would like to learn: the song / that is irresistible:” captivate the audience just like a Siren’s song captivates her male-prey (Atwood

1-3). She is aware of her performance and her effect on others -alike Plath, and utilizes it as a weapon against male supremacy. Exactly like Lady Lazarus, the siren cares not about her mortality because as long as her song is alive and repeated, so is she. In this case, “Lazy Lazarus” and “Siren Song” are just an instance of similarities between the writings of Plath and Atwood. Furthermore, the interrogant to discuss: Why are there similar themes in the writings if Atwood does not fit the criteria of The Sylvia Plath Effect? The answer, despite having to be further researched, has to be attributed to another factor whether it is historical, social, environmental, or economic has to be further researched. Although, since the themes in this comparison refer to a women’s issue, it may be attributed to a historical factor -feminism and history. Furthermore, another idea to explore is the possibility that specific themes in literature have different attributions; themes of oppression may be historically or biographically-related, subjects of corruption may be socially or economically-based, etcetera. However, despite these being ideas in need of further investigation, literary comparison number two may aid in the formulation of this hypothesis.
The second literary juxtaposition is between fiction writer Virginia Woolf and Margaret Atwood; the works subject to the study are “A Haunted House” and “Happy Ending” by authors in that order respectively.

These stories contain a rather cheerful theme: Love. Despite the different perceptions and similarities on it, both authors survey the theme of life and love. In Woolf’s piece, “A Haunted House,” the narrator and her husband live in a house with ghosts roaming that mean good for them. In the story, the turbulence comes when the ghosts want to reunite since they were lovers in life, and eventually they visit the narrator asleep in her bed. Through the idea of transcendence of love, Woolf reveals that the reason why this couple is being haunted is nothing more than love itself. The dead couple come to the realization that love is such a strong nature that the living couple reminds them of their times alive. Ultimately, the ghosts serve as a symbol for transcendence: the living couple realize that, regardless of their actions in this life, their love is so profound that even when they die, their love will never fade. Finally, the narrator asks the couple “Oh, is this your buried treasure? The light in the heart,” realizing that it is such a strong force, that it shall never fade away (Woolf 13-14). Likewise, Atwood also surveys the theme of love in “Happy Ending,” the narrative begins with a simple, straightforward story about a couple who fall in love and follow the

conventional love story -this is story A. However, as the narrative progresses, Atwood depicts different scenarios -from A to F, to show different variations of stories and ways that life can progress for the characters. From love lost to death, these variations all contain a motif: If you want a story that is simple, where love has no complications, go to story A. Furthermore, parallel to Woolf’s story, Atwood surveys the same idea: There is a happy ending, love trumps everything, what happens in between is just a variation that does not change the end. Both writers acclaim love as the ultimate force driving human purpose and life. Moreover, since these authors share themes and ideas despite their affliction, the commonality between their writing has to be attribute to another factor that disregards mental health.
The seemingly universal ideas shared by eminent female poets has become an inquiry that many scholars in the discipline of literature attempt to resolve. James Kaufman proposed a possibility through mental illness, however -as seen in this research, his fallacy was to focus merely on the commonalities in biographies and leave out the literature. Through the analysis of literature, it was revealed that, mental illness -while an important factor in their lives, is not the driving force behind the egregious themes and ideas depicted by eminent female poets. Finally, the following hypothesis still remains for further research: if mental illness does not determine the commonalities between writings in many generations of writers through history, then what other factors constitute the transcendence and similarity of themes and ideas that female poets use for their writings?