Sylvia Plath: Battlefield of the Mind
In life, people have their good days and bad days. Everyone deals with sadness from time to time, but depression is more than just a bad day. Depression is a mental disease that torments many people. Just trying to get through a day with depression can be devastating. Some of the poems written by Sylvia Plath, show how much she struggled with severe depression and how that struggle ended in suicide. Many different signs of her struggles with depression are seen in her poems “Mirror”, “Old Ladies Home”, and “Lady Lazarus”. Plath’s poetry shows the true emotions that she was feeling at different times in her life. To understand the poetry of Sylvia Plath, one needs to understand the person that she was. …show more content…
In her poem “Mirror”, the real object of the poem is her own identity and the unbearable fear of revealing the alter ego, the rebellious double dwelling inside of her. In this poem, the mirror takes on the role of the object and the speaker at the same time (Burcea). Throughout the poem, the voice that speaks is an inanimate object. The mirror takes on personification with the use of a voice and a soul of its own. The tone of the poem changes in the second part. This change is signaled by the phrase, "Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me.” Now the mirror is a lake, in which a woman is seeing her reflection in. The woman is apparently in search of herself, as it says “searching my reaches for what she really is" (Plath). Obviously, this woman also loves the soft lights of the moon and candles, because the poem states; “Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon./ I see her back, and reflect it faithfully,/She rewards me with tears and agitation of hands” (Plath). Like many women today, she does not like her own self-reflection. In today’s world, all a woman needs is a good filter on their phone to alter their image to what looks best to them. However, those are the people, like Plath, that would struggle with their own identity. People that have issues with their image, have much deeper issues …show more content…
Perhaps she felt as if she could relate to this story, since she felt as though she had been to the other side. Although unlike the biblical story of Lazarus, in which a loving Christ uses power for good, Plath 's "Lady Lazarus" reveals a struggle for power with a cruel deity that ends in her destruction. In the biblical story of Lazarus, Jesus ' power produces a new fresh life. Lazarus is alive again with the promise of heaven awaiting. For Lazarus, life is good both now and in the afterlife. In "Lady Lazarus," the reader senses that the speaker’s life is not worth living. Her struggle for power ends in destruction. A cruel deity, Herr Doktor/ Herr Lucifer, imposes his power on Lady Lazarus, and she can do nothing but fall prey to his will. (Laura). In the biblical version of Lazarus, Jesus seems to be too late help out his sick friend and finds out he died before he arrives. However, this is all a part of God’s plan, which Jesus would raise Lazarus from the dead, so that people will see his glory and believe. This was a display of God’s power not just for the benefit of the dead, but for the living also. So that they would believe and have eternal life through Jesus. Plath’s Lady Lazarus, is one of her most famous pieces. This poem is about attempted suicide. The poems says that every ten years it happens. Plath died at thirty, so this was written before her third and final
In life, people have their good days and bad days. Everyone deals with sadness from time to time, but depression is more than just a bad day. Depression is a mental disease that torments many people. Just trying to get through a day with depression can be devastating. Some of the poems written by Sylvia Plath, show how much she struggled with severe depression and how that struggle ended in suicide. Many different signs of her struggles with depression are seen in her poems “Mirror”, “Old Ladies Home”, and “Lady Lazarus”. Plath’s poetry shows the true emotions that she was feeling at different times in her life. To understand the poetry of Sylvia Plath, one needs to understand the person that she was. …show more content…
In her poem “Mirror”, the real object of the poem is her own identity and the unbearable fear of revealing the alter ego, the rebellious double dwelling inside of her. In this poem, the mirror takes on the role of the object and the speaker at the same time (Burcea). Throughout the poem, the voice that speaks is an inanimate object. The mirror takes on personification with the use of a voice and a soul of its own. The tone of the poem changes in the second part. This change is signaled by the phrase, "Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me.” Now the mirror is a lake, in which a woman is seeing her reflection in. The woman is apparently in search of herself, as it says “searching my reaches for what she really is" (Plath). Obviously, this woman also loves the soft lights of the moon and candles, because the poem states; “Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon./ I see her back, and reflect it faithfully,/She rewards me with tears and agitation of hands” (Plath). Like many women today, she does not like her own self-reflection. In today’s world, all a woman needs is a good filter on their phone to alter their image to what looks best to them. However, those are the people, like Plath, that would struggle with their own identity. People that have issues with their image, have much deeper issues …show more content…
Perhaps she felt as if she could relate to this story, since she felt as though she had been to the other side. Although unlike the biblical story of Lazarus, in which a loving Christ uses power for good, Plath 's "Lady Lazarus" reveals a struggle for power with a cruel deity that ends in her destruction. In the biblical story of Lazarus, Jesus ' power produces a new fresh life. Lazarus is alive again with the promise of heaven awaiting. For Lazarus, life is good both now and in the afterlife. In "Lady Lazarus," the reader senses that the speaker’s life is not worth living. Her struggle for power ends in destruction. A cruel deity, Herr Doktor/ Herr Lucifer, imposes his power on Lady Lazarus, and she can do nothing but fall prey to his will. (Laura). In the biblical version of Lazarus, Jesus seems to be too late help out his sick friend and finds out he died before he arrives. However, this is all a part of God’s plan, which Jesus would raise Lazarus from the dead, so that people will see his glory and believe. This was a display of God’s power not just for the benefit of the dead, but for the living also. So that they would believe and have eternal life through Jesus. Plath’s Lady Lazarus, is one of her most famous pieces. This poem is about attempted suicide. The poems says that every ten years it happens. Plath died at thirty, so this was written before her third and final