Lady Lazarus Themes

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Themes in Lady Lazarus:

Death:

The poem is somewhat obsessed with Death and all things associated with it. It is suggested that there is an allusion to Plath's real life suicide attempts in "one year in every ten" as that is around the amount of time it took between her first two attempts to kill herself. Similarly, there are later references to the idea of Plath's subject being like a cat and having "nine times to die". Note that this is to die and not to live, suggesting an overtly pessimistic outlook. In addition there is consistent reference to the holocaust as a metaphor, something that outraged many audiences at the time.

Violence:

Somewhat hand in hand with the theme of Death in this poem is…

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Tom

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Good job!