From Lady Lazarus to the Thanatopsis of Plath: Interpretation of Images about Death

Abstract

Sylvia Plath is a widely read and prominent poet in the field of feminism. Moreover, Lady Lazarus is one of her most complicated and representative poems, which has been widely concerned by the academic circle. This paper is for the purpose of interpreting the "Death" theme and the thanatopsis of Plath in the method of Archetype criticism theory and close reading, hoping to make a small contribution to the growing field of research and discussion of the image of death in Plath's poems through the analysis of the text. The poem reveals the perspective of the death of Plath: Death and rebirth are the process of female regeneration and a way of power replacement. In the sense of feminism, Plath's cognition of women's "death" is divided into three aspects: a kind of free will that rejects any interference, a kind of common unfearful ending of everyone's fate, and the ultimate expression of her art. Plath's cognition of women's "rebirth" includes the subjective enhancement of women's strength and the resistance of compelling force from male society. In terms of social and historical criticism, her thanatopsis originates from her tragic personal life, which develops a kind of obsession with death. This obsession also forms her view that death is art, and Lady Lazarus is the statement that death is an art that best describes her thoughts and life.