Suicide and Redemption

In “Lady Lazarus” Plath invokes the Phoenix when talking about her once-a-decade death, suggesting that her suicidal gestures were not designed to end her life but rather to be viewed as a sort of resurrection event. She also describes dying as an art form, one that she does “exceptionally well.” One would think that to die exceptionally well would suggest a more permanent demise than whatever she could have achieved, as she is necessarily living to write this poem.

But the voice in this poem (and I don’t think it’s too much of a risk to call it Plath’s voice, further than committing a critical faux pas), like Esther, doesn’t view killing herself in a conventional sense. It seems clear that she is suggesting that her “deaths” are not necessarily orthodox. Moreover, she invokes the biblical story of Lazarus, who died and miraculously was resurrected. I wonder if Esther’s suicidal musings are also cast in some kind of resurrecting light, if Esther looks at suicide not as final death but as a revivifying episode in a continuing life. Maybe she looks at it as a liberating act, an escape from her failures in the social life at Smith College and in New York and her rejection from the summer writing course. Other blog entries allude to this idea that she is seeking escape, and Lisa pointed out that Esther constantly thinks about killing herself, but never gives much thought to the idea of being dead. She dwells upon the failures of her brief life, and maybe she thinks of suicide as the ultimate reset button. She obviously is not thinking rationally, but by the time she throws all her clothes off the roof of her hotel it seems clear that her capacity for rationality is significantly diminished.

It was also suggested on here that Esther seeks attention with her attempted suicide, as is often the case with suicidal gestures. In light that the novel parallels Plath’s life so closely, I like to think that the idea of “Lady Lazarus” exists somewhere in Esther’s mind, and that Esther’s motivation in her suicidal thoughts and actions can be informed by the poem. So, I’m inclined to disagree with the idea that Esther is seeking attention, but rather think that she somehow believes—although perhaps not consciously—that suicide may be a redeeming course of action for her past failures.