Kaylee Mejia

“Dying is an Art”: Images of Death in Plath’s Poetry

When the word or image of death is brought up, many people perceive it as a devastating, morbid, or tragic moment. It is something that makes people become sad and depressed, and symbolizes pain. One of the main themes throughout Sylvia Plath’s poetry is death. Plath utilizes the image of death to enhance her pain and loss, while also enhancing her ongoing depression.
One of her works where images of death appear the most is “Lady Lazarus”. Throughout the poem, Plath makes several references to suicide, and Plath herself has had plenty of experience on the subject. One of Plath’s first suicide attempts on record was on August 24, 1953 when she tried to overdose on pills. She specifically references this time in her life when she writes, “The second time I meant / To last it out and not come back at all” (“Lady Lazarus” 37-38). Plath allows the reader to sort of experience to moment with her as she tries to remember that fateful day. She also explains how she failed in killing herself when she writes, “They had to call and call / And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls” (“Lady Lazarus” 41-42). When Plath had tried to commit suicide that time, she had told her mother that she was going on a walk. In actuality, Plath had taken a bottle of pills and went under the house. Her mother and her brother, Warren, somehow managed to find her and bring her back to life. From the few lines above, the readers get a sense of what happened on that day.
Sylvia Plath also makes other references to her suicide attempts when she writes, “And like a cat I have nine times to die” (“Lady Lazarus” 21). Plath not only had mental instability, but suffered from depression as well. From the line of “Lady Lazarus”, Plath expresses how depressed she really is. She feels that no matter how many times she has tried to end her life, someone or something has stopped her. In another line from “Lady Lazarus”, it is almost as if she mocks herself about suicide when she writes, “Dying / Is an art, like everything else, / I do it exceptionally well” (43-45). Plath explains how hopeless she feels, and how unhappy she is with her life.
Images of death also appear in “Daddy”. In this poem, Plath mainly makes references to her deceased father, Otto Plath, and her husband, Ted Hughes. Throughout “Daddy” the reader mainly experiences the pain and loss Sylvia Plath has had in her life. Sylvia’s father, Otto, died in 1940 of embolism when Plath was about eight years old. His death had a major impact on her life, especially since their relationship was so close and “Oedipal”-like. She explains how rough that time was for her when she writes, “You died before I had time---” (“Daddy” 7) and “I was ten when they buried you” (“Daddy” 57). Plath and her father were extremely close, and it was almost as if she lost a part of herself after he died. He was the one person who made her really happy, and after his death her depression began to grow.
“Daddy” also portrays the impact that Plath’s marriage to Ted Hughes had on her. Plath and Hughes were together for about seven years before they separated, but their marriage was falling apart way before that. Plath explains the kind of effect he had on her when she writes, “The vampire who said he was you / And drank my blood for a year, / seven years if you want to know” (“Daddy” 72-74). Through Plath’s vampire allusion, she explains how trapped and unhappy she was when she was married to Hughes, and how much more it added to her depression. After Plath and Hughes separated, Plath committed suicide a year later after not being able to put up with anymore stress, and depression in her life.
Sylvia Plath’s poetry has many references to death that are ultimately a reflection of all the bad moments in her life. Most of her references are directly from her experiences and mainly reveal her depression and all the pain that had slowly broken her down to nothing. Both “Daddy” and “Lady Lazarus” were two such examples the portrayed the feelings that Plath lived with for most of her life, and explain why she eventually ended it.