Ted Pinnow

Suicide Affects All
Death is used by Sylvia Plath in nearly all her poems to give you a particular feeling that Sylvia wants us to feel. This is a huge theme to Sylvia because she has attempted suicide once before and is intrigued with the “emptiness” that you obtain when your dead. The most prominent examples of this often re-occurring theme, are in the two great poems “Lady Lazarus”, and “Daddy”.
There are many great examples of the imagery of death and suicide in the collection of Sylvia Plath’s poems, but “Lady Lazarus” definitely has the most references to it. “The peanut-crunching crowd/ shoves in to see/ them unwrap me hand and foot.” (“Lady Lazarus” 26-28) gives you a feeling, or image, of a crowd of people watching somebody unwrap the cloth off of Lazarus’ body. You come to wondering whether or not Lazarus wants to be brought back from the dead from the whole context of the reading. Another very intriguing couple lines from this poem is “The first time it happened I was ten./ It was an accident./ the second time I meant/ to last it out and not come back at all.” (“Lady Lazarus” 35-38). This gives the reader a very queer feeling that she has had multiple attempts to die and is angry because the second time she was brought back to life. Probably the most awe-inspiring lines, though, are “Dying / is an art, like everything else,/ I do it exceptionally well.” (“Lady Lazarus” 43-45). This is a very cynical view on death and suicide. It gives us the feeling that Sylvia enjoys trying to kill herself and takes pride in her ability to do it. We see that, apparently, she does not do it exceptionally well because when she was a young girl, she took all except for eight of her mother’s sleeping pills and went and passed out underneath her house. It was the next day around lunch time when her brother heard moaning sounds coming from under the house and told his parents. They retrived Sylvia and after extensive hospital work she was fine. Because of her thoughts of suicide, she underwent shock treatment to “cure” her of her depression.
“Daddy” is another poem of Plath’s that references death and suicide to extract different feelings out of you. “Bit my pretty red heart in two./ I was ten when they buried you./ at twenty I tried to die/ and get back, back, back to you.” (“Daddy” 56-59). This is a very sad quote that reflects how her father’s death affected her so greatly. It was said that sh shared an Oepidal relationship with her father and that she was the only one that was allowed to talk to him when he came home from work.
Death and Suicide is one of the most important and frequently used themes in Sylvia Plath’s poems. She gives examples and references to her life through various poems that involve death. Even though her references give us a feeling or image according to the text, it’s most commonly not a pleasant one due to her tragic and depressing life.