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The Aspects of Modernism in Sylvia Plaths Lady Lazarus

Hirmawan Wijanarka
Abstract
This article is a brief discussion of the aspects of modernism in the intrinsic elements of Sylvia Plaths Lady Lazarus. Aside from the fact that this poem is biographically related to the poet, this article observes how the spirit of modernism is expressed in Lady Lazarus. The result shows that there are five points related to the intrinsic elements of the poem that reveal the spirit of modernism. These points are related to rhyme, diction, metaphor, theme, and moral teaching. Keywords: modernism, Sylvia Plath

Introduction: A Glimpse of Modernism

As generally understood, the term modernism usually refers to the first phase of twentieth century literature, after which came the second phase: postmodernism. Many people agree that modernism started a few years before World War I and ended with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II. As a movement in literature, modernism is sometimes seen as the reaction to realism and naturalism (Williams, ed., 1992: 232). The base for the definition of modernism, according to Bradburry and McFarlane (1991: 26), is the movement towards sophistication and mannerism, towards introversion, technical display, internal self-skepticism. In a broad sense modernism in literature is characterized by a strong and conscious break with tradition (Harmon and Holman, 2003: 318). Thus, modernism implies rejection of traditional values and assumptions, and at the same time it encourages individual self-consciousness. Though many experts have different arguments on the emergence of this movement, Bradburry and McFarlane are of the opinion that it was essentially a celebration of technological age and a condemnation of it; an excited acceptance of the belief that the old regimes of culture were over, and a deep despairing in the face of that fear (1991: 46). The attribute modern in literary works, especially poetry, usually means a combination of particular aspects seen in the works (Timpang and Watts, 2001: 120). The most dominant aspects are, first, experimentation and invention in the way of writing. For modern writers, the old ways of writing literary works could not accommodate the complexity of modern life. This notion leads to the second aspect of modernism, i.e. the radical break with

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the past. The third aspect is the writers new interest in psychology and history. The fourth aspect deals with the form of poetry. Many modern writers promote the use of free or open-form verses as opposed to the traditional forms. Finally, the fifth aspect of modernism is related to the issues presented in the works. What used to be forbidden aspects of life, such as homosexuality, became common in modern works. In the United States, the production of poems in the modern period represents an explosion of creativity. The variety of forms, styles, and themes, is so amazing and are captivating in their rhetorical inventiveness. This includes the play of the words deployed for their sounds, the almost palimpsestic thickness of imagery, the wit (Kalaidjian, ed., 2005: 71). Such characteristics can be seen in the poems of T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and Gertrude Stein. Lady Lazarus is a poem expressing Plaths individual bitter experience of her own attempt to end her life. This poem is a wild lyric (Alexander, 1999: 302) spoken by a thirty year old woman who each decade tried to commit suicide. Plaths life was quite short (1932 1963) and full of psychological pressures. However, during her short life she produced astonishing poems which colored the life of the American modern poetry of her period. Baym, et al (1985: 2561) noted that Plath attempted to commit suicide the first time in 1951, when she was only nineteen. As a brilliant girlshe attended Smith College on a scholarship and she graduated first in her class; she won a Fulbright grant to Cambridge University in Englandshe was not satisfied with American society in the 1950s which placed a lot of pressures and restrictions upon women and their activities. Women, for instance, could not show anger or ambitiously pursue a career. Instead, women should find fulfillment attending their husbands and children (VanSpanckeren, 1994: 83). Under the light of modernism, Plaths spirit of freedom and intelligence already reflected the spirit of rejection of traditional values. Plaths family and personal problems also added to the burden she had to bear. This included the break-up of her marriage which forced her to work against the clock to keep her two children, her personal problem concerning her parents marriage, and her repressed sympathy for her fathers incurable disease before he finally died. Unable to cope with her full-of-hard-struggle life, Plath took her own life by gassing herself in the kitchen on February 11, 1963, (VanSpanckeren, 1994:83). This article, however, will not specifically examine the poem as Plaths personal expression. Instead, this article aims to observe the aspects of modernism seen in the intrinsic elements of Plaths Lady Lazarus. The observation is expected to offer another perspective in seeing the poem, and, thus, to give additional insight to the attempt to understanding the poem more thoroughly.

Five Aspects of Modernism in Lady Lazarus

Strictly speaking, Lady Lazarus was written after the modern period (1962). However, the poem exhibits several aspects of modernism which

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center on the spirit of invention and, at the same time, on rejection of what has been so far traditionally settled, recognized, and accepted. The first aspect of modernism is seen in its form and structure. Plaths arrangement of stanzas leads the readers to consider them as triplets or tercets (stanzas of three line) which are broadly used in traditional poems to form a sestet (a sixline division) in a sonnet or used as a variation in heroic couplet. Here is an example of a traditional triplet:
Whenas in silks my Julia goes, Then, then, methinks, how sweetly flows, The liquefaction of her clothes.

(Harmon and Holman, 2003: 506)

However, unlike traditional tercets in which each line of the tercet should end with the same rhyme (goes, flows, clothes), the lines in Plaths stanzas do not form a certain pattern of rhyme. The number of syllables in each tercet does not show a pattern, either. The first three stanzas of Lady Lazarus may serve as an example: Stanza 1 Stanza 2 Stanza 3
I have done it again. One year in every ten I manage it A sort of walking miracle, my skin Bright as a Nazi lampshade, My right foot A paperweight My face a featureless, fine Jew linen.

In stanza 1 the lines end in again, ten and it which do not make a rhyme. This also happens in stanza 2 (skin, laughed, foot), in stanza 3 (paperweight, fine, linen), and in the next twenty-five stanzas of the poem. Although the poem maintains one characteristic of a traditional pattern (i.e. the use of tercets), there is also a clear indication of modernism in term of the form and structure of the tercets. The second aspect of modernism lies in the choice of words and the diction which includes the vocabulary (meaning of word) and syntax (word order). Traditionally, Louis Simpson says, poets tend to choose carefully words that evoke mental pictures and appeal to our senses of hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting (1967: 3-4). Believing that there are no true synonyms, poets usually take great consideration in choosing the words which convey precisely their feeling. Hall states that some words resemble each other in meaning, but they are not identical. Poetry happens in the minute differences (1971: 9). In contrast to this traditional assumption which pays much consideration to the choice of words, Plath explores ordinary words used in daily-life communication, either spoken or witten. Even readers who are not familiar with the convention of poetry will find it easy to understand the meaning of the words in Lady Lazarus. In addition to the easy and simple choice of

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words, Plath uses a narrative style. Thus, the readers will have no difficulty in understanding the literal meaning of the poem, and the ease of understanding the literal meaning will be a good start for the readers to understand the poem in depth. Because of the narrative style, a reader who reads Lady Lazarus will feel like reading a short story. This style is different from the style used by conventional poets which very often emphasize the euphony of the rhyme and the beauty of sentenceorder (or the arrangement of words) rather than the sequential relation between one line and the next or previous line. As a result, traditional poems often present gaps between the lines, and this will require that readers imagine and fill the gaps (missing links) when trying to understand the meaning of the poem. For ordinary readers, this certainly creates difficulty. Plaths lines in Lady Lazarus have more obvious sequential relations. Readers do not have to straighten up the sentences (the syntax) to understand the literal meaning. Written in a narrative style, stanza 1 up to stanza 3, for example, will read I have done it again. One year in every ten (year) I manage ita sort of walking miracle. My skin is bright as a Nazi lampshade. My foot is a paperweight. My face is featureless fine Jew linen. Here is another example: Stanza 11 These are my hands
My knees I may be skin and bone. Stanza 12 Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman. The first time it happened when I was ten It was an accident

Written in a narrative style, the above lines will read These are my hands (and) my knees. I may be skin and bone. Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman. The third aspect of modernism found in the poem is the use of common metaphorsor similesi.e. an analogy identifying one object with another. Rather than using complicated metaphors, Plath presents the ones which are familiar to the readers. Observe the following stanzas: Stanza 2
A sort of walking miracle, my skin Bight as a Nazi lampshade, My right foot ...... A paperweight My face a featureless, fine Jew linen .. And I a smiling woman I am only thirty And like the cat I have nine times to die ..

Stanza 3

Stanza 7

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Stanza 10
Them unwrap me hand and foot The big strip tease Gentlemen, ladies As a seashell. They had to call and call And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls. I am your opus, I am your valuable, The pure gold baby

Stanza 14

Stanza 23

Nazi lampshade (stanza 2) is definitely a modern allusion referring to the time when Hitler ruled Germany. Jew linen (stanza 3), the cat (stanza 7), the big strip tease (stanza 10), a seashell (stanza 14), the pure gold baby (stanza 23), are all common metaphors readers are familiar with. As a comparison, observe the following metaphor taken from Stephen Spenders Not palaces, an eras crown. Here, eye is metaphorized as gazelle.
Eye, gazelle, delicate wanderer, Drinker of horizons fluid line

(in Abrams, 1991: 67)

Those allusions and metaphors are then combined with conventional allusion which are usually taken from or referring to figures in the Bible or Greek mythology. Lady Lazarus (taken as the title of the poem) is certainly a Biblical allusion referring to the brother of Mary and Martha who was restored to life by Jesus after four days in the tomb (Grolier Encyclopedia of Knowledge, Vol. 11, 1995: 211). The last stanza refers to story of the Phoenix, a mythical bird said to live in the Arabian desert: Stanza 28
Out of the ash I rise with my red hair And I eat men like air

. Six years after the bird had died by fires, so the myth says, the bird was reborn out of its own ashes (Baym, et al., 1985: 2567). This combination indicates that there is a spirit of experimentation and of breaking the conventional which then gives the sense of modernism in the poem. The fourth aspect of modernism concern the non-structural element, that is the theme of the poem. Dean Curry (1988: 200) wrote that modern American poems usually have the themes of introspection and social criticism which are inspired by ordinary personal experiences rather than by some unusual or spectacular happening or encounter. This includes the interest in psychological and historical issues. Further, Curry added that modern American poets express themselves with the emotional and the personal. Although assuming that a poem directly reflects the personal experience of its author is naive, studying Plaths biography, readers will easily see that in Lady Lazarus Plath expresses her personal bitter experience of life which eventually leads her to attempting to commit suicide. During her life she

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experienced so much pressure that she tried to kill herself several times. Lady Lazarus was written just a few months before Plath killed herself, fulfilling her death wish implied in the poem. The use of I as the narrator of the poem strengthens the interpretation that this poem is Plaths selfexpression. Borrowing Kennedy and Gioias term, such a poem is included in what they call confessional poetry (2002: 308). This kind of poetry contributes another characteristic of modern poetry in that it expresses frank self-personal experience as candidly as possible, even sharing confidences that may violate social conventions or proprietyadultery, family violence, suicide attempts. Most poets of the earlier periods would try to suppress or at least not proclaim them to the readers and the world, considering them as forbidden issues. The danger of proclaiming such issues, however, is that the poem would be more interesting to the author than its readers. Plaths bitter experience can be observed from the first line of the first stanza: I have done it again. The word again implies that this is not her first attempt to commit suicide. In fact This is Number Three (stanza 8). The narrator undergoes so depressing a situation that death seems to be the only way out, but death is what the narrator is looking forward to. The narrator says: Stanza 6
Soon, soon the flesh The grave cave ate will be At home on me . This is Number Three. What a trash To annihilate each decade.

Stanza 8

The narrators frustration is also apparent in the following lines: Stanza 22

. So, so, Herr Doctor. So, Herr Enemy. I am your opus, I am your valuable, The pure gold baby

Stanza 23

Plaths problem is a personal problem that might happen to anyone. She describes her problem for the readers so it can be contemplated, introspected, and evaluated. The theme of introspection (which is one of the preferred themes of modern poems) is, thus, observable in Lady Lazarus. This poem also implies Plaths view of or attitude towards life: that life (represented by Plaths life) is highly complicated and not always agreeable; and we should describe life as it is. In this point, Plaths view is different from the view that commonly appears in the poems of older periods, especially that of the love poem of the seventeenth century when the principle of carpe diem (seize the day) was generally applied in lyrical poems.

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In Lady Lazarus Plath takes a different stand. Life is hard and hostile for her as seen in the following stanzas: Stanza 9 Stanza 10
What a million filaments. The peanut-crunching crowd Shoves in to see Them unwrap me hand and foot The big strip tease. Gentleman, ladies,

The world is like the peanut-crunching crowd (stanza 9) that shoves in to see her unwrapped (naked). She feels herself as an object to be despised, to be treated unjustly, as if she were a strip-tease dancer (stanza 10). In short, her life is not that easy and pleasurable, and for this kind of life Plath has her own way of coping. The atmosphere of despair which is a very common atmosphere in modern poetry can also be observed in the poem. Nazi lampshade (stanza 2) definitely brings readers to the atmosphere of cruelty or violence. It is broadly believed that in Nazi death camps, the skins of victims were often used to make lampshades (Baym, et al., 1985: 2625). Stanza 15 and 16 emphasize the atmosphere of despair built from the beginning of the poem: Stanza 15 Stanza 16
Dying Is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well. I do it so it feels like hell. I do it so it feels real. I guess you could say Ive a call

The narrator sarcastically and bitterly says that Dying is an art, an art that the narrator masters exceptionally well. Readers can feel that the narrator is in a serious state of despair in facing life. Finally, the fifth aspect of modernism can be seen in the fact that the poem does not intend to give moral teaching. Unlike traditional poems which are usually intended to give some lessons to the readers (didactic poetry), Lady Lazarus does not imply morality or the teaching of it. What Plath gives to readers is her personal experiences and her attitude towards them. Readers are invited to judge the message of her poem. Whether or not readers take her experiences seriously, and whatever interpretation readers may give, is not the point of the poem. This statement can be proved by the fact that there is no sentence or line in the poem that directly (or indirectly) gives advice or a message. Thus, readers may conclude that Plath expects them to discover the meaning of the poem by themselves, based on what they can observe.

Conclusion
Referring to the notion that modernism denotes a combination of certain aspects in a work of literature, and based on the points previously

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discussed, some conclusions on Plaths Lady Lazarus can finally be drawn. In general, the poem reveals the spirit of experimentation, invention, and rejection which can be observed in its intrinsic elements. Firstly, the spirit of modernism is seen in the form of the poem, i.e. the use of lines without rhyme, although stanzas are arranged in tercets or triplets. Secondly, the same spirit lies in the choice of words (diction) which exploits the words used in daily communication. This indicates Plaths modern attitude towards the readers, i.e. she pays particular attention to the readers ease in understanding the poem. Thirdly, following the use of common and daily words is the use of common metaphor. Fourthly, the theme implies a modern interest in the personal and in a psychological problem which is one characteristic of modern poems. And fifthly, the absence of direct moral teachings, i.e. the absence of didactic tone, emphasizes the aspects of modernism in the poem.

The Poem
Lady Lazarus Stanza 1 Stanza 2 Stanza 3 Stanza 4 Stanza 5 Stanza 6 Stanza 7 Stanza 8 Stanza 9 Stanza 10 Stanza 11 I have done it again. One year in every ten I manage it A sort of walking miracle, my skin Bright as a Nazi lampshade, My right foot A paperweight My face a featureless, fine Jew linen. Peel of the napkin O my enemy. Do I terrify? The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth? The sour breath Will vanish in a day. Soon, soon the flesh The grave cave ate will be At home on me And I a smiling woman I am only thirty And like the cat I have nine times to die This is Number Three. What a trash To annihilate each decade. What a million filaments. The peanut-crunching crowd Shoves in to see Them unwrap me hand and foot The big strip tease Gentlemen, ladies These are my hands My knees

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Stanza 12 Stanza 13 Stanza 14 Stanza 15 Stanza 16 Stanza 17 Stanza 18 Stanza 19 Stanza 20 Stanza 21 Stanza 22 Stanza 23 Stanza 24 Stanza 26 Stanza 27 Stanza 28 I may be skin and bone. Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman. The first time it happened when I was ten It was an accident The second time I meant To last it out and not come back at all. I rocked shut As a seashell. They had to call and call And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls. Dying Is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well. I do it so it feels like hell. I do it so it feels real. I guess you could say Ive a call Its easy enough to do it in a cell. Its easy enough to do it and stay put. Its the theatrical. Comeback in broad day To the same place, the same face, the same brute Amused shot: A miracle ! That knocks me out. There is a charge For the eyeing of my scars, there is a charge For the hearing of my heart It really goes. And there is a charge, a very large charge For a word or a touch Or a bit of blood Or a piece of my hair or my clothes. So, so, Herr Doctor. So, Herr Enemy. I am your opus, I am your valuable, The pure gold baby That melts into a shriek. I turn and burn Do not think I underestimate your great concern. A cake of soap, A wedding ring, A gold filling. Herr God, Herr Lucifer Beware Beware. Out of the ash I rise with my red hair And I eat men like air.

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References
Abrams, M.H. A Glossary of Literary Terms. New York: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1993. Alexander, Paul. Rough Magic: A Biography of Sylvia Plath. New York: Da Capo Press, 1999. Baym, Nina. et al. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Vol. 2. New York: WW Norton & Company, 1985. Bradburry, Malcolm, and James McFarlane. eds. Modernism: A Guide to European Literature, 1890 - 1930. London: Penguin Books Limited, 1991. Curry, Dean. ed. Highlights of American Literature. Washington DC: United States Information Agency, 1988. Grolier Encyclopedia of Knowledge. Vol. 11. Danbury: Grolier Incorporated, 1995. Hall, Donald. The Pleasures of Poetry. New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1971. Harmon, William, and Hugh Holman. A Handbook to Literature. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc., 2003. Kalaidjian, Walter. ed. American Modernism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Kennedy, X.J., and Dana Gioia. An Introduction to Poetry. New York: Longman, 2002. Simpson, Louis. An Introduction to Poetry. New York: St. Martin Press, 1967. Timpane, John, and Maureen Watts. Poetry for Dummies. New York: Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2001. VanSpanckeren, Kathryn. Outline of American Literature. Washington DC: United States Information Agency, 1994. Williams, Linda R. ed. The Twentieth Century: from 1900 to the Present Day London: Bloomsbury Publishing, Ltd., 1992.

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