"Dying is an art, like everything else." - Sylvia Plath, "Lady Lazarus"

Sylvia Plath’s, “Lady Lazarus”, is a poem straight out of the confessional poetry movement. It is a very emotional piece that discusses death and suicide. It is a dark poem and somewhat depressing. I found myself loving this poem and the emotion it conveyed.

            Throughout the poem Plath is discussing death and taking her own life. Although the material is dark the poem to me doesn’t seem like a cry for help. She isn’t reaching out through her poetry in the hopes of being saved. She seems to enjoy the fact that she is trying to kill herself. She is “like the cat [having] nine times to die” (1419). She is talking about how she is on life number three, meaning she’s tried to die 2 other times already but was unsuccessful. Her other attempts led her to laugh at the world around her. She isn’t ashamed of herself. She doesn’t seem to care about how others see her. She doesn’t think she is sick.

“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.

I may be skin and bone,

Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman” (1419)

            I just picture her being forced into getting help in an institution, being brought back to life (Lazarus), but against her wishes. It’s not some show to watch in awe that she was saved. She hasn’t been helped. She is the same woman, wanting to escape this reality.

            Plath describes dying as an art. She does “it exceptionally well”, (1419). It’s something that she is proud of. She sees herself as someone who is dying and as someone who wants to die. She described her own skin to be as “bright as a Nazi lampshade” (1418), which refers to the Nazi death camps making lampshades out of the victims’ skin. These lamps are made out of dead skin, dead see-through skin. Her body parts aren’t important. They are dying away and soon so will her soul.

            She talks about why she goes through what she does.

“I do it so it feels like hell.

I do it so it feels real.

I guess you could say I’ve a call.” (1419)

            She has a calling for dying. She goes through these suicide attempts (which we know, one was eventually successful), so she can feel reality. She wants to feel death. I think that makes sense. For someone who may have lost touch with reality by going through extensive medical treatments to cure her depression, or even as a great writer may be lost in her own mind, her grip on reality may not be as strong as she is used to. The only way to know for sure what is real and what isn’t is to go through death or a near death experience. Then you can tell what is real and what isn’t. I think that line is the most powerful line in the poem.

“I do it so it feels real”

            It’s sad because you have to imagine the mindset she is in. She is so lost in her own mind and death is the only answer. But it’s also powerful and powering to her. She has the power in her life to distinguish between what is real and what isn’t. Technically, it’s in her hands. Yes there are doctors and family members in her life that are trying to get in the way of what she wants to do. They are putting her in institutions and making her go through painful medical treatments. When really she just wants out. This is why so much anger comes out through the poem. If people would just let her have her own way out, as sad as it may be, then she wouldn’t suffer anymore.

            To me this poem is her longing for the sweet release of death and then finding power in that death. She doesn’t fear death but rather welcomes it. It’s her light at the end of the tunnel. It’s interesting that the piece is named Lady Lazarus. I don’t think it implies that she wants to keep being brought back to life. But rather it refers to all the times she has been unwillingly brought back. Whether it was from failed suicide attempts or just being shocked so many times in the institutions to try and cure her depression. Regardless, she has been brought back but sooner or later her nine cat lives will run out and she will rise

“out of the ash

I rise with my red hair

And I eat men like air” (1420)

            And she will finally have power over those who looked down on the poor sick girl. She will have conquered life and in death she will be reborn. 

"Yes. [During the pause she looks up at the sky.] There’s so much – so much confusion in the world…" - Blanche, A Streetcar Named Desire

A Streetcar Named Desire is an American classic play by Tennessee Williams. It showcases three main characters: Stanley, Stella, and Blanche. Stanley and Stella are a married working class couple. Blanche is Stella’s older sister who comes to visit because her family estate was just repossessed and she lost everything. The play presents several different themes and issues that are present in everyday life. One main theme that I want to look at is the how each character represents their stereotypical gender roles and how it leads to how we as readers feel about each character.

            Stanley is the head of the household. He works hard to be where he is at and represents a man who most likely fought in WWII. He is depicted as a dirty, aggressive, selfish know-it-all. As soon as Blanche comes to his house he doesn’t trust her at all. She supposedly lost all of her families money but has no paperwork to prove it. He feels entitled to his wife’s families money, even though Blanche has told him that it is all gone. From there on it’s a constant battle between Stanley and Blanche. I think it’s mainly because Blanche is higher class then he is and that she doesn’t just sit down and take whatever Stanley says. She isn’t his wife so she doesn’t have to listen to him. To a controlling man like Stanley it must be aggravating to have this woman in his life and his house that won’t listen to him. We even see Stanley become violent with Stella which causes Blanche to try and get Stella to leave him. As the play goes on Stanley’s aggression increases and he ends up raping Blanche. Stanley wants control, however he can get it. I think the rape was a way to finally beat Blanche and to gain control over her. Stanley is definitely a man who is very one-sided and strives to be the one in charge. He deserves respect from those around him, being someone who fought in the war and who is working hard to support his growing family.

            Stella, Stanley’s husband is, in my opinion, a minor character. She has strong ties to each other main character, either a wife or a sister, but generally stays out of the bulk of the fighting. The true dynamic is between Stanley and Blanche. To me Stella just represents a brain washed (for lack of a better term) housewife. She always listens to Stanley, she comes back to him after he hits her, and she’s pregnant with his child. She even sends Blanche off to a mental institution because she believes anything Stanley tells her. She is persuaded easily. Honestly, she most likely sides with Stanley because she knows that it is better for her unborn child. She can’t raise this kid on her own and she can’t run away with Blanche and the kid because Blanche doesn’t have any money either. I think Stella is there to represent the 1950s wife who does what she’s told and stands by her husband’s side.

            Blanche is a very interesting character. She is supposed to represent the Southern Belle figure. She is upper class and flaunts that at Stanley. She is obsessed with her appearance and goes out of her way to never be seen in full light because she feels that she looks old at age 30. She constantly bathes and likes feeling like a new person. Apart from that she seems to drink a lot and tries to hide it. She also has an interesting past involving a husband who shot himself because of the things Blanche said to him. Blanche has a way of saying just the right things that irritate the person she is talking to. We see this repeatedly with Stanley. She refers to him as an animal, makes fun of his Polish heritage, and that he is working class. These are obviously things that Stanley can’t stand. But Blanche knows how to hurt his male pride. Blanche apart from being just generally mean is manipulative. She tries to control people around her. It’s interesting to compare the traits found in Stanley and Blanche because a lot of them are very similar. Both of them want money and power, they both want to control those around them to get what they want, and they both are just mean to each other. But somehow each one is different when represented in a man and in a woman. Stanley is just seen as the stereotypical man of the age. Those are traits that men have. But when a woman has them she is displayed as crazy. Granted there are other characteristics that makes Blanche seem delusional but the similarities between the two are still there. Blanche even seems a lot meaner then Stanley is in my opinion. She is just trying to get under his skin and have things the way she wants. Stanley deep down most likely just wants things back to the way things were between him and Stella. He just wants a family and to maintain order in his life. Blanche throws it off. So in the end he gets rid of her.

            The strong dynamics between the characters in this play offer an interesting look into gender roles of that era and how similar characters mean different things in men and women. We do still see that today as well. Women who are controlling or try to take charge are seen as bitches as opposed to men who are just being leaders. It is a very interesting commentary on the inequalities between men and women. 

An American Poet: Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman is considered one of the most important American Poets of all time. He lived in the 1800s and grew up in New York.  He mainly taught himself and read works of literature by Homer, Dante, and Shakespeare, and read the Bible. Throughout his life he worked as a teacher, journalist, printer, editor, and even founded his own newspaper. Later in life he moved down to New Orleans and there he started to really see first-hand the slavery in the South. He once wrote “You are either to abolish slavery or it will abolish you.” He clearly was disgusted by slavery and wanted a changed in the US. During the Civil War Whitman made his way back to New York and spent all of his time visiting wounded soldiers in the hospital. He wanted to live a cleansed life. Any money Whitman ever made, which wasn’t a lot, went to buying medical supplies for the patients he visited. 

His most famous piece of work is Leaves of Grass. It was a collection of his poems that was published several times during his life time, adding more poems with each publication. It was inspired by his travels around the US and the author Ralph Waldo Emerson. Leaves of Grass celebrated democracy, nature, love, and friendship. It was criticized immensely. Critics found the style and the subject matter unnerving. It was too open regarding sex, which has lead scholars today to believe Whitman was either gay or bisexual, people didn’t like the representation of himself as a rough looking working man, his stylistic innovations were not received well, and they didn’t like that he didn’t use regular meter or any rhyme patterns. He even lost his job in Washington DC because of Leaves of Grass being published. Today of course he is considered a genius and a very important figure in American Literature.

His other works also include similar themes as the ones that appear in Leaves of Grass. Other themes that show up frequently are the body and soul, found beauty, and reassurance, even in death. In terms of any religious aspects influencing his poetry, Whitman wasn’t particularly religious. He embraced all religions equally. He didn’t think any religion was more important than another. The one religion that scholars find the most influential in his works is Deism. Deism is a religion that looks at the relationship between a creator and the natural world. And we see that in many of his works, religion is represented through nature.

            To study Walt Whitman, we read his elegy for President Lincoln, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”.  Whitman was a huge supporter of the North winning the Civil War and wrote several poems to encourage the North to fight and win the War. Because of that viewpoint he was also a strong supporter of Lincoln and wrote other poems about him as well. Because of Whitman’s passionate view about the war, slavery, and democracy it makes sense that after Lincolns death Whitman would honor him with a poem. Throughout the poem there is a lot of nature references. For example Whitman describes lilacs, great star, a bird, skies, leaves, flowers, swamps, bushes, spring, land, woods, and more. The whole poem also doesn’t follow any specific meter or rhyme scheme which we know is common for Whitman. I believe this whole poem is a way for Whitman to grieve about Lincolns death. Lincolns assassination obviously struck the country and lead to some panic. The war just ended. Now what is going to happen to the country. Throughout this poem it seems like Whitman is suggesting that they still need Lincoln around. They need his wisdom, they weren’t ready for him to leave yet. Then as the poem goes on I feel like there is more acceptance in his death. This poem focuses on three symbols; the bird, flower, and star. All three represent Lincoln in some way and scholars argue over which symbol actually is representing Lincoln. I think it is a combination of the three. That combination of a star watching high in the night sky, a flower returning to bloom every spring, and a wise bird flying from spring to night, keep Lincoln alive and remembered which is what Whitman would have wanted. Whitman’s poems discuss death a lot, but always in a more uplifting way. It doesn’t have to be dark and depressing. There is reassurance in death which Whitman conveys. I find that the reassurance isn’t conveyed immediately but more towards the end of the poem. This represents true human emotions. No one is ok with death right away. But after grieving and coming to terms with the death we accept life for what it is and then we can move on.

            Whitman was a brilliant man in poetry and an extremely kind man in life. Whitman saw beauty in everything and transferred that beauty onto paper. He transferred his kindness onto paper. He was caring and selfless and fought for what was right in the country he loved. He really a timeless poet and one of the most important poets in American History. What I really found the most interesting about him is his view on religion. Most early American Poets were very religious and that was shown in their works. Whitman embraced all religions, a task most people can’t even do today. In my opinion his view points were ahead of his time and even ahead of our time. But that is what makes him and his poetry amazing. It’s all about beauty which he was able to find anywhere he went.

Works Cited

"Walt Whitman." Poets.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Feb. 2015. <http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/walt-whitman>.

"Walt Whitman 1819-1892." Poetry Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Feb. 2015. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/walt-whitman#about>.