Lady Lazarus Poem Analysis

The literary comparison shall explore the following pieces: Plath’s “Lady Lazarus,” Woolf’s “A Haunted House,” and Atwood’s “Siren Song,” and “Happy Ending.” The first comparison is between Lady Lazarus and Siren Song, both poems contain themes of manipulation and the role of women in a patriarchal society. Furthermore, Plath’s “Lady Lazarus” contains two major ideas to be studied: role of women and manipulation. The role of women can be seen as the speaker struggles in her life as revealed by her suicide attempts. The quotes, “I have done it again / one year in every ten” and “I am only thirty / And like the cat I have nine times to die” reveal that she has tried it, it is now a tradition for her to attempt and cause her own death (Plath 1-2,

Even if she successfully committed suicide, her imaginative self, the divine person that performed the show, will survive. As any performer, and manipulative persona, the speaker -mimicking Sylvia- is always aware of the effect and power over others. As she now “eat[s] men like hair,” she has grasped her new self that has been reborn after the last attempt: A woman that knows and controls the arts of manipulation and dying in order to survive in a patriarchal and oppressive society (Plath 84). Similarly, Atwood’s “Siren Song” contains the same themes; the Siren is isolated but a men devourer, she does not fear males because she is just like the speaker of Lazarus at the end: manipulative. In her Song, the Siren explains the consequences of listening to her anthem. However, while attempting to scare and alert about her song, she sings it. The beginning sentences “this is the one song everyone / would like to learn: the song / that is irresistible:” captivate the audience just like a Siren’s song captivates her male-prey (Atwood

These stories contain a rather cheerful theme: Love. Despite the different perceptions and similarities on it, both authors survey the theme of life and love. In Woolf’s piece, “A Haunted House,” the narrator and her husband live in a house with ghosts roaming that mean good for them. In the story, the turbulence comes when the ghosts want to reunite since they were lovers in life, and eventually they visit the narrator asleep in her bed. Through the idea of transcendence of love, Woolf reveals that the reason why this couple is being haunted is nothing more than love itself. The dead couple come to the realization that love is such a strong nature that the living couple reminds them of their times alive. Ultimately, the ghosts serve as a symbol for transcendence: the living couple realize that, regardless of their actions in this life, their love is so profound that even when they die, their love will never fade. Finally, the narrator asks the couple “Oh, is this your buried treasure? The light in the heart,” realizing that it is such a strong force, that it shall never fade away (Woolf 13-14). Likewise, Atwood also surveys the theme of love in “Happy Ending,” the narrative begins with a simple, straightforward story about a couple who fall in love and follow the