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Close analysis of Carol Ann Duffy's Mrs Lazarus
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A close analysis of Carol Ann Duffy's Mrs Lazarus, considering poetic techniques, form, and genre.
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Holly Craven Introduction to Literature: Form and GenreAssignment 1 – Close analysis (1,500 words) of one poetic text from the
designated set supplied by the tutor, demonstrating capacity to read,
comprehends and interprets poetry effectively. You are encouraged to use
your ‘Analysing a Poem’ prompt sheet to guide you in this exercise.
Mrs Lazarus – Carol Ann Duffy
INTRO DRAFT
In ‘Mrs Lazarus’, Carol Ann Duffy uses a dramatic monologue form to display the
ritual of grief through the persona: ‘Mrs Lazarus’. In this poem Duffy gives a female
perspective on the miracle of Lazarus’ resurrection, usually told from the male point
of view in John 11. Duffys use of dramatic monologue not only relates how ‘Mrs
Lazarus’ comes to terms with her loss externally, but also portrays the fractured
psyche of a grieving woman ‘clawing’ (L.3) after sanity. Through close reading of
this poem I will show how she progresses through the stages of grief into recovery;
following the undercurrents of uneasy prolepsis Duffy hints at through the consistent
use of anachronism in which the reader is prepared for the final stanza.
Duffy begins ‘Mrs Lazarus’ in past tense with ‘I had grieved’ (L.1) and ‘I had wept’
(L.1), suggesting ‘Mrs Lazarus’ is stuck in that same moment when her husband died
and that she cannot move forward without him. This is emphasised by the cold, hard
‘burial stones’ (L.4) that imply ‘Mrs Lazarus’ is unchanged despite time moving on,
she has become ageless and remains when everything else is gone; just like the
stones that are numb and imperishable.
‘Mrs Lazarus’ appears to be spitting out her grief in plosive‘d’ sounds in the first
stanza creating a sound of agony. Also, her grief is conveyed through her
dehumanization with emotive verbs such as ‘ripped’, ‘howled’, shrieked’, ‘clawed’,
‘bled’ and ‘retched’ (L.1-4) this creates an animalistic image of ‘Mrs Lazarus’,
incapable of rational, civilised thought as she becomes overwhelmed by her grief.
This is continued on into the second stanza as the fractured sentences symbolise
‘Mrs Lazarus’s’ fractured psyche with the caesura continuously breaking up the
sentences: ‘Gone home. Gutted the place. Slept in a single cot, widow.’ (L.6)
Also, the use of ‘single’ highlights her isolation and incomplete mindset throughout
the second stanza. Without her husband, the feeling of being ‘half’ (L.8) of a whole is
made clear through Duffy’s lexical choices, so much so ‘Mrs Lazarus’ even
contemplates suicide. Considering this poem is based on a biblical story, her ‘double
knot...noosed...round [her] bare neck’ (L.10) hints at anti Christian themes with
despair leading to suicide being the main sin in most religions. However Duffy
doesn’t go so far as to let ‘Mrs Lazarus’ take her own life, instead she is almost
reborn with a new attitude seeping into the third stanza as Duffy begins to introduce
religious lexis to create a sense of recovery and time passing.
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