What is the theme of "Lady Lazarus"?

We can relate this poem and its theme to the real life
experience of its poet and her multiple suicide attempts. "Lady Lazarus," with the
allusion that its title contains, automatically makes us think of Lazarus who was
brought back to life by Jesus. This feeling of returning to life from death is something
that pervades this poem, however, this poem relates this feeling from a uniquely female
perspective as it focuses on the desire for revenge that is experienced by a female
victim of male domination. It is the way in which the speaker has been dominated by the
father that leads her to desire her revenge, although the precise nature of this revenge
is never explored. Because of this, perhaps the central theme of this disturbing poem is
the desire to turn the tables on patriarchy and for women to get their revenge for the
way that they have been objectified and dominated throughout
history.

Thus it is that the speaker of this poem has
managed to turn the tables against her oppressor and has exchanged the myth of Lazarus
for the myth of the phoenix, the mythical bird that dies only to be resurrected from its
own ashes. The last stanza in particular seems to foreshadow the successful completion
of the speaker's intention of gaining revenge against her father and men in
general:

Out of the
ash

I rise with my red
hair

And I eat men like
air.

The theme of this poem
is therefore one of the desire for revenge borne out of the age-old conflict between the
two sexes. The way that women have been systematically dominated and abused throughout
history leads the speaker of this poem to desire revenge and to yearn to be able to
dominate and abuse men the way that she herself has been abused.