Mrs Lazarus - Background Information

MRS LAZARUS – BACKGROUND INFORMATION

No mention of a wife occurs in the Biblical account of Lazarus; in the Bible, Lazarus’s sisters, Martha and Mary, ask for Jesus’s help in healing their brother. What might be the purpose of introducing a wife for Lazarus?

A poem like “Mrs. Lazarus” reveals an interest in history that has been suppressed or simply neglected, a desire to give voice to those who did not typically have access to the making of public opinion. Writing in the voice of a woman who does not appear in the Biblical account of the Lazarus story, Duffy suggests that women have an important perspective—an untold, heretofore unaccounted for, way of making sense of the world. Duffy has time and again made it her mission to account for and recount that perspective.

LAZARUS STORY SUMMARY

Lazarus and his two sisters, Mary and Martha, were friends of Jesus. When Lazarus fell ill, his sisters sent a message to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick." When Jesus heard the news, he waited two more days before going to Lazarus' hometown of Bethany. Jesus knew that he would do a great miracle for God's glory and, therefore, he was not in a hurry.

When Jesus arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had already been dead and in the tomb for four days. When Martha discovered that Jesus was on his way, she went out to meet him. "Lord," she said, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died."

Jesus told Martha, "Your brother will rise again." But Martha thought he was talking about the final resurrection of the dead.

Then Jesus said these important words: "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die."

Martha then went and told Mary that Jesus wanted to see her. Jesus had not yet entered the village, most likely to avoid thrilling up the crowd and calling attention to himself. The town of Bethany was not far from Jerusalem where the Jewish leaders were plotting against...