Esther Greenwood attended College on a scholarship, earned top grades and majored in English just like Sylvia. Her life at the beginning seemed to be full of potential and goals, but as her thoughts and emotions are reveal to us; it becomes clear to us that despite all her achievement, E

Similar to Steven Gould Axelrod, one could argue that "Daddy" is a work of fiction. He states that "Plath herself introduced it on the BBC as the opposite of confession, as a constructed fiction... since its details depart freely from the facts of her biography"(DM, pg. 63). While the fact that the poem does not follow her biography remains a valid point, it is easy to see otherwise. Plath could not deal with her anger over her father's death in the poem. The reader easily finds the poem to be an expression of her inability to come to terms with her father's death. The only fiction in the poem is that her father was a Nazi. Plath remembers him as having similar characteristics, but he was not involved in the war. Consequently, the reader must conclude that, "Daddy is a love poem," it is just the opposite(DM, pg. 63). While Sylvia Plath loved her father while he was alive, she no longer has any love for him. She has become consumed by hatred. She hates him for leaving her in the first place and because she ended up with a husband who modeled him. She also hates him because she was unable to join him. Although she attempted suicide, she failed: "At twenty I tried to die, and get back, back to you" (WM, pg. 43). She blames her father for leaving her to go to a place that she could not reach. The poem concludes with "Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I'm through" (M, 80). While this signifies the end of the poem, it also brings closure to her feelings about her father. She has "killed" him by having her imaginary villagers stamping on him (DM, pg.65). She has dealt with her hatred toward him and needs to move on. Possibly, Plath was hinting that she was simply finished with being hurt and was literally "through." Plath committed suicide before the poem was published.

sther's true state of mind is not in the right place. As the story goes on she has to make a decision, like Sylvia, whether she wants a career or a family (LW, pg. 38). "Esther sees herself as something else than primarily a housewife, and she uses much of her energy to try to avoid marrying the one she is expected- Buddy Willard"(SP, pg3). Like Sylvia, she did a summer internship in New York City, and suffered a mental collapse, and was institutionalized. While

As a child she could not see him as anything but a statuesque figure. She was young and could not understand her father's faults. Readers can easily see foreshadowing of the hard times to come in this stanza as well. Instead of describing the statue as a brilliant, everlasting figure, she describes it as "ghastly"(M, 9). The remainder of the poem provides the final reason for the childish undertones. Plath, overcome with sadness about her father leaving her, develops an intense hatred for him. She demonstrates her hatred by transforming his image into a Nazi and the devil. As Diane Middlebrrok explains, Plath's poems about her father "show that the attitude toward him evolves from nostalgic mournfulness, regret, and guilt, to resentment and a bitter resolve to break his hold on her" (DM, pg. 58). Plath becomes determined to convince the reader that her father had been a horrible person, a Nazi, to justify her feelings toward him. Even the descriptions of her father resemble both Hitler and his army: "And your neat moustache,

As Diana Middlebrook observes, "As

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Approximate Word count = 2245
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)