Daddy by Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath=s Confessional Poem, ADaddy@ Sylvia Plath reveals herself in her confessional poem ADaddy@. She uses strong imagery and powerful speech to show her attitudes towards her late father, Otto Plath and her husband, Ted Hughes, who also hurt her in the end. Her tone implies a strong hatred and disgust for the relationships with both men. The poem was written in 1963 which happened to be the same year that she committed suicide. Plath had a history of troubled times and attempted suicide. Plath describes her relationship and feelings of guilt, fear, and pain her father=s death caused her. Plath used imagery heavily in her poem to show her emotions. She casts her father into different parts throughout the poem. Plath=s images of her father are compared to God, a Nazi, the Devil, and a vampire. All of these images are powerful on their own but by being put together they are almighty and frightening. In the beginning the speaker=s childhood memories of her father are *God-like= to her. Her father wasn=t God, but just Aa bag of God@(8). He must have been very powerful and impressive to her. She continues to describe her father as a AGhastly statue with one gray toe@ (9), showing that her father was overwhelming and as
if he was only a copy of a person, fake and cold. Her father was unattainable since he died while Plath was still a young child. She felt tired of dealing with her abandonment issues and was ready to get rid of the controlling memory of her deceased father. One can see this in the beginning of the poem, You do not do, you do not do Any more, black shoe In which I have lived like a foot (1-3). Plath is fighting to exorcise the memory of her father once and all. Then Plath goes on to describe her father as a Nazi and places herself in the role of the Jew. This helps explain how she feels that she is a victim. There isn't any strong wording to suggest that Otto Plath was a 'real= Nazi. This was a symbolic realtionship of oppressor and oppressed. She illustrated how different they were. She also identified with her Agypsy ancestress=, showing that she was far away from the acceptable Nazi image. Plath uses contrasting imagery with the references to swastika and the idea of a Jew, which the Star of David is the first image to appear in the mind=s eye. She related with the Jews in concentration camps. This shows how she felt trapped and confined. Even the German language was harsh to her ears, AAnd the language obscene@ (30). Everything that her father was, was something that she couldn=t relate with. Then she later goes on to cast her father as the Devil. AA cleft in your chin instead of your foot / But no less of a devil for that, no not@ (53-54). Plath uses a comparison between her father and the devi
Some common words found in the essay are:
Ted Hughes, God Aa, Devil AA, AIf I=ve, Star David, Otto Plath, Nazi Devil, Sylvia Plath, , memory father, describe father, father husband, father devil, ted hughes, confessional poem adaddy@, attempted suicide, otto plath, father maybe, suicide plath, plath imagery,
Approximate Word count = 1016
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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