Sylvia

A detailed Summary of Sylvia

Sylvia Plath applies the poem "Daddy" as a means to voice her inner conflict about her true identity. Her father becomes the vehicle for her struggle, because he represents a connection to the love and admiration she felt as a child; he is an anchor to a part of herself, to which she is deeply connected. It is almost as if she becomes her father in this poem talking about her conflict of dealing with aspects of her own existence. She employs the means of fact and fiction to set free her inner struggle.

The poem "Daddy" was written shortly before Sylvia's death, a time of her life where she was confronted with deep sadness and despair. Her life had taken a turn for the worse after the divorce from her husband, putting her into a place where she could no longer hide from herself. In the first stanza of the poem, Sylvia actually states the purpose of this poem.

These words, spoken to herself, have a feel of resignation, a conclusion about a life that is changing through new realizations and circumstances. She is saying that she can no longer

Guinevara, A. Nance; Judith, P. Jones."On'Daddy'." Modern American Poetry, found in Sylvia Plath: The Poetry of Initian, University of North Carolina Press, 1979, http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/plath/daddy.htn.

Rose, Jacqueline. The Haunting of Sylvia Plath. 1991. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992.

Rosenblatt, Jon. Sylvia Plath: The Poetry of Initiation. 1947. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1979.

The extent of her inner battle is unmistakable in stanza four. There, she touches on her split heritage of Polish and German. During her childhood, she tried hard to learn German as a means to connect to her heritage. In The Bell Jar, Ester Greenwood says: "every time I picked up a German dictionary or a German book, the very sight of those dense, black, barbed wire letters made my mind shut like a clam." In line five of stanza 5 and line one of stanza 6, Sylvia speaks of her tongue being stuck in a barb wire snare. This description shows a strong connection between how she relates to the German language and her attempt to find her own unique voice. At this stage of the poem, the material becomes more abstract, seemingly connecting to symbolic means in order to convey her struggle of setting free her own true self.

There are many changes in tone throughout the poem and transitions from recount to the fantastic. Sylvia shows the true transition between the attempt to stay in control of her inner world by trying to identify with her father and her readiness to sever that connection. Her words seem to come from the depth of her soul after disconnecting from sanity. The poem

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Approximate Word count = 1094
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English