Poem Analysis Daddy from Sylvia Plath - Research Paper Example

Analysis of the Poem "Daddy" by Sylvia Plath Daddy is a confessional poem in which it can be assumed that the poet was narrating the story based on her (Huang). The poem is written with a liberating attitude revealing not only the relationship that existed between the persona and her father, but also how her father’s death impacted her life. She employs the use of figurative speech in order to convey her message in a simple but indirect way. Her tough childhood depicted in the poem can be compared with the misery that people went through after WW2. She uses her father as an image of Hitler/Nazis as well as mentions some of the shattered towns by the Nazis cruelty, in order to portray the suffering of the people. She does all this with an overall aim of teaching the people who experienced the brutality to forget the past and focus on the future with optimism. The poem is structured in a way that resembles a nursery rhyme disclosing the childish mentality of Plath. However, the major rhymes in the poem like shoe’, du’ and Achoo’ together with the well ordered stanzas depicts the powerful nature of the poem (Wu). This is a connation of the attempts that Plath is employing to recover authority and influence over her life upon suffering due to her father’s death. The poem is a reflection of the anxiety that was being experienced all round the world as a result of the events of the Cold war (Modern American poetry 135). The aftermath of WW2 was characterized by competition in production of nuclear weapons in the struggle for various nations to gain world power. At this time, nations were going through a rebuilding process with much enthusiasm keeping in mind the uncertainties that could befall them. In a similar manner, Plath was in a struggle to liberate herself from the shadow of her father. This is brought out in the poem when Plath changes the tone of her poem to that of aggression. At one point Plath seems to blame herself for her father’s death while at the same time lays blame on her father for abandoning her (Huang). The abandonment in this poem is further demonstrated when Plath people had felt lonely to an extent of doubting God’s existence. Plath brings forth an awful poem, filled with blackness, written in an openly declaration way. Wu asserts that right from its opening, the poet compares her father to an old shoe in which she had to live with for the entire of her life. Just like Freud S. had noted in his psychological developmental stages of a child particularly the phallic stage, Plath’s mental oppression stretches back to her childhood. She confesses that even after failing to run away from her dilemma of attempted suicide, she ends up marrying a surrogate father. One can only wonder why misfortune was befalling her throughout her life. She describes him as, “… a man in black with a Meinkampf look…” Modern American poetry (154) explains that later on she reveals that it was the shadows of her late father that were haunting her, but her ultimate aim was to kill all these memories so that she can be free at last. The poem Daddy has a powerful but simple effect as you go through it. There is a gradual letting go of the anger suppressed within the poet, that later builds to dismissal (Rosenblatt 45). This is portrayed in the following words, “…Daddy, Daddy, you bastard I’m through…” This is the turning point of one’s attitude towards the persona, and then henceforth the persona’s discontentment is brought out. The fact of calling the poem “Daddy” rather than “Father”, Plath lets us to understand the expectations that child has from a father, who instead assumes a domination and oppressive nature. The compulsive repetition of particular words and those of the sound ‘oo’ calls to mind the probability of temper tantrum being the source of her anger (Modern American poetry 145). Her awareness of this fact is portrayed in the poem when her anger is blended with some elements of humorous. In the poem Plath lays numerous accusations against the control of the Nazi under the rule of a fearful and manipulative dictator, Hitler (Rosenblatt 53). For instance, if we consider the last line in stanza three; ‘Ach, du’ which is written in German, is a representation of the sorrow that the persona feels about this whole situation. In English the expression can be translated as ‘Oh…you’, you here refers to her father who she wanted to kill. The shadow of her father had been haunting her all through her life even in her marriage having married a man who was just like her own father. Her father had died when she was too young thus she married the man in an attempt to fill her father’s absence in her life. As a result, in this expression she aspires to do away with the two men who have caused her more than just anguish (Modern American poetry 149). In fact, she thought that she compares to a Jew being tortured under the reign of Hitler. The forth stanza specifically outlines a forceful occupation of the German in Poland between the years 1939-1945. Both the emotional and environmental terror imposed upon the people of Poland by Germans is portrayed in this stanza. Rosenblatt (45) asserts that the justifications of Hitler settling all the German people together in Poland are shown in the line, “…but the name of the town is common…” This was the basis of the aftermath continued genocide against people of the Jewish origin within Poland. The poem began to take a different approach when Plath turns to describe her father’s physical appearance in detail in stanza nine (Huang). In that stanza, the obsessive nature of Plath’s father towards his country-land is portrayed. In spite of the fact that his country-land was full of dictatorship, her father had much love and loyalty towards it. Due to this unpleasing portrayal of her father, Plath seems to reject her own father’s ideologies because to her they seemed selfish. This is shown in the following lines, “…your Aryan eye, bright blue, Panzer-man, panzer-man, O you…” The description of her father’s eyes as blue represents one of the characteristic of the Nazi constitution (Modern American poetry 195). His father also worked as a tank man within the Nazi army, something which made him heartless on experiencing constant wars of the time. The last two stanzas in Plath’s poem depict strong family moral bonds which are both productive as well as destructive (Modern American poetry 183). In these stanzas Plath compares her husband to a vampire that is slowly but surely taking life and feeling out of her as though it was the fulfillment of her father’s dying wishes. Moreover, she further recalls in her explanations how her father had been drawing her emotional strength during the terrible seven-year experience she had with him. When Plath says, “…fat black heart…” she refers to how wicked her father was to a point of not letting her live in peace even after his death (Rosenblatt, 55). In addition, the point also tells of the victorious attitude that had been portrayed by the villagers upon the realization that she was being haunted by her father. Although the poem has received positive reaction, it has not failed to be criticized basically due to its nature of autobiography. Some scholars have said this is one of Plath’s most comprehensive autobiographical poems, unfortunately, for that reason it sometimes takes for granted the shared quality of referencing. Rosenblatt (84) concurs that the poem might have the true life experiences of the poet to some extent. One can even conclude that the stress that Plath suffers in her later poetry work might have arisen from her bad experience as a child. It took ages for critics to finally appreciate the theme of gender being depicted in the poem. Plath does not even seem to sympathize with her father, but rather judges her harshly. At this point, critics say it may be unrealistic for one to be talking of fairness when the true picture of fairness is not being brought out in this poem (Modern American poetry 135). She even says, “… Daddy I have had to kill you…” Generally the poem might have lacked to build a strong relationship with the reader. In conclusion, the poem is a representation of rebellious liberation from the torment that had been imposed on the people at the time. Her story told of the millions of similar such stories of various people going through the struggles. The only difference was that all these other people were afraid to come out openly and air their grievances due to fear humiliation or even execution. According to Wu, Various groups of people were suffering; women suffered in the hands of their male counterparts, Jews suffered under the rule of Hitler and generally people had to live in fear following the aftermath of WW2. People are left to suffer under the hands of the people they are entrusted to protect them. Plath brings out the themes of cruelty and emancipation in a clear optimistic way, by ensuring people that with continued struggle they can be able to break the chains on oppression. Works cited Huang, Evelyn. Her Love and Hatred to Her Father: The Contradiction in Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy”. Web. 10. Dec. 2012. Modern American poetry. The Dark Tunnel: A Reading of Sylvia Plath. Modern Poetry Studies, 3(2): 2005. Rosenblatt, Jon. Sylvia Plath: The Poetry of Initiation. New York, University of North Carolina Press, 1982. Print. Wu, Verena. Poetry analysis: Daddy, by Sylvia Plath. Helium. Web. 10. Dec. 2012. Read More