Sylvia Plath's Daddy - Research Paper Example

Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy" The Plath comes with a lot of candor for it is a well-versed and highly commended in the world of literature as Plath is best known for advancing the genre of Confessional Poetry. Her death, which was no less than a suicide, brought her instant fame and she became the benchmark in contemporary poetry. For Sylvia Plath was a poetess like no other. Her German background coupled with her history of mania and depression, soon made her a prize in the contemporary world and her works which a fine piece of art and literature were full of dark despair and outspoken pessimism.

The poem “Daddy” is resounding echo of her gory childhood with her father whose memories haunted her till the end of her life. The poem apparently seems to have a happy ending as it ends with the writer having found her place in life as well as the fact that she has now come to terms with her feelings for both her father and her husband. Daddy vividly explores Plath’s intense imagery, especially when she claimed that she had been stuck in her past and lived hesitantly. The poem has a relatively inconsistent pace as she uses the word “Jew” again and again for herself.

She portrays herself in so much fear of her father who was known to be a strict man that she likens him to Hitler with an “Aryan eye” and herself to Jews since in World War II, Hitler harmed and oppressed the Jews. The words “Dachau”, “Auschwitz”, “Belsen” are quite blunt in addressing the concentration camps with “Panzer-man” as Nazis who roamed freely. The “brute heart of a brute like you”, “the man in black with a Mein Kamph look”, and “I made a model of you” clearly shows that she found him in her husband who also mistreated her and left her for another woman.

Throughout the poem, her passionate hatred for Germans is clear with metaphors such as “I thought every German was you and the language obscene.” She openly talks about her suicide attempt “The silence drew off, baring the pebbles and shells and all the tatty wreckage of my life. Then, at the rim of vision, it gathered itself, and in one sweeping tide, rushed me to sleep.” Moreover, terms such as “Ach, du” and “Ah, you.” are German which relates to her German ancestry and subsequently her father.

Plath has also incorporated terms such as “swastika” and “fascist” which clearly depict the nature of her father which was Nazi like. Then, the mention of Hitler’s book “Meinkampf” and the German air force “Luftwaffe” is another indication that she thought of her father as someone evil and bereft of emotions. Another analogy that further solidifies this point is the use of the term “Panzer man” who is a tank soldier. Thus, Plath’s opinion as is apparent from the terminology of her father was that of a man who was highly disciplined as well as strict.

This could further be attributed with a bit of evilness as well which Hitler and fascism exude. Plath also complains in the poem that she was ten years old when he passed away. She is angry at her father for leaving her so early. She could never spend the kind of quality time that she wanted to because her father did not take care of himself like he should have and ended up dying early. She still feels for her father and yearns for him. The very title of the poem “Daddy” depicts this side of the author.

It is usually used by young girls for their fathers. So there is longing and there is despair. The despair is apparent from the “black shoe” metaphor that she uses. This again refers to the famous nursery rhyme and leads the poet back to her childhood. Plath apparently wants her childhood back and wants to hold on to it because that is when her father was alive too. The poem culminates with the writer declaring that she has found a closure for her feelings for her father and for her husband.

“If I have killed one man, I have killed two, Daddy, Daddy, you Bastard, I’m through” was maybe Plath’s way of announcing to the world that she was finally through with her life. It could also refer to the point that in killing her father as she says she has in the poem, she has actually succeeded in killing his memory. Then with a final and sure “I’m through” she ends the poem on the note that she is done reminiscing about her father and yearning for her childhood. In her poem Edge, Plath declares her upcoming death to the world with the words “The woman is perfected Her dead body Wears the smile of accomplishment” for Daddy was just a prequel in the life of Plath which ended as stated by her own words in her poem, Edge.

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