"Daddy" and "Lady Lazarus" - Free Essay Analyzing Sylvia Plath's Poems

The poems Lady Lazarus and Daddy by Sylvia Plath are a reflection of the poet's personal experiences in life and what she seemingly goes through daily. The poem Lazarus is an illustration of the poet's frustration of a particular pattern of event that has noted in the poem that she has done for the last ten years. The poem is a personal perspective to the poet as it is seemingly talking about suicide. The poet expresses instances of frustration as she ostensibly addresses an enemy that she doesn't disclose. The poem is an illustration of a personal view on some matter that the poet has been experiencing.

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The other poem about daddy just like the above poem about Lazarus is a poem about the personal life of the poet. Same as the other poem, the poet talks of a routine activity that she has been doing and now declares that she no longer want to do again. The poem too talks of personal experience as the poet talks of her dad and the relationship that they both share. The poem is an illustration of the poet's deceased father and thus makes it a personal experience in the other poem. The article will therefore compare and show the distinct features in both poems and how best the poet has illustrated her themes in the two poems.

In the first poem Daddy, the poet brings the ideologies behind death in an alarming perspective. She presents her dad who died before she was ready to face the world finally. The poet thus in a disturbing way inline six "Daddy, I have to kill you. You died before I had time" This shocking statement from the poem shows how the poet feels towards the death of her father. She presents the dead body of her as to be "a bag full of God" this figurative presentation of her dead father's body tells of how important the dad was to the poet.

Death in this poem comes as the theme in the poetry as the poet expresses how she felt after the death of her father. Death helps us understand the personal feeling of the poet towards her relation to her father and how things would have been if the dad hadn't died. The poet is very emotional and feels sad about the demise of her dad, and thus she expresses the impacts of death on her own life. (Day, Allan, 14)

In line five, the poet expresses her anger in the death of her father and explains that after a very long period of thirty years, she would no longer feel trapped in the memories of her deceased father. The line shows how the poet had been living in turmoil for a very long because of the death of her father. She brings the ideological view of pain that comes along with the end of a close person. The poet illustrates her frustration and the sadness she had to go through by carrying the memories of her father from his death. From lines 11 to 15 the phrase "and ahead in the freakish Atlantic where it pours bean green over blue in the waters off beautiful Nauset" is a German phrase that the author uses to pour her anger and tell of how sickened she was after the death of her father. The poet throughout the poem has greatly shown the plight of women struggles in their quest for self-identity. The metaphorical presentation of the death of the poet's father helps illustrate the pain and suffering that a woman might go through when such instances happen.

Though in the first poem the poet has significantly shown her prowess in illustrating the themes of death, the second poem Lazarus comes as the best poem that the poet has presented her views. In the Lazarus poem, the poet offers a more deepened understanding of the frustration and pain that one goes through in the quest for equality in male-dominated society. In the lines, "Peel off the napkin O my enemy, do I terrify?" The poet illustrates the collective anger and pain that women of her statue went through at the time of the rise of the Nazis in Germany. The poet speaks of her inner conflict to the extent that she uses suicide figuratively to show how frustrated and worse the situation was at the time. The acts of rebellion and the presentation of the poet in such a male-dominated society brings out the concept of feminism and the issue of individualism to better present her idea of gender roles. Raymond, Claire, 6)

Many of the readers through her poems have described Sylvia to be very traumatized and a disturbed soul. Her poem Lazarus speaks openly of her prowess in highlighting the instances of pain and deep sorrow that women of her statue go through in the daily lives. However, Plath has always had an exceptional way of presenting her anger and agony by using the beautiful word. In the poem, she covers her sad feelings and the dark moments of her life. For instance in the stanza, "Dying is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well" here she compares death a terrifying moment in many people's lives to art which a beautiful ideology and further illustrates that she is ready to go through that stage exceptionally well. Such an understanding of Sylvia's poems makes the Lazarus poem more poetic and well presented than the previous Daddy poem. She has a different view of pain and death in general. Her choice of poetic language and language structure or figurative speech is what makes her poetry exceptional and the best in the presentation of agony and frustrations amongst women in realizing their self-identity. (Schwartz, Susan E, 17)

Again, the poet compares her skin to the Nazi lampshade. It is a very significant choice of language because the idea behind the Nazi who used the surface of the Jews to make lampshades comes very perfectly. She uses such a terrifying metaphor in comparing her agony to those of the Nazi. The poet also makes it easy for the readers to understand her suffering by metaphorically putting her right foot in comparison to a paperweight. The poet has a distinct way of presenting the themes of death and the pain that comes with it to pass across her message. It thus makes the poem more compelling and attractive in their thematic presentation compared to the previous one. The use of symbolic speech and the story of the Nazi and the Jews to show the suffering that women face while fighting for their self-identity comes as the most creative way in understanding the last poem at length. Pain and agony and the frustrations that women go through to the extent of one feeling to give up and succumb to death are what attract readership and thus making the poem very relative and most poetic. (Gale, Cengage, 20)

Both poems are a presentation of the plight of women struggles and suffering in their quest to justify their true identity in society. The author in the first poem of Daddy uses the issue of her father's death to illustrate frustration and pain that it caused. The end is used metaphorically to represent agony and the emotional deprivation that one could go through. Both poems have different depths and taste with how the poet has presented thematic concerns. The second poem about Lazarus has been submitted to bring about the real feeling and frustrations that women go through and the measure of pain that they feel. The comparison of the pain that the Jews encountered by the Nazi is to show the pain and agony that women go through in their daily lives. It is a perfect illustration of the torture of the women and the poet. The poems are a great representation of the struggles that women go through in society. They worth to be compared because of the weight they carry in the understanding of the society at large. The poet thus has in the best poetic style and by the use of figurative language, presented the nature of emotional torture and pain that many women of the nature of the poet go through. (Valera, Poonam, 16


Works Cited

Day, Allan. "Of Death and Paradox: Examining Sylvia Plath's" Lady Lazarus." (2016).

Raymond, Claire. The Posthumous Voice in Women's Writing from Mary Shelley to Sylvia Plath. Routledge, 2016.

Schwartz, Susan E. "The dead father effect on the psyche of a daughter-Sylvia Plath." Journal of Poetry Therapy 30.4 (2017): 218-227.

Gale, Cengage Learning. A Study Guide for Sylvia Plath's" Daddy." Gale, Cengage Learning, 2016.

Valera, Poonam. "Psychological Study of Sylvia Plath's Poetry." Retrieved from the website: http://www. academia. edu/10299936/Psychological_Study_of_Sylvia_ Plath_s_Poetry on October 24th (2016).

Etemadi, O., and E. Tabasi. "'Daddy'and His Discussion of Authority." Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities25.1 (2017).