Daddy by Sylvia Plath - Essay Sample with Poem Analysis

The poem Daddy elicited distinct reactions due to its procedure of Holocaust descriptions and also its unadulterated rage towards male dominance. It contains vitriolic tone, solicitation of Jewish misery and violent imagery making it uncomfortable for any one to read. The poem elaborates Plaths expedition of coming to terms with her fathers looming figure who died while she was at the age of eight. It reveals a story of a young girl with an Electra intricate whose father died at the time she thought that he was God. She seems to be confused and in dilemma by the fact that her mum possibly a Jewish and her father was a Nazi. In this young lady the two strains espouse and paralyze one another. She is probably a victim of circumstance. She casts her father as a vampire, devil, Nazi and as a resurrected figure. Despite during the end of the poem we are revealed to a triumphant tone, it still unclear to whether she is through thinking about him or she is through to him in terms of communication.

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The soul of the poems meaning is contradiction between triumph and horror which is the overall reason why it elicited distinct reactions. This opposition is evident in the poems organization and its rhyme scheme. It uses narration in form of singsong. The short lines, childish cadence, uses of names such as Daddy and recurrent rhymes such as Jew, do, you and through establishes the poets status a child in relation to her commanding father. These childish aspects have a protective, crucial quality rather than the innocent one since the childish rhythm is ironic because the primitive chant like quality can be felt like more of a curse.

Plath weaves together the patriarchal figures which she holds account of her historical horror. We see an individual who is trapped between society and herself. The figure Daddy has a distinct political and social aspect. It comes to the speakers mind that she had to do away with the Daddy figure if she had to break loose the limitation that it brought to her such as powers that implement strict gender structure. She feels the journey of dismantling this figure needs a sort of hysteria since it was not an easy one. If she could not be able to annihilate her antagonist then she could be destroyed. This poem reveals that the poet gets her revenge by killing both her father and her husband. It shows how difficult it was for her to declare it, despite how terrible the dad was and how he remains in her mind, she is through with it.

This poem relates to the poets life because of its contradiction towards male figures. This poem was written after the poet had discovered that her spouse Ted Hughes had dumped for another lady. The poem reveals the rage in Plaths life towards men. Also the suicide attempt in the poem evidently links to Plaths life. It also may represent her allegorical fears of creative paralysis and attempt to cast off the male ruminate.

The use of Holocaust imagery in the sense that Plath was not a Jewish rather she was a German who was obsessed with Jewish culture and history. Plath imagines herself on a train to Dachu, Belsen, and Auschwitz and starts to feel like a Jew and talk like a Jew. Plath combined public and personal in her work to cut through the dormant double talk of America Cold War. The shocking content of this poem was an attempt to consider how the 20th century killings reflect and escalates human equality.