Daddy by Sylvia Plath Essay

In the poem Daddy, Sylvia Plath uses numerous literary devices to illustrate her struggles for freedom in relationship, precisely with her father and husband. She uses heavy metaphors and dense all toldusion to create imagery of shame towards her relationship between both men. It is important to know Plaths historical background before readers engulf into any of her artistic work. Sylvia had a very negative relationship with men in her life specially her father and husband.Slyvias father, Otto Plath passed away when she was eight, in which it as well ask a huge toll in Sylvias life. Sylvia had of all time longed for a good relationship with her father, only when Ottos true connection between his children was only with academic achievement. This prompts Sylvia to work hard and excel in school, but death came visiting her father too early before they reach the ultimate father and daughter relationship Sylvia had hoped for. She felt disappointed, and in virtually way cheated b ecause her failure to really get to know the man whom she calls father (Shmoop Editorial Team).Her real-life husband Ted Hughes also affected her emotionally as he left her for another woman after a long struggle in their marriage. This only contributes her rage, and vengeance which would come up in her later work. rase though we usually are very strict when it comes to separating the speaker of the poem and the author of the poem, in many ways, her real-life persona speaks for her in the poem. It wouldnt be fair to take her word in the poem apt(p) as a display of her relationship ( resembling comparing her father to a German Nazi, and a vampire) but we can analytically unravel the hidden message in the metaphor she uses to describe her constant mesh with struggle in her life. She starts off the essay withAny more, black shoe.In which I have lived interchangeable a bagFor thirty years, poor and white,Barely daring to breathe or Achoo. (2-5)In this stanza, she metaphorically spe aking about the entrapment of her father memories in her life, deal the little spaces in between a foot and a shoe. The confinement makes it seems hard for her to even breathe, or in her case, living an uneasy life. So we got the brass that she is talking to his father, hence the title Daddy. We can tell that she has a bad relationship with her father that is devising her life miserable. She goes further to explain the relationship with her father is similar to what happens during holocaust. In occupancy 29-35, she uses a give chase engine to illustrate her as a Jew being transported to a concentration camp. She describes her father as a nazi with neat moustache, and bright blue Aryan eye for which we got the image of him as Hitler. In a sense, she was the victim of her own father, and had to kill him in order to gain freedom (6). She also wroteIn the picture I have you,A cleft in your chin instead of your foot alone no less a devil for that, no notAny les the black man who che ck my pretty red heart in two.(52-55)A strong metaphor that refer to her father as an evil (using the color black as a color symbolism) man-devil who bit and broke her heart into two. Her tincture throughout the poem was that of hatred and disgust. Even though she kept on rambling on how she hates her father, the discipline of the poem wasnt purely hatred. She quieten loves her father as it was said in line 14, I used to pray to rec everyplace you (14). This event took place after she killed her father which shows that she wishes that her father is with her again (6).I truly believe the speaker is being overly exaggerated when it comes to using metaphors and similes to show how much she hates her father. inaugural and foremost to this inference is the way she uses the word daddy instead of father, which is only used to show devotion toward the other person. Deep down, she truly loves him and wishes for his love despite of all the things he had done to her. She even tells us ho w she was heartbroken when they buried his father when she was only ten years old.The overwhelming schemeof her depression prompts her to drill suicide, but found a way around to be with her father. She married a man that has the feature film of her father. I found this interesting because the result of her fathers death should be the opposite. She should feel like a burden has been lifted from her and that she no longer has to deal with the man that always scared her, like the one she mentioned in stanza 9, I have always been scared of you. She even marries a man that has all the traits of her father as she said it in stanza 13, And the I knew what to do. / I made a model of you, / A man in black with a Meinkampf look (63-65). This prompts me to think that the speaker never really got over his dead father.Towards the very end, she describes how the man she marries sucked the blood out of her life, just like a vampire. The experience she went through was the same with her father, and just had to kill him. Daddy, daddy, you bastard, Im through was the last line of the poem (80). This line was supposedly intended to make the reader think that she finally got over her fear of her dead father. But, she still uses the informal noun Daddy, which reveals that she still has some affectionate towards her father.She describes the relationship as Fascism all woman adores a Fascist, / The hit in the face, the brute / Brute heart of a brute like you (48-50). In a way, she forces herself to be overpowered by a tyrant in order to seek for love. It is revealed that it wasnt his father fault in the first place, but her choice to be in that situation in reference to the line Every woman adores a Fascist (48). She has the free will to get out of the relationship, but she adores the characteristic of her father, and let herself deteriorate while doing so (48).