Introduction

            This poem had been written by Sylvia Plath and directed to her father. Sylvia comes from a town called Polish where there are wars and this had been making her to keep the name as secret forever.  Her father had died when she was ten. This poem had been written by a girl who had thought that her father had been God. The poem tries to bring out the idea of a female victim who had decided to go away from her father. The repeated rhymes and short lines have established top her childish figure status in relation to the father who had been ruling with all authority. This also shows the meaning of the use of the term “Daddy.” In the poem, Sylvia characterizes her father as a devil and vampire. The paper below also entails various literally devices that has been used in the poem

            The poem brings about the relationship between the journey of Plath and her father who had died while she was ten years old. She says that he, “do not do anymore” and she feels like she is similar to a foot that had been staying inside a black shoe for a period of thirty years where she could rarely breathe (Plath, n. p). Sylvia insists that she had been aiming at taking his life but unfortunately had died before the time of her plan. Plath describes her father as heavy as a bag that had been filled with God and the bag had been similar to a statue which had a big toe its head dipped inside the Atlantic Ocean. Plath claims that it had always been difficult to communicate to her father. She had been thinking that every single German was him even before he could utter a word. She had a feeling of being very much different from her father. She had been wondering if she could have been a Jew due to her sameness with gypsy. While Sylvia tries to explain the distance and fear towards her father, she refers to him as Luftwaffe with a blue Aryan eye and having a smart mustache. She had been thinking that “every woman adores a fascist” and the “boot in the face” that a man like her father would come with.

            The moment Sylvia tends to recall Daddy, thoughts had been usually coming in to her mind and sees him with a cleft chin instead of foot while standing on the blackboard. However this thought does not make Daddy a devil. Instead, Sylvia sees him as a black man (Plath, n. p). This man “bit [her] pretty red heart in two.” Daddy had died when Sylvia was ten years old and she had made attempts to join him while she was twenty years old but the attempt failed. Later, Plath had been brought back together and was able to realize her course. This caused her to make a model of Daddy and offered him “a love of the rack and the screw” and “Meinkampf look.” Sylvia goes on to promise Daddy that she had been “finally through” as the hook had been taken off from the telephone and there could be no travelling of voices through it. Sylvia had been having considerations that if she had been in a position to kill one man, that would have been similar to two beings according to her. Her comparison of Daddy to a vampire had been behind the feeling that he had taken her blood for a period of a year but according to her, the duration had been similar to seven years. Sylvia says that the villagers who had been despising him were now celebrating his death. Plath says that this had been happening through the villagers dancing on the ground where his body had been laid. Sylvia concludes by saying that “Daddy, Daddy, you bastard, I’m through.”  

Literally Elements

Flashback

            The author uses flashback when she says that her father died when she was ten she tried to reach him when she was 20 years, “I was ten when they buried you, at twenty I tried to die.“ There is also use of flashback where Sylvia says that she had prayed for her father to resurrect, “I used to pray to recover you.” This means that Sylvia had been praying to get the father back (Plath, n. p). 

Personification

            There is the use of personification where the author says that her town had been scrapped down by the roller of war, “In the German tongue, in the Polish town Scraped flat by the roller of wars, wars, wars.” This means that the there had been war in the town and this had made it popular hence the author did not want people to know the she had been belonging to it hence decided to never mention it (Plath, n. p). 

Metaphor

            There is use of metaphor where the author says that could rarely talk in the presence of her father as the tongue had been stuck, “It stuck in a barb wire snare.” This means that Sylvia had no freedom of expression in the presence of her father (Plath, n. p). 

Symbolism

            The author uses symbolism where she is referring to the situation she had been living in the presence of her father and is free now, “Any more, black shoe In which I have lived like a foot.” The author brings the meaning that the life she had been living did not allow her to express herself freely.  The author also uses symbolism where she created a model and refers to it as her father,” I made a model of you.” It means that after discovering her course, she made a symbol to represent the father (Plath, n. p). 

.Conclusion

            Sylvia had written the poem to explain her relationship with her father. The girl had been keeping the name of her hometown as the town had been associated with wars. The father had died while Plath was ten and she tried to reach him at her twentieth year but it failed and this made her come back to her senses and realized her course as seen in the above discussion. The theme in the poem had been grounded on bringing out the idea of a female victim who had decided to go away from her father. The girl was small as discussed above and had been able to give her father different titles. There has also been use of various literally elements as discussed above.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Work cited

Plath Sylvia. Analysis of the poem: “Daddy” Ariel. (2019).

 

 

 

 

 

 

.