· In the second stanza, Sylvia Plath describes her father and the feelings she has for him. “Marble-heavy, a bag full of God.†(8) Marble heavy can refer to the fact that a lot of caskets for dead bodies are made of marble, which also lets the reader know that Plath’s father Estimated Reading Time: 6 mins Sylvia Plath’s Daddy Essay Example These images include “your neat mustache / And your Aryan eye, bright blue. / Panzer-man, panzer-man, O You —-” in the ninth stanza and “Every woman adores a Fascist” in the tenth stanza. These images cause a theatrical shift in tone from earlier in the blogger.comted Reading Time: 5 mins · This essay on Daddy by Sylvia Plath was written and submitted by your fellow student. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly
Daddy by sylvia plath Essay - Words | Bartleby
This poem explores the other side of the father-daughter relationship, sylvia plath daddy essay. It is expressed through the eyes of a young girl, the persona, who tries to grapple with the disturbing memories of her late father. From the onset, it is clear that there is no love lost between the father and the daughter.
The persona launches a scathing post-humus tirade at the haunting memory of her late father. This is attributed to the fact that the father had subjected his daughter to an oppressive environment in which the latter was rendered hapless and hopeless. This is an illustration of an unbearably harsh and subjugative condition that the daughter endured in the hands of her father.
The daughter makes a desperate attempt to purge herself of the spirit of her father. This also underscores the crippling disappointment and frustration sylvia plath daddy essay she encounters at the death of her father.
The disillusionment on the part of the persona is begotten by the fact that she had initially iconized her father.
It was, therefore, painfully discomfiting that the person she worshipped turned against her, and to make matters worse, died. It appears that the daughter has faint recollection of her late father. This then translates to the feeling that the persona actually had limited contact with her father. The explanation is offered by the assertion that the male parent was always out fighting in the Nazi war in Germany.
Due to this, he became an absentee father. He was virtually kept away from his distressed daughter by a series of wars. The memory of a painfully inaccessible father torments the persona. Even in the presence of her father, the persona experiences untold inhibitions from her father.
This clearly illustrates the alienation between father and daughter. The daughter longs to be with her father, but gory visions stand between them. The estrangement between father and daughter is personified by the reference to the German — Jew relationship during the Nazi domination. During the Nazi operation, millions of Jews were murdered by means more horrendous than mankind had ever imagined.
The daughter sees a brutal Nazi in her father, but considers herself a Jew. Since her sympathies go to the Jews, she finds it difficult to reconcile to the fact that her father has a hand in the atrocities meted out on the hapless Jews, sylvia plath daddy essay.
She is, sylvia plath daddy essay, therefore, unable to connect with her father as much as she would have desired. She avers: I have always been scared of you Plath, stanza 9.
This is no doubt a brutal depiction of a father figure. However, in spite of all the horrifying attributes associated with her father, the persona is devastated at his death. She finds temporary reprieve through marriage. The persona hopes to put the spirit of her dead father to rest. The persona remains unfulfilled, sylvia plath daddy essay, even through marriage and this arouses anger and frustration in her. The person then strives to kill the image of her father.
The father has been transformed into a vampire who, for some time, has been subjecting her to psychological torture. Essentially, the poem Daddy bears a forceful, but simple effect when read closely. The gradual release of suppressed emotion is felt throughout the poem. The jinx embodied in the fixation with her father is finally broken down in an intense outburst.
Memory in the poem Daddy brings to the fore the Freudian school of thought, which states that at some point in childhood development, a child is in love with their parent. When the father dies, the persona is so distraught that she attempts to follow him through suicide. This is accomplished through marriage. The persona gets married not for love, but rather to get a replacement for her dead father. In her mind, marrying someone with characteristics similar to her father would erase the memories that kept on haunting her.
The oppressive patriarchal society in which the persona lives is highlighted for good measure. The persona suffers under the rule of patriarchy for thirty years. This is a typification of many societies that sylvia plath daddy essay inherently tilted on gender grounds. Many women have fallen victims of gender subjugation, which often rears its ugly head through domestic violence and sometimes rape.
Women have no option but to put up with cruel men, who occasion untold suffering to the womenfolk. Whereas a few women speak out, many suffer in silence.
A part from the father, the persona has suffered in the hands of another man, her husband. She expresses her second suffering through words that clearly describes her husband as a brutal heartless man who added to her prior suffering by breaking her heart. Memory has also been used in the poem to enhance the plot.
Through memory, the poet attempts to lend justification for the outrageous portrayal of the father figure as violent, brutish and insensitive, sylvia plath daddy essay. Through memory, the poet is able to exploit imagery in the poem. Imagery refers to the use of words, phrases or objects that appeal to the five senses of the reader. The title Daddy conjures the image of a caring, sylvia plath daddy essay, sensitive and benevolent individual.
However, the entire poem suggests otherwise. The poem is pregnant with fleeting images of an atrocious individual, a murderer and cruel fellow who also doubles up as a Nazi soldier. The father is referred to as the swastika in stanza 10, line 1. It should be remembered that the swastika was the Nazi emblem which sent chills down the spines of the Jews.
Thus, the father is used to kicking his way around, sylvia plath daddy essay, dishing out nasty jabs in the faces of his considered adversaries. This is evident when the speaker recreates her father in another man whom she marries. It is rather ironical that sylvia plath daddy essay the speaker seems to have hated her father for all the horrible things he represented, she goes ahead to nab a man with similar disposition.
On one hand, the persona hates her father for all his negative attributes while on the other hand, she adores him and would rather marry a man with similar attributes. The memory of the father also describes the dilemma inherent in the personality of the speaker. It is a love-hate relationship that thrusts the persona into the precarious position in which the speaker is gradually forced to make a decision.
The persona tried to kill herself at the age of twenty so that she could join her father in death. But at the end of the poem she calls her father a bastard. Reading through the poem, one is likely to be horrified at the suffering that the feminine gender braces itself for as a way of remaining relevant in a male dominated world.
The speaker is brutalized for long and abrasive thirty years, attempts suicide and finally settles down with another male species of the same behavioural dispensation as her father. In the poem Daddy, there is an inevitable blanket condemnation of men in general. They are portrayed as terrorists who have no feeling for women and have no qualms killing fellow human beings, sylvia plath daddy essay. The horrific experience of the Jews is a significant historic occurrence.
Millions of Jews met their deaths in the hands of brutal and heartless sylvia plath daddy essay who sylvia plath daddy essay them in gas chambers. Memory in the poem Daddy has also been used as a powerful tool for cultivating the underlying theme of suffering, sylvia plath daddy essay. The speaker in the poem seems to be permanently traumatized by her experiences with the man she needed to adore and who betrayed her through death. Consequently, she leads an emotionally disturbed life, one in which she is perpetually trapped and is seeking a long-lasting solution.
The solution, according to the speaker, is a drastic one. The poet pronounces a death sentence to any man falling short of the glory and is less than human to their loved ones. The mention of villagers suggests that it is a universal responsibility to punish men depicting extreme tendencies towards women.
The poet, through the persona, finds release in the death of the vampire brutish man. Vampires, in most mythologies, are killed by driving sylvia plath daddy essay stake through their hearts. In the poem Daddy memory also defines the development of the speaker in terms of physiological and emotional growth.
Like every other child, her daddy is the best, infallible and immortal. The poem indicates that she was only ten when the father was laid to rest Plath, stanza At this stage, the speaker does not know how to handle the situation.
But as she grows sylvia plath daddy essay, certain emotions begin to take shape in her mind. She is furious at the menacing memory of her father. She then decides to take matters into her own hands and attempts to commit suicide. The memory helps the reader to realize the physiological growth of the daughter. At twenty, she attempts suicide, but is rescued in time. Afterwards, she is old enough to get married, which she does, sylvia plath daddy essay.
She is also old enough to wrestle with the demon of her late father and is able to overcome as illustrated in the last line of the poem, sylvia plath daddy essay. This is an indication that she finally vanquishes the troubles that have been afflicting her since the death of her father. She is finally able to free herself from the manacles of patriarchy.
She realizes that the patriarchal bondage cannot be addressed by replacing one man with another. It is worth noting that memory in the poem is portrayed as both a bane and a boon. As a bane, it leads many people into emotional breakdowns. In this poem, the memory of her father leads the speaker into attempting to take her own life. Sylvia plath daddy essay her life sylvia plath daddy essay have been better had she blanked out the painful memories of her father. Secondly, the memory leads her into committing another mistake: she marries a man, not out of love, but his resemblance to her dead father.
This is because she is craving for a father figure.
Sylvia Plath's 'Daddy': Identities, Selves and Others: HOW LOVE KILLS US ALL
, time: 11:34Daddy by Sylvia Plath - Words | Essay Example
· This essay on Daddy by Sylvia Plath was written and submitted by your fellow student. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly Sylvia Plath’s Daddy Essay Example These images include “your neat mustache / And your Aryan eye, bright blue. / Panzer-man, panzer-man, O You —-” in the ninth stanza and “Every woman adores a Fascist” in the tenth stanza. These images cause a theatrical shift in tone from earlier in the blogger.comted Reading Time: 5 mins Essay on Analysis of Daddy by Sylvia Plath Words8 Pages Analysis of Daddy by Sylvia Plath In the poem “Daddy,” Sylvia Plath describes her true feelings about her deceased father. Throughout the dialogue, the reader can find many instances that illustrate a great feeling of hatred toward the author’s father
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