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Tiffani Nguyen
English 1010, 1B
January 2012
Literary Analysis
Literary Analysis of “Daddy” by Sylvia Plath
In one of Sylvia Plath’s most well-known poems, “Daddy”, she describes the tragic role
that her father had on her before he passed away, as well as the feelings that followed long
afterwards. Her feelings of animosity and abandonment towards him are clearly expressed,
revealing that throughout her entire life, she felt shadowed by his burdensome presence. She
confesses to her father her true feelings and thoughts of him, while at the same time convinces
herself that she is now finally able to overcome the tragic occurrence that she let him bestow
upon her for so long. She writes it as if it were a confession to him, wanting him to know that
she no longer dwells over his death and that he cannot harm her anymore. Sylvia Plath uses this
poem to proclaim the realization that she has finally found a sense of control and acceptance
over the effects of her dad’s death by the search for her freedom within.
Sylvia Plath addresses her father throughout this poem as though she is really speaking
to him, therefore acknowledging that she has now gained control over him and can openly
express herself. She uses strong metaphors to represent herself and her father in order to allow
him to understand exactly how she perceived their relationship. In stanza 6, line 4, Sylvia Plath
states, “I thought every German was you”, and writes, “I think I may well be a Jew” in the last
line of stanza 7, to get him to better fathom his harsh treatment of her. She tells her father that
she felt he was always pushing her away and scaring her, for which she describes, “Chuffing me
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off like a Jew/ A Jew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen” (7.2-3). Since this poem was written a while
after World War II, it all but clarifies their relationship in a much clearer and easier manner for
his understanding. She directly speaks to her father incorporating her personal opinion of Hitler
and her father, stating, “With your Luftwaffe, your gobledygoo / And your neat mustache/ And
your Aryan eye, bright blue / Panzer-man, panzer-man, O You—“(9.2-5). Her description proves
to be very specific in the terms of getting her point across to her father, Luftwaffe referring to
the German air force that she believed he had, the neat mustache and the Aryan eye describing
the certain characteristics of Hitler that she saw similar to those of her father, and lastly calling
him a panzer-man, being much like a feared tank machine and heartless. The fresh topic of war
that she recently experienced shows him just exactly what he had done to her and put her
through in a more relatable way. By directly speaking to him and being unafraid of addressing
him about her feelings, Sylvia Plath discloses that she has gained control over her father, forcing
him to listen to her words, and showing him that he can no longer continue to overshadow her.
Throughout the poem, Sylvia Plath tells a story, about what she thought of her father
from the beginning, what she comes to believe about him, and lastly how she overcame her
father’s shadow. She first provides information about how it was to have been living with him
enveloping her life for so long. In the very beginning of this poem, she recalls, “For thirty years,
poor and white, / Barely daring to breathe or Achoo” (1.4-5). Having died around the age of
thirty, it reveals that Plath had to endure these hardships for practically all of her life, noting
that she was living in fear of his constant presence. She begins to form a definite opinion and
perspective of him though, showing that the more time that she had to live with him agonizing
her, her awareness became more real. By stating all her thoughts, she comes to the strong
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realization that she has accepted it, therefore finally appreciating herself and her courage to
reveal to the man that has haunted her for so long. In the ending stanzas of this poem, she
finally discloses to him her place in the situation now, exposing that she has been able to move
forward from him and everything she had to endure because of him, by marrying a man similar
to her own father. She personally felt that they both were so alike in the ways of torturing her,
saying they sucked the life out of her with their evil black hearts. So by ridding herself of one of
them, she too can easily conquer the uneasiness of both, “If I’ve killed one man, I’ve killed
two—“(15.1). The message that she concludes with states, “Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I’m
through”, clearly meaning that she has overcome the fear of her father and the despair living
inside of her.
Finally, Plath uses powerful metaphors and transitions from child to adult to better
explain her relationship and feelings throughout her short life. She frequently switched back
from a nursery rhyme structure to one that was more mature in explaining her life to fully show
the length of time that this daunted on her. The most obvious representation of her childhood
would be addressing her father as “Daddy”, though she wrote this poem at the age of 30. She
reminisces in stanza 12, “I was ten when they buried you / At twenty I tried to die/ And get
back, back, back to you”. She often includes words that remind the audience of her childhood
to express the fact that he had left her at such a young age, and from then on she became
haunted of thoughts of him. Plath then switches back to a more modern perspective to fully
declare the pain that still dwells upon her by using forceful metaphors and comparisons on the
visualization of her father. By writing in both perspectives, the point that she was affected her
entire life, starting from the day of his death to the little time before her passing, we realize
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that she was unable to get over the feeling of abandonment by her father until shortly before
death.
In conclusion, Sylvia Plath wrote “Daddy” in order to speak her few last words for him to
hear because her whole life she lived in despair and held these words in, too afraid to speak
out. She has lastly gained confidence in herself through the course of the poem depicting the
story of her life that was so strongly influenced by her dad, the courage she found to release all
her thoughts directly to him, and the different perspectives in which she declared his effects.