Death is inevitable and a lifelong process in every individual’s life. Most importantly, we are unaware of when or how it will happen and, because death can come at a time when we least expect it, it allows some individuals to fear death. In both poems, Lady Lazarus and Daddy, by Sylvia Plath, show different ways to view death. In Lady Lazarus, Plath talks about the characters attempts to commit suicide. Throughout the poem, we discover that the first time she tried to commit suicide was an accident while her second and third time were intentional. While Daddy reveals the process of how a girl came to terms with her father’s death. Although some may assert that the poems show rebirth, both poems reveal death as a way to escape from reality. …show more content…
As the narrator describes how people line up to see the character due to the fact that she comes back after every suicide attempt the narrator explains why her character does it. Plath reveals that the character does it “so it feels like hell. /I do it so it feels real” (46-47). The narrator is using a hyperbole to explain why her character commits suicide, we can understand that she does it in order to flee from everyone who sees her as a showcase. Moreover, it is a hyperbole because no one would want to feel the pain of hell which makes it exaggerated. Therefore, Plath also uses a hyperbole to explain that her character views suicide as “[a] miracle! /[t]hat knocks [her] out” (55-56). The character views death as a miracle which is a hyperbole because no one views death as a miracle but a tragedy. Moreover, the character views death as a miracle because it takes her out from reality and all her problems which to her it’s a miracle because she doesn’t have to deal with it. Therefore, death allows the character to escape from her problems by being in a place where she doesn’t have to …show more content…
Throughout the poem, the character compares her father to different people and labels him. However, the character specifically compares her father to a German and states that she “thought every German was [him]” (29). This line is a metaphor and also shows how by being able to create her father into different people it allowed her the ability to escape from what she was feeling and going through. It is a metaphor because in her mind she is creating her father a German but in reality, he is not actually a German. Most importantly, we also find out that she tried to commit suicide as a way to escape from her pain. She states that “[a]t twenty [she] tried to die/ [a]nd get back, back, back to [him]” (58-59). This shows the characters urge to escape from her feelings and, therefore, tried to commit suicide but didn’t succeed. Plath has portrayed death as an exit and a way to solve one 's problems by escaping rather than confronting them. Overall, both poems divulge death as a way to escape their problems. Although some would argue they achieved rebirth the character’s actions reveal otherwise. Therefore, both poems also show ways to how to break free from reality. One poem shows us how to break free by the act of committing suicide while the other shows us how to flee from our feelings by creating different people, therefore, death is a way to escape from
In the middle of the poem, she begins to refer to herself as a Jew, and her father the German, who began “chuffing me off like a Jew…to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belson.” What Plath’s intent here is to allow us to understand that her father was a German, and she relates his behavior as a person to a Nazi. But later, she becomes more enraged, and strips the title of God from her father, and labels him a swastika and a brute. “Every woman adores a Fascist” is Plath’s way of ...
In literature, themes shape and characterize an author’s writing making each work unique as different points of view are expressed within a writing’s words and sentences. This is the case, for example, of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “Annabel Lee” and Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I could not stop for Death.” Both poems focus on the same theme of death, but while Poe’s poem reflects that death is an atrocious event because of the suffering and struggle that it provokes, Dickinson’s poem reflects that death is humane and that it should not be feared as it is inevitable. The two poems have both similarities and differences, and the themes and characteristics of each poem can be explained by the author’s influences and lives.
Death has been a common topic for literature throughout history. There have been several plagues that have killed a massive amount of people. As organisms in general, we have come to accept the fact that we will all die in some way. Some people look at this subject positively, negatively, or neutrally. Most of the population in the world believe that there is some sort of afterlife in one way or another. Many arguments have been made to decide what is most likely, and people discussing their take on the matter. Emily Dickinson describes death as being very, very slow. Death is in no rush and is somewhat caring to a certain degree. John Donne chooses to make fun of death, and challenge the commonly accepted ideas. These poems attack this subject from completely different perspectives, but they’re are similar core ideas involved. Both poems suggest that death is a rather tame power or person.
Overbearing fathers who dominant their children’s lives dispose of comfort and security and instead cause irreversible damage. Sylvia Plath writes about her own experiences dealing with her authoritarian father in “Daddy.” In this poem, Plath utilizes literary devices like allusion, child-like diction, and dualistic organization to communicate her bitterness in this theme of resentment and scorn.
In the free verse poem "When death comes" by Mary Oliver, the speaker contemplates what the inevitability of what death means to humans. Structurally, the poem bears no rhyme scheme as it depicts the free thought of the speaker. The voice of the speaker in this poem resonates with curiosity and the idea of life after death. Through the utilization of rhetorical devices such as repetition, alliteration, symbolism, and personification, the reader will come to understand that underlying tone that death is imminent regardless of how one 's life is spent. Within the poem, the source of tension resides in the constant internal struggle to oust the cycle of life and death. In some instances, Oliver’s curiosity and acceptance of death allows her to
Otto Plath’s death was a traumatic event for young Sylvia and lead to some of her later emotional troubles, consequently affecting her for the rest of her life. In the beginning of Plath’s poem, “The Colossus,” the speaker struggles in repairing the listener who has taken on ...
The two poems, “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”, by Dylan Thomas and, “Because I Could Not Wait for Death”, by Emily Dickinson, we find two distinct treatments on the same theme, death. Although they both represent death, they also represent it as something other than death. Death brings about a variety of different feelings, because no two people feel the same way or believe the same thing. The fact that our faith is unknown makes the notion of death a common topic, as writers can make sense of their own feelings and emotions and in the process hope to make readers make sense of theirs too. Both Dickinson and Thomas are two well known and revered poets for their eloquent capture of these emotions. The poems both explore death and the
Poems reveal many inside thoughts of the speaker that can be interpreted by the reader. Death is expressed quite often in poetic work because of the simplicity to be able to express feelings. Suicide, for an example, is a form of death that may be used in poetry and is usually portrayed in a negative fashion. Surprisingly, some poems that involve death have a positive outcome. There are views found in poetry relating to suicide as a form of death that are both positive and negative. Suicide as a negative perspective is a common form of death displayed in poetry. A very good example of death brought upon by suicide is “Richard Cory” by Edwin Arlington Robinson. In the passage, “And he was rich-yes, richer than a king,” Robinson describes the wealth and riches in which he lived. Richard seemed to be a person without problems. Later at the end of the poem in line fifteen the speaker says, “And Richard Cory, one calm summer night, went home and put a bullet through his head.” In one’s opinion, it may appear that money, wealth, and power is not everything. Perhaps Richard Cory was miserable because of the way people gazed at him which describes his suicide. Theoretically, the reader has to try to interpret the poem because of the lack of evidence explaining the reason of Cory’s suicide. This poem is an example of death in a negative perspective. Another poem that explains suicide as a form of death, but in a somewhat positive fashion, is “Résumé” by Dorothy Parker.
Many people find it hard to imagine their death as there are so many questions to be answered-how will it happen, when, where and what comes next. The fact that our last days on Earth is unknown makes the topic of death a popular one for most poets who looks to seek out their own emotions. By them doing that it helps the reader make sense of their own emotions as well. In the two poems “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickenson and “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas, the poets are both capturing their emotion about death and the way that they accepted it. In Dickenson’s poem her feelings towards death are more passionate whereas in Dylan’s poem the feelings
Death is a prevalent theme in the poetry of both Sylvia Plath and Emily Dickinson. They both examine death from varied angles. There are many similarities as well as differences in the representation of this theme in their poetry. Plath views death as a sinister and intimidating end, while Dickinson depicts death with the endearment of romantic attraction. In the poetry of Plath death is depicted traditionally, while Dickinson attributes some mysticism to the end of life.
Sylvia Plath was the daughter of Aurelia Schober and Otto Plath. Her mother was a teacher at Boston University and her father was a Bee Entomologist. She had one brother named Warren. Sylvia Plath began writing at a very young at the age of eight. She submitted her first poem into the children’s section of the Boston Herald in 1941. The poem was named “Point Shirley” this story was about the description of her grandparents’ house when she moved to Point Shirley, Massachusetts. A week after she turned eight, her father died on November 5, 1940 due to untreated diabetes after his foot was amputated. She then turned to her writing and sealed herself off from society. She became depressed and tired to commit suicide. She later wrote the poem “Daddy” in 1962, to describe what she thought of her dad.
From the title, which alludes to the biblical character, Lazarus, we know this will be a poem about resurrection and rebirth, specifically that of Plath’s persona, Lady Lazarus, a young woman (And I a smiling woman/I am only thirty) with a propensity for suicide (“I guess you could say I’ve a call.”)
The depth and ubiquity of Plath's hostility to her mother suggest that it could surface elsewhere than in poems overtly concerned with it, such as the ones mentioned above. If indeed it is present in "Daddy," as I suggest, the intrusive Austrian references serve not only to make more comprehensive the poet's wrath but also remind us that although Plath's grief at the death of her father provides the emotional force of much of her work, her constant, suppressed rage at her all-too-alive mother plays a major role in it as well.
A brief introduction to psychoanalysis is necessary before we can begin to interpret Plaths poems. Art is the expression of unconscious infantile desires and the strongest of these desires is the wish to “do away with his father and…to take his mother to wife” (Freud, “Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis 411).This is what Freud called the Oedipal conflict. For women the desire is of course reversed to killing the mother and marrying the father and is called the Electra complex. Children resolve this conflict by identifying with their same sex parent. Loss of a parent can prevent the normal resolution of the Oedipal conflict and result in a fixation or obsession with the lost object (object is the term used to define the internal representations of others). The desire to have the lost object back is also the desire for what Freud called primary narcissism. ...
Plath uses the image of a vampire to represent her husband and her father. Words and phrases such as "a stake in your fat black heart," "drank my blood for a year," and "the vampire that said he was you" show that Plath thought of these two men as monsters. Plath also says, "If I've killed one man, I've killed two---" which is ironic because she has chosen as a husband someone similiar to the father she hates. These last ten lines bring an end to a poem filled with anguish. "Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I'm through" reveals that Plath's apostrophe (talking to her dead father) is meant to finally let rest the feelings that have tortured her for years.