Imagery in "Daddy" by Sylvia Plath

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In ‘Daddy’, Sylvia Plath utilises a vast quantity of emotionally powerful - and in some areas, sharply contrasting - imagery. The poem holds the theme of resentment and anguish, mixed with the desperation to understand, and share affection. It is, on many levels, identifiable to Plath’s own life, and it is this, laced intricately amongst a plethora of shocking and deeply emotive imagery regarding Nazism, persecution and evil, that gives the poem the strength and meaning that has enabled it to become a classic of literature.

Plath surrounds the character of the father with imagery of Nazism, and pride in the Nazi regime. The audience is told that the daughter feared her father, because of ‘Your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo. / And your neat mustache / and your Aryan eye, bright blue.’ The mention of the Luftwaffe, the German airforce, brings forth a sense of military pride in the father, something key to Nazi culture. The ‘neat mustache’ and ‘Aryan eye’ are representative of Nazi ideals, with the ‘mustache’ being symbolic of Hitler himself. In addition to this, the daughter later envi...

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