Introduction The Holocaust was a vile and horrific event that took place in Germany under the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, gruesomely taking the lives of around 6 million Jews. To compare one self’s experience to that of those gassed and subjected to atrocious conditions is unbecoming at the least. The vast majority agree with this notion as well, including Irving Howe. Irving Howe, writer of the article “The Plath Celebration: A Partial Dissent” describes making Plath’s comparison her life to that of a Jew in her poem “Daddy” as “monstrous” and “utterly disproportionate” (1082). While Howe makes a reasonable argument, I disagree when he states that “Sylvia Plath tries to enlarge upon the personal plight” (1082). Accusing Plath of using the …show more content…
Holocaust as a way to benefit herself. Although Plath uses this comparison, it isn’t to reap fame or fortune but as a way to channel her feelings to her father in order to move on. In other words, a way to “exorcise her demon”. The claim that Plath’s use of the Holocaust in her poem is justifiable is supported by this assumption through the use of tone, theme, and context. Tone To understand why Plath used Nazis and Jews in her poem, we first need to go over her feelings towards her father which can be inferred from Plath’s use of tone. As Gregory Orr describes tone in his book “A Primer for Poets & Readers of Poetry” tone is used to “express the whole range of human emotions” (6). Thus by looking at Sylvia’s tone throughout the poem her view of her father is revealed. In the beginning of “Daddy” we see a rather child-like tone used in her lines: You do not do, you do not do Any more, black shoe (1-2) The use of repetition in the first line mimics that of a nursery rhyme similar to “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”. In Charles Newman’s book called “The Art of Sylvia Plath: A Symposium” he includes the statement that, “Sylvia Plath’s success can largely be accounted for by Sylvia Plath’s success in associating the world of the poem with [the] structure of the nursery rhyme world” (234). By using this tone in corroboration with lines that describe her father in a god-like way, allow us to see her father the way she did when she was a child. This tone changes drastically as we move on throughout the poem, seemingly taking us through her life and how her view on her father changed. Her change of view is noticeable through the use of tone is in the lines: I never could talk to you. The tongue stuck in my jaw. (24-25) These lines and the Nazi/Jew comparison in the poem create the sense that Plath felt fearful towards her father before he died. Fearful enough to use such a dramatic comparison. Not everything is known about Otto Plath and how he treated his daughter behind closed doors, but it led to her having these extreme emotions concerning the topic. Emotions she expresses in her writing, assumedly as a way to channel them into a creative outlet. The ending tone of the poem changes from the previous fearfulness to acceptance, where she tells her father to “lie back now” essentially putting her father to rest (80). The tone is more mature compared to the innocent start of the poem. Her father no longer has an emotional hold on her that burdens her. To relate this back to the use of the Holocaust, in the beginning she aligned with her father the “Nazi” her admiration then changed to fear. Due to her fearfulness of her father who she has identified as a “Nazi”, she chose to then identify herself with the Jews who were also oppressed. Oppression is a major them that is woven throughout the poem. Theme The prevalent theme expressed in “Daddy” is male oppression, Plath conveys this theme by including lines that demonstrate her mistreatment from her father and it can also be assumed that “Daddy” refers to her husband as well. This can be inferred from the lines: The vampire who said he was you And drank my blood for a year, Seven years, if you want to know. (77-79) Plath may have escaped from her father’s oppression when he passed away, but when she married Ted Hughes, she fell victim to male oppression once more. This is supported by the amount of time being “seven years”, the same amount of time she was married to Hughes. Having the majority of her life full of feeling chained down and mistreated, she most likely had to cage up her feelings that grew into a ferocious animal. This “ferocious animal” she kept caged up could only be expressed by the emotions associated with how the Jewish people felt during the Holocaust under German oppression. The feeling of fear towards her father also grew to be associated with male gender entirely, this is shown through the lines: I thought every German was you. And the language obscene An engine, an engine Chuffing me off like a Jew. (29-32) When Plath says that she “thought every German” (29) was her father, it can be inferred that she is referring to men in general. Having her experience with her oppressive father dictate how she feels about those of the same gender as him. Then, when she writes “Chuffing me off like a Jew” (32) she could also be referring to the overwhelmingness of having this philosophy that all men are the same. If Plath did have these feelings towards what is close enough to be half of the words population, there is no doubt that she did feel like she was being suffocated. The only way she felt she could emulate these feelings was through her writings. Writing her numerous poems, including “Daddy”, let her to cope with the life she has lived. Throughout the poem not only do we witness the admiration for her father shift slowly towards acceptance, but we see her mature and overcome this overpowering fear from these oppressive figures. Context Another point to consider when weighing whether or not the use of the Holocaust is acceptable in “Daddy” or any other text for that matter, is context.
Specifically, both the context of the poem and Plath’s life. In “Daddy” Plath displays what is called an Electra complex. The Electra complex is similar to the Oedipus complex where the daughter feels an unyielding sense of affection towards her father. In the book “The Norton Introduction to Literature” by Kelly J. Mays, it goes more into detail about the Electra complex where despite Electra having a “tyrannical” father, “Electra persists in loving her deeply flawed father long after he is dead” (1100). In order to translate this complex into her writing, Plath chose to compare her flawed father to a well-known tyrannical force. By using this comparison we get a sense of what her relationship with her father was like. The Electra complex is also apparent throughout the poem, where in the beginning we see how her younger self associated her father with this god-like figure and despite the obvious fear Plath had for him through the line “I have always been scared of you,” (41) she wanted to end her life in order to “get back” to him (59). Supporting the notion that Plath did have an Electra complex with her father at least throughout her childhood. However, some could argue against the relation to the Electra complex, due to the chance that “Daddy” isn’t just her father but also her mother. With this claim, the Electra complex …show more content…
would not be valid due to the gender requirement of the Electra complex. Since no evidence was specifically pointing to any female figures, there is no reason to assume that “Daddy” would be referring to her mother. Thus the Occam’s razor, a tool that suggests that the simpler of the two explanations is the correct one, would support my claim that the Electra complex is what Plath shows in her writing. Continuing on with Plath’s life and her complex relationship with her father, there’s more about the suggested Electra complex.
In the article “Daddy, I Have Had to Kill You’: Plath, Rage, and the Modern Elegy” by Jahan Ramazani, they write that, “In the early elegies, Plath blames her father’s death on her excessive love for him, articulating an incestuous desire unlike the decorous affection customary in the genre” (1144). This incestuous desire also supports the Electra complex as the daughter will essentially be competing with her own mother for the affection of the father even if he is flawed and oppressive. Having these strong feelings toward her father that weren’t reciprocated with affection, no doubt affected how she felt mentally. We see her struggle with this complex in “Daddy”, switching between loving and despising her father. This isn’t just apparent in the poem, but in her own words, “I adored and despised him, and I probably wished many times that he were dead. When he obliged me and died, I imagined that I had killed him” (Steiner 45). She saw her father is such a powerful way that it had to be conveyed it such a powerful way to the readers. Even if that way is offensive to others, it is how she choose to tell it in order to be able to have the reader understand her
life. Conclusion Comparing an experience in your life to that of a Jew in a Holocaust, is typically not the right comparison to make. However, because of Plath’s personal life and how her relationship with her father is revealed throughout “Daddy” it can be understood why such a dramatic comparison was made. Her father was this god-like figure that she had a strong, almost incestuous affection towards where she was willing to end her own life to be with her father once more. The use of tone supports how she felt towards her father and how it changed as she got older. A change from putting her father on a pedestal to putting him to rest at the end. The theme of male oppression supports how she was mistreated by someone she felt so much admiration for, and to the point where when she became fearful of him, she became fearful to those similar to him whether that be his gender or nationality. Putting the poem into context also substantiates my claim that Plath is simply just trying to “exorcise her demon” through her writing. The Electra complex backed up by the Occam’s razor philosophy, proves how she didn’t just feel love towards her father, but she felt like she was in competition with her own mother for the affection of her father. “Daddy” by Sylvia Plath is a representation of her life and relationship with her father through her point of view. A point of view that is expressed through the Nazi/Jew relationship during the Holocaust, and while it is what seems to be an extreme comparison, her life experiences are not ours. Using the Holocaust, to her at least, was the only way she felt these experiences were justified.
The first two stanzas, lines 1-10, tell the readers that Plath, for thirty years, has been afraid of her father, so scared that she dares not to “breathe or Achoo.” She has been living in fear, although she announces that he’s already dead. It is obvious that she believes that her father continues to control her life from the grave. She says that she “has had to kill” him, but he’s already dead, indicating her initial promise to forget him. She calls him a “bag full of God,” telling us that she considers her father a very strong, omnipotent being, someone who is superior in her eyes.
In American society, the common stereotype is that the father has the role of the dominant figure in the household. Sylvia Plath and Sharon Olds may come across as two seemingly different poets, however, they are really quite similar, especially in their driving forces behind their writing styles in poetry. The lives of Plath and Olds are both expressive of the realities of a father-dominated family, in which both of these poets lost their fathers at a young age. This is significant because both poets have faced a similar traumatic event that has had everlasting effects on their adult womanhood, which is reflected in their writings. For both these woman, their accesses to father-daughter relationships were denied based on life circumstances. Ironically, their fathers were their muses for writing and are what made them the women they are today.
Plath never got over the loss of her father and her failed marriage to well known poet Ted Hughes. She wrote, "Me, I never knew the love of a father, the love of a steady blood-related man after the age of eight .... I hated men because they didn't stay around and love me like a father" (cited in Hughes & McCullough, 1982, pp. 266267). In an article, Jon Rosenblatt describes her poetry by saying “Whether the poems take place inside a house or in the countryside, the identical metaphorical relationships are established between a vulnerable speaker and a destructive environment.” By the end of “Daddy” the speaker comes off as a force to be reckoned with and her message is final
Sylvia Plath’s jarring poem ‘Daddy’, is not only the exploration of her bitter and tumultuous relationship with her father, husband and perhaps the male species in general but is also a strong expression of resentment against the oppression of women by men and the violence and tyranny men can and have been held accountable for. Within the piece, the speaker creates a figurative image of her father by using metaphors to describe her relationship with him: “Not God but a Swastika” , he is a “… brute” , even likening him to leader of the Nazi Party; Adolf Hitler: “A man in black with a Meinkampf look .” Overall, the text is a telling recount of her hatred towards her father and her husband of “Seven years” and the tolling affect it has had on
The power of Plath's Daddy to threaten, shock and move the reader remains undiminished, years after it was written. To the unsuspecting reader, the experience of first reading "Daddy" is a confusion of discomfort, excitement and guilty pleasure, for the pleasures of revenge are said to be sweet, and this is a revenge poem of the first rank. Revenge upon whom? Father? Perhaps, more likely, upon her husband. And her aim was true, for if anything Plath wrote damaged Ted Hughes for posterity, "Daddy" is it. From this poem, we gather our indelible impressions of Hughes as a brute, a wife beater, a vampire, even an implied racist and murderer (if we extend the Hitler metaphor to its fullest implications) . . . on and on.
...lems, such as depression, sadness, overbearing and domineering figures. The themes shared in each poem is also a common similarity, such as the example of numbness. The choice in the speaker of each poem is also important, and also share a similarity between the two poets. The idea that the two women wrote poems that shared stories from their own life is not far-fetched, especially in the case of Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy”. Of the three poems, I found “Daddy” to be the easiest to understand because of its full sentences and vivid description. Furthermore, since the poets wrote as if the speaker of the poem was themselves, I found that their poems were more emotional and gripping than if they were not. Because of this, I considered their poetry very similar in that the speakers are like-minded emotionally, but the writing style of the poets themselves is different.
Since she was so young she never got to work out her unsettled feelings with him. Even at age eight, she hid when he was around because she was fearful of him. When she was in his presence his strict and authoritarian figure had left an overpowering barrier between their relationship. Sadly enough by age eight Plath instead of making memories with her dad playing in the yard she resented him and wanted nothing to do with him (Kehoe). These deep-seated feelings played a major role in Plath’s poetry writings.
In Plath's "Daddy," written just before her death and published posthumously, the most readily accessible emotion is anger, and much of the poem is couched in autobiographical allusions. Plath's own father died of a gangrenous infection, caused by diabetes he refused to treat, when Plath was eight years old, and his death was "the crucial event of her childhood" (Baym 2743). Plath makes personal references to her father as a...
Is this a good idea? and fair and good. Deliberately Shocking. What specific effect/response/reaction might she be trying to get from the reader, and why? When trying to describe her pain regarding her father, the narrator of Plath’s “Daddy” connects her situation to that of the Jewish people who were forced to endure the Holocaust.
“Daddy” contains allusions to World War 2 with images of a swastika in the sky (line 46-47) and references to German concentration camps, “A Jew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen” (line 33). She states her father clearly to be a German man with “I thought every German was you” (line 29), “with your Luftwaffe” (line 42), “And your Aryan eye, bright blue” (line 44). Plath alludes to the popular anti-Semitism of her era in Germany depicted in lines 31-40. She then describes herself as a “Jew” to degrade herself against her German father. The diction of her lines “Chuffing me off like a Jew” (line 32) and “I think I may well be a Jew” (line 35) dehumanizes Jews in which she uses to also describe herself. To describe even more hatred towards her father, the multiple usages of the word “black” (lines 2, 51, 55, 65, 76) depicts her father as a dark menacing shadow in her life that has a evil dark “black” heart. She compares him to the man she married when Plath states, “I made a model of you” (line 64). She then describes that husband as a vampire that drank her blood (lines 72-74), because he reminded Plath of her father in the statement “They always knew it was you” (line 79). In Plath’s mind she only married her husband to be reminded of her father but soon realized it was a toxic relationship in line 80 in which she says “Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I’m through”.
In the poem, “Daddy,” Sylvia Plath shows her character to have a love for her father as well as an obvious sense of resentment and anger towards him. She sets the tone through the structure of the poem along with her use of certain diction, imagery, and metaphors/similes. The author, Sylvia Plath, chooses words that demonstrate the characters hatred and bitterness towards the oppression she is living with under the control of her father and later, her husband. Plath’s word choice includes many words that a child might use. There is also an integration of German words which help set the tone as well. She creates imagery through her use of metaphors and similes which allow the reader to connect certain ideas and convey the dark, depressing tone of the poem.
After reading the poem “Mad Girl’s Love Song” and doing some research on Plath, I came to find out that the poem was very similar to Plath’s personal life. The poem is basically about a young girl who fell in love and gave her all to a boy who never came back to love her. The young girl fell in a depression and made herself believe that she was making it all up. She still had hope that she and the boy could be happy someday, but it never happened and it drove her insane. Perhaps the boy could have been Plath’s husband, Hughes. Everything about the poem is so similar to her marriage with Hughes; the story makes the reader believe the poem could possibly be about Plath herself.
Throughout the poem "Daddy" by Sylvia Plath, the author struggles to escape the memory of her father who died when she was only ten years old. She also expresses anger at her husband, Ted Hughes, who abandoned her for another woman. The confessional poem begins with a series of metaphors about Plath's father which progress from godlike to demonic. Near the end, a new metaphor emerges, when the author realizes that her estranged husband is actually the vampire of her dead father, sent to torture her. This hyperbole is central to the meaning of the poem. Lines 75-76 express a hope that they will stop oppressing her: "Daddy, you can lie back now / There ís a stake in your fat black heart." She concludes that her father can return to the grave, because she has finally rid herself of the strain he had caused her, by killing his vampire form. Despite this seeming closure, however, we will see that the author does not overcome her trauma.
Sylvia Plath has brought the attention of many Women’s studies supporters while being recognized as a great American poet. Most of her attention has come as a result of her tragic suicide at age thirty, but many of her poems reflect actual events throughout her life, transformed into psychoanalytical readings. One of Plath’s most renowned poems is “Daddy”. In this poem there are ideas about a woman’s relationship with men, a possible insight on aspects of Plath’s life, and possible influences from the theories of Sigmund Freud.
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. ...