An analysis of Sylvia Plath’s poem, Daddy.
This paper examines the poem Daddy by Sylvia Plath and discusses how the poem is not completely autobiographical, but it contains several obvious references to her own life. The paper shows how Plath often intermixes the factually true with the emotionally true; the paper also highlights how Plath depicts her struggle and all women’s struggle against male power and authority. The paper posits that Plath fused dynamic and exciting language with powerful images in her poem, “Daddy”.
“Plath often intermixes the factually true with the emotionally true in her poem, Daddy. There are pieces of her own life there, but the poem is way bigger than that and goes beyond the face value interpretation and works on a biographical/personal level for Plath and an allegorical level, as well. Modern poetry is an act of the mind which expresses itself as if two people with one emotion or two emotions becoming one. It must be the finding of a satisfaction and in Daddy, Plath has artfully expressed satisfaction by writing the most horrible thoughts about her hatred for her father who died when she was ten. His leg had to be amputated and her memory of her dead father with one gray toe “Ghastly statue with one gray toe” is an insatiable desire to face the pain of her anger.”