Daddy Case

In the poem "Daddy", Sylvia Plath uses many literary strategies to show her struggles for freedom in relationship, closely with her father and husband. She uses heavy metaphors and dark hints to describe her hatred towards her relationship between both men.

It is important to know Plath's historical background to understand any of her work.

Sylvia had a very negative relationship with men in her life especially her father and husband. Sylvia's father, Otto Plath passed away when she was eight, in which it took a huge toll in Sylvia's life. Sylvia had always longed for a good relationship with her father, but Otto's true connection between his children was only through academic achievement. This prompts Sylvia to work hard and excel in school, but death came visiting her father too early before they reach the ultimate father and daughter relationship Sylvia had hoped for. She felt disappointed. Her real-life husband Ted Hughes also affected her emotionally as he left her for another woman after a long struggle in their marriage. This only contributes to her rage, and retaliation which would come up in her later work. Even though we usually are very strict when it comes to separating the speaker of the poem and the author of the poem, in many ways, her real-life identity speaks for her in the poem. It wouldn't be fair to take her word in the poem decided as a display of her relationship (like comparing her father to a German Nazi, and a vampire) but we can reasonably explain the hidden message in the metaphor she uses to describe her constant battle with struggle in her life.

The figurative language in the poem "Daddy" by Sylvia Plath can be used to discover a deeper significant of the poem. Plath reveals hidden messages about her relationship with her father. Plath uses symbols of Nazis, vampires, size, and communication to help reveal a message about her dad.

In Plath's poem she frequently uses figurative language about Nazis and the Holocaust. Plath paints herself as a victim by saying she is like a Jew, and her father is like a Nazi. Plath uses a train engine as a metaphor for her father speaking the German Language, and also to portray herself as a victimized Jew being taken away to a concentration camp. Plath states "And the language obscene / An engine, and engine / Chuffing me off like a Jew" (Plath 30-32). This shows the indirect metaphor of the train engine being her father speaking the German language and how she feels she is a prisoner. Plath uses other metaphor that connect her father discreetly to the Nazis when she uses German words such as "Luftwaffe" (42) which is the German air force, and "Panzer-man" (45) who were the men who manned the German tanks. Another example of Plath using figurative language to depict her father as a Nazi can be found when she uses an allusion to Hitler's mustache and the blue eyes of Aryans. "And your neat moustache / And your Aryan eyes, bright blue" (Plath 43-44). The use of this allusion gives the father the image of Hitler himself and helps build the metaphor of her father as a Nazi. Towards the end of the poem Plath begins to be more blunt in depicting her dad as a Nazi. She uses the metaphor of her father not being like God, but rather like a Swastika which is the symbol of Nazism. "Not God, but a swastika / So black sky could squeak through" (Plath lines 46-47). Plath uses a hyperbole to drive the point of her father no being the epitome of a Nazi by saying the swastika is so black it blocks out the sky. This extreme exaggeration helps drive across Plath's point of her father being a complete Nazi. Near the end of the poem another allusion to Hitler is used. "I made a model of you, / a man in black with a Meinkampf look" (Plath 64-65). Here the father is described as a model, and an illusion to Hitler is made when she states he has a "Meinkampf look" with Mein Kampf being a book written by Hitler. Plath's use of figurative language helps give a clear image of her relationship with her father and shows how she depicts him to be like a Nazi.

Plath uses the symbol of a vampire to describe her father's personality. At the end of the poem Plath shifts the depiction of her father from a living Nazi to a dead vampire. "The vampire who said he was you / And Drank my blood for years" (Plath 73-74). Here Plath bluntly calls her father a vampire who has sucked her blood for years. The metaphor of a blood sucking vampire is used to help paint a vivid image of the pain in Plath's relationship. Plath again describes her father as a vampire who has died with a stake through his heart. "There's a stake in your fat black heart / and the villagers never liked you. / They are dancing and stamping on you" (Plath 76-79). Along with showing the father dying a vampire's death, the metaphoric villagers dancing are used to represent the emotions felt by Plath, as she knew