Gaining Freedom From Male Oppression In Sylvia Plath's "Daddy"

992 words - 4 pages

Plath's poem "Daddy" describes feelings of oppression from childhood and conjures up the struggle many women face in a male-dominated society. The conflict of this poem is male authority versus the right of a female to control her own life and to be free of male domination.

This poem starts out describing her struggle as one that has been unresolved because she was just a child when her father died. "Daddy, I have had to kill you. / You died before I had time / Marble-heavy, a bag full of God," (lines 6-8). She gives us the sense that she had built up her father so much in her mind after he died that the weight of these thoughts and imaginations became too heavy to carry around anymore and she finally realized that in order for her to move on in life she would have to "kill her father's" memory.

This then is seemingly the turning point in her life were she no longer feels oppressed by her father and is free of his burden on her. "So daddy, I'm finally through. / The black telephone's off at the root," (lines 68-69). She is no longer listening to the inner demons tormenting her, she wants to begin anew. However Plath's inner conflicts which began with her father ended up continuing on into her future relationships.

It then becomes her life goal to meet a man "The man" to replace the loss of her father. "I made a model of you," (line 64). A short time later Plath marries this man as a solution to her unresolved issues with her father. He is a resemblance of her memories of her father. "And a love of the rack and the screw. / And I said I do, I do." (lines 66-67). As if her memories weren't destructive enough to her emotionally she sets out on another journey of dissolution.

Plath then provides us with the view of hardship of a woman of the times not being able to speak her mind and always having to hold back. "The tongue stuck in my jaw. / It stuck in a barb wire snare." (lines 25-26). She came face to face with the role of a woman in the 1950's which was to give up one's self and become be the perfect wife and doting mother. She would have to embrace convention as this was the societal norm and give up a piece of herself. So once again she is victimized and regresses to comparing the damage her father initially caused to that of her husband. "If I've killed one man, I've killed two / The vampire who said he was you / And drank my blood for a year," (lines 71-73).

At the end of this poem Plath's feelings of hopelessness consume her and she decides to try and take her own life. "At twenty I tried to die / And get back, back, back to you." (lines 58-59). ...

An Analysis of Sylvia Plath's Poem, Daddy

803 words - 3 pages An Analysis of Sylvia Plath's Poem, Daddy Sylvia Plath's famous poem "Daddy" seems to refer quite consistently to her deceased father (and obliquely to her then estranged husband Ted Hughes) by use of many references that can clearly be associated with the background of Otto Plath, emphasizing his German heritage. These include the "Polish town" where Otto was born, the atrocities of the German Nazis in the Second World War ("Dachau

Analysis of Sylvia Plath's poem "daddy"

737 words - 3 pages have always been scared of you" (line 41). The significance of the word "you" being in italics lies in the fact that the meaning of the word has shifted, from her father to her husband, Ted Hughes, the man she tried to replace her daddy with, the previously mentioned "model." Unfortunately, this attempt to deal with her father's death backfired when it turned out that Hughes was, in Plath's eyes, an authoritative figure that Plath repeatedly

How Sylvia Plath's Life is Reflected in the Poems Daddy, Morning Song, and Lady Lazarus

3389 words - 14 pages How Sylvia Plath's Life is Reflected in the Poems Daddy, Morning Song, and Lady Lazarus Sylvia Plath has had an "exciting" life, if I can use this word. Her father died from an undiagnosed diabetes when she was eight. At the same time, a short couplet that she wrote was published in the Boston Sunday Herald. Later, she won scholarships to study in Smith, Harvard, and finally Cambridge. There, Plath married Ted Hughes, who

A comparison between Sylvia Plath's "Daddy" "Ariel" and "Lady Lazerus"

1406 words - 6 pages Plath's poetry has many distinguishing features that portray the issue of power within the area of gender relations. She has a satirical approach that can be readily seen in poems such as Daddy and Lady Lazarus which are also two poems that are quite confrontational and emotional, they deal with the liberation of one-self through transformation throughout the poems. Ariel focuses more on self-empowerment and freedom, regardless of the

Liberation: Freedom from Oppression

770 words - 4 pages Liberation is defined as more than just a physical movement towards freedom or as a concrete escape from a difficult situation. Liberation is equality, a release from real and figurative imprisonment, and a strong mental and spiritual change in mindset (Merriam-Webster 1). Characters like Pecola Breedlove in The Bluest Eye and Dinah in The Red Tent experience tremendous liberation from their devastating situations when they manage to find true

The Struggle in Sylvia Plath's Lady Lazarus

704 words - 3 pages Barbara Hardy notes, The personal presence in the poetry, though dynamic and shifting, makes itself felt in a full and large sense, in feeling, thinking, and language. (from Enlargement or Derangement? Ariel Ascending: Writings About Sylvia Plath, Paul Alexander, ed. (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1985)) Like Lady Lazarus who co-ordinates her own performance, Plath is also in control, fully aware of the different perceptions her poetry

Metaphors Analysis in Sylvia Plath's Poem

958 words - 4 pages Metaphors Analysis in Sylvia Plath's Poem In Sylvia Plath’s poem, Metaphors, she uses striking imagery to explore her ambivalent attitudes about pregnancy. For example, she uses a negative metaphor saying she is an elephant, meaning she thinks that she has become very fat since she got pregnant. On the other hand, she uses a positive metaphor saying the baby is precious, meaning although pregnancy has its down sides it

Identity in Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar

1673 words - 7 pages while institutionaized Esther cannot escape from the intense pressure of her visitors: "I kept feeling the visitors measuring my fat and stringy hair against what I had been and what they wanted me to be". Detached and isolated from her inner self, Esther focuses her hopes and dreams on the anticipations of others. Esther exists in a perceptive and cerebral world which consequently segregates her from many social aspects in her life

Depression in Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar

1281 words - 5 pages relationship according to Freud has impacted Esther. Esther’s psychological transformation from a perfectly healthy person ends up suffering from depression. Her influences around her have negatively shown Esther a negative path to take. The events during the 1950s such as the Rosenbergs executions have only made the transformation even powerful. Sylvia Plath’s life could be compared to the Bell Jar because she was in the same situation as Esther. Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis and psycho dynamic has addressed depression through the main character Esther. Works Cited (simplypsychology.org) (info.emergencehealthnetwork.org)

Women's Fight Against Social Convention in Sylvia Plath's Poem, Ariel

620 words - 2 pages Women's Fight Against Social Convention in Sylvia Plath's Poem, Ariel "Ariel" is the title poem from Sylvia Plath's controversial collection of poetry written during the last few months of her life in 1963. The traditional gender roles of 1960s America promoted a double-standard and wrongly imposed upon women the idea of a "Happy Housewife Heroine" who cherished "the receptivity and passivity implicit in (her) nature" and was "devoted to

Death, Personal Experience and the Supernatural in Sylvia Plath's Poetry

1997 words - 8 pages of Plath. In her poetry she often makes allusions to mythological or fantastical figures from history. The very title of the poem itself can be seen as a reference to the massive statue of the Greek god, Helios, that was erected in Ancient Greece. Furthering this idea is her incorporation of the concept of the oracle and the Oresteia, a trilogy of Greek tragedies ("Oresteia."). The poem “Daddy” is all about how Plath struggled to deal with the

Freedom From Male Oppression In Sylvia Plath's Daddy

1128 words - 5 pages Freedom from Male Oppression in Sylvia Plath's Daddy Word Count includes Poem Sylvia Plath?s poem "Daddy" describes her feelings of oppression from her childhood and conjures the struggle many women face in a male-dominated society. The conflict of this poem is male authority versus the right of a female to control her own life and be free of male domination. Plath?s conflicts begin with her father and continue into the relationship

Sylvia Plath's Poem Daddy Essay

2347 words - 9 pages Sylvia Plath's Poem Daddy Plath expressed a feminist point of view in her poems, She was not a very radical feminist, but she did show her rage against men in her works. In "Daddy", Plath expresses her feelings about her family, and the prominent male figures in her life: Sylvia Plath's father Otto Emil Plath, and her husband Ted Hughes. The title itself sounds feminine. This poem is divided into two parts. The first

Confessions And Conflict In Sylvia Plath's Daddy

653 words - 3 pages As is true of many Sylvia Plath’s poems, “Daddy” is deeply ingrained in her life experiences. It emphasizes her complex, multidimensional relationship with Otto Plath and the traumatic effect of his death. The speaker despises her late father for his abandonment, yet attempts to achieve independence from this figure who causes much pain and suffering. Through this poem’s structure, themes, and imagery, we can see the development of this constant

Revenge And Hatred In Sylvia Plath's Daddy

607 words - 2 pages Revenge and Hatred in Plath's Daddy 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