Analysis Essay (Daddy) by Sylvia Plath
Arrianna Theriot Susan Adams
AP English Lit & Comp
17 November 2014
Close Analysis: “Daddy” Sylvia Plath was a talented young woman born to a German father and Austrian-American mother. After the death of her father, she fell into a downward spiral of depression, revealing her talent as a poet. In the poem “Daddy”, Sylvia Plath uses intense diction, sporadic syntax, and a unique style of figurative language to express the resentment she feels toward her father. Throughout the poem, Plath’s German diction and sporadic syntax creates a morbid tone. Many of the words Plath uses in her poem are German, creating a relation to her father, and also an allusion to WWII. Plath uses words such as “Ach, du” (Line 15), “Ich” (Line 27), and “Luftwaffe” (Line 42) to build a bridge back to her father. Other words, such as “Aryan” (Line 44), “swastika” (Line 46), and “Fascist” (Line 48) are used to allude to World War II. In stanzas 5-9, Plath expresses her fear of her father using many German words and WWII colloquial to metaphorically compare her father to a Nazi soldier. In stanzas 5 and 6, Plath says “So I never could tell where you/ Put your foot, your root, / I never could talk to you/ The tongue stuck in my jaw. / It stuck in a barb wire snare. / Ich, ich, ich, ich, / I could hardly speak. / I thought every German was you. / And the language obscene” revealing that she was afraid to speak to her father, due to his abusive ways. In the ninth stanza, Plath divulges that her father was very superficial. Lines 41 to 45 she expresses her negative emotions toward her father, by comparing her to Hitler. This is expressed when she says, “I have always been scared of you,/ With you Luftwaffe, your gobbedygoo./ And your neat moustache/ And your Aryan eye, bright blue./ Panzer-man, panzer-man, O You—“. Later 5on in the poem, Plath talks about the man she married to compensate for the loss of father when she says, “I made a model of you, / A man in black with a Meinkampf look”
AP English Lit & Comp
17 November 2014
Close Analysis: “Daddy” Sylvia Plath was a talented young woman born to a German father and Austrian-American mother. After the death of her father, she fell into a downward spiral of depression, revealing her talent as a poet. In the poem “Daddy”, Sylvia Plath uses intense diction, sporadic syntax, and a unique style of figurative language to express the resentment she feels toward her father. Throughout the poem, Plath’s German diction and sporadic syntax creates a morbid tone. Many of the words Plath uses in her poem are German, creating a relation to her father, and also an allusion to WWII. Plath uses words such as “Ach, du” (Line 15), “Ich” (Line 27), and “Luftwaffe” (Line 42) to build a bridge back to her father. Other words, such as “Aryan” (Line 44), “swastika” (Line 46), and “Fascist” (Line 48) are used to allude to World War II. In stanzas 5-9, Plath expresses her fear of her father using many German words and WWII colloquial to metaphorically compare her father to a Nazi soldier. In stanzas 5 and 6, Plath says “So I never could tell where you/ Put your foot, your root, / I never could talk to you/ The tongue stuck in my jaw. / It stuck in a barb wire snare. / Ich, ich, ich, ich, / I could hardly speak. / I thought every German was you. / And the language obscene” revealing that she was afraid to speak to her father, due to his abusive ways. In the ninth stanza, Plath divulges that her father was very superficial. Lines 41 to 45 she expresses her negative emotions toward her father, by comparing her to Hitler. This is expressed when she says, “I have always been scared of you,/ With you Luftwaffe, your gobbedygoo./ And your neat moustache/ And your Aryan eye, bright blue./ Panzer-man, panzer-man, O You—“. Later 5on in the poem, Plath talks about the man she married to compensate for the loss of father when she says, “I made a model of you, / A man in black with a Meinkampf look”