Close reading and explication of poetry with interpretive analysis

Daddy Dearest

Sylvia Plath's "Daddy," written on October 12, 1962 and posthumously published in 1965's Ariel, is one of the author's most well-known poems, though it may be considered one of her most controversial. Plath's vivid description and use of the Holocaust imagery to draw parallels to her relationship with her father, Otto Plath, a German immigrant who passed away shortly after Plath's eighth birthday, and her husband Ted Hughes. In "Daddy," Plath expresses her frustration at her father and how he has inadvertently defined her future relationships with men.

It has been speculated that "Daddy" deals with Plath's deep attachment to her father's memory and how it had affected her life. Plath, herself, described that the poem was about "a girl with an Elektra complex." "Daddy, I have had to kill you./You died before I had time -- " may be an indication that Plath is trying to move past her attachment to her father as the main male figure in her life. Plath voices her frustrations at her father's premature death and continues to express her deep love for her father through her suicide attempt with the hoping to join him in death. Plath writes, "I was ten when they buried you./At twenty I tried to die/And get back, back, back to you."

In "Daddy," Plath sympathizes with the Jews as she feels betrayed by Germans, in this case her father. Plath exploits the "oppressor-oppressed" dynamic by describing how her German father has hurt her, though she might not fully comprehend the man he was. "I have always been scared of you,/With your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo./And your neat moustache/And your Aryan eye, bright blue." In this stanza, Plath indicates that she fears the unknown, or what she cannot understand about her father. "With your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo" may be in reference to Otto Plath's extensive entomology studies of bees, which would be Otto's personal Luftwaffe, or German Air Force. Referring to the few memories of her father, Plath describes a photograph, "You stand at the blackboard, daddy,/In the picture I have of you, / A cleft in your chin instead of your foot." The last line, "A cleft in your chin instead of your foot," indicates that though he may not appear evil, he has still hurt her and that he is not "[any] less that black man who bit [her] pretty heart in two."

Plath claims that she could not live without a "father" figure in her life, instead "knowing what [she] had to do" after being saved from her suicide attempt that would reunite them in the afterlife. Plath states that "they pulled me out of the sack,/And they stuck me together with glue" after her unsuccessful suicide attempt. Her description indicates that after suicide attempt, she was not a "whole" person anymore, perhaps she never was, and how the unidentified "they" tried to piece her together.

Plath looks to create a connection with her father, succeeding by "mak[ing] a model of [him]/A man in black with a Meinkampf look" willing to indulge and be willing to torment her with "rack and screw" as much as her father had. The "model" of her father Plath refers to in this stanza is that of her husband Ted Hughes, from whom she had become estranged. She reassures her "daddy" that she no longer needs him, or her husband, and is breaking free from both of them. She refers to both men as "vampires" who have fed off of her and her decision to rid herself of these men has caused her confess, "If I've killed one man, I've killed two -- ."

Plath credits her husband in helping empowering her to move past and overcome her deep attachment to her father. Plath did not realize how controlling her relationships with these men were and the only she could break out of the abusive relationship with both men. Plath has killed her "daddy," and tells him, "There's a stake in your fat black heart."

She is not the only person that benefits from his death, with Plath telling him that "the villagers never liked you./They are dancing and stamping on you./They always knew it was you." In this defiant stanza, Plath is reiterates the fact that her father's death traumatized her and defined her future relationships. The people in her life, realizing the impact both these men had in her life, can be expected to see a change in her demeanor as she tries to figure out what she wants. The final line, "Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I'm through" is her final stance against her husband, a proclamation that she will no longer stand for his behavior and that she feels it is time to end their relationship.