Daddy Analysis
Adrienne Moore
English 101
Prof. Hull
9/6/2014
Daddy by Sylvia Plath Response and Analysis
I think that Plath has hateful feelings towards men in her life. She views her father as large and emotionless. Comparatively she sees him as a Nazi and she is a Jew, “An engine, an engine chuffing me off like a Jew. A Jew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen.” [line 29-31] By comparing herself to a Jew and her father the driver of the train that is taking her to a concentration camp, I think means she feels like a victim of his. Plath later writes, “Every woman adores a fascist, the boot in the face, the brute Brute heart of a brute like you.” [ line 48-50] while this line is meant to be sarcastic because no one really loves a fascist, it connects to how Plath feels after her father dies which is that instead of being sad she will just marry a man just like her father. Marrying a monster to her is a better alternative than killing herself just to feel reunited with the spirt of her tyrannical father. Towards the end of the poem Plath shifts from calling the men in her life Nazis to vampires. Both could be seen as monsters, Nazis being the real living monsters, and Vampires being the undead. I think the monster theme is the creepiest part of this poem because to me symbolizes how her father is not really dead, the memories of him are instead forever sucking the life out of her. The seven years of living with a vampire that Plath mentions could be the time period of her marriage. I think this part reveals to the reader that the men she earlier brings up being able to kill, but not having a chance to are her husband and father. She describes them as being figuratively killed by angry villagers who knew their true identities as vampires.
English 101
Prof. Hull
9/6/2014
Daddy by Sylvia Plath Response and Analysis
I think that Plath has hateful feelings towards men in her life. She views her father as large and emotionless. Comparatively she sees him as a Nazi and she is a Jew, “An engine, an engine chuffing me off like a Jew. A Jew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen.” [line 29-31] By comparing herself to a Jew and her father the driver of the train that is taking her to a concentration camp, I think means she feels like a victim of his. Plath later writes, “Every woman adores a fascist, the boot in the face, the brute Brute heart of a brute like you.” [ line 48-50] while this line is meant to be sarcastic because no one really loves a fascist, it connects to how Plath feels after her father dies which is that instead of being sad she will just marry a man just like her father. Marrying a monster to her is a better alternative than killing herself just to feel reunited with the spirt of her tyrannical father. Towards the end of the poem Plath shifts from calling the men in her life Nazis to vampires. Both could be seen as monsters, Nazis being the real living monsters, and Vampires being the undead. I think the monster theme is the creepiest part of this poem because to me symbolizes how her father is not really dead, the memories of him are instead forever sucking the life out of her. The seven years of living with a vampire that Plath mentions could be the time period of her marriage. I think this part reveals to the reader that the men she earlier brings up being able to kill, but not having a chance to are her husband and father. She describes them as being figuratively killed by angry villagers who knew their true identities as vampires.