The life of Sylvia Plath      

Imagine living in a world where you have been restricted and unable to do anything by your father for thirty years and throughout the years you have built up hate towards him to the point where you want to kill him. In the poem “Daddy” by Sylvia Plath, she had been restricted for thirty years unable to do anything she’s wanted. This poem is dark and confusing as you read throughout it. Plath uses many metaphors and specific word choices to describe the pain and hate that her father had done to her throughout years before he passed away.

In the first stanza, she talks about how she was always held back by her father and couldn’t do anything. She states in lines (1-3) ” you do not do anymore, black shoe in which I have lived like a foot” in these lines she was referring to her father as the black shoe and Plath was the foot that couldn’t do anything to him. Her comparison of her father to a shoe recalls the old nursery rhyme about an old woman who lives in a shoe, also who felt suffocated.  Plath also states in lines (4-5)” For thirty years, poor and white barely daring to breathe or achoo” in these lines she explains that for thirty years which is most of her life she has been treated very poorly by her father to the point where she could barely breathe or sneeze which just shows that she had no freedom whatsoever. This recalls the line where she compares herself to a foot and her father as a shoe because her father controlled and limited her to the point where she could barely breathe. As that happens the hatred dwells up in Plath.

In the second stanza, she starts talking about how she wants to kill her father but he passes before she had the chance. She states in lines (6-7)” Daddy, I have had to kill you. You died before I had time”. In these lines, she is explaining how she wanted to kill her father but he died before she had a chance. For a kid to grow up with hatred towards their father like Sylvia had for her dad means that her dad was really cruel to her and showed no love for her. This shows the effect of their toxic relationship. She then states in lines (8-10)” Marble-Heavy, a bag full of God, Ghastly statue with one grey toe Big as a Frisco seal” in these lines she calls her father “ A bag full of God” which shows that her view of her father and her view of God was the same and that she feared her father as if he was god. She then describes her father as a Ghastly statue with one grey toe in this line she is saying that her father is a statue with no emotions and the color grey is a very boring and emotionless color and it also represents a loss for someone. She referred to her father as emotionless by using the color grey. She then describes the Grey toe as Big as a Frisco seal telling us that even after his death she still sees him as a big and enormous Statue. As we see she is still expressing her feelings and views towards her father.

As we read furthermore into the poem Plath then changes from expressing her feelings to wondering about her father. In the Fourth Stanza in lines (16-18) it states” In the German tongue, in the Polish town, Scraped flat by the roller of wars, wars, wars”. In these two lines it is explaining the town and how the main language is german emphasizing that her father was a German and that in this polish town which is in Poland was “scraped flat by the roller of wars” in this line she is saying that the polish town in Poland was destroyed because of continuous and nonstop war as she was referring to the two world wars. She also explains that she learned something about her father from a Polack friend. As we go on Plath explains from lines ( 21-25) it states ” Says there are a dozen or two. So I never could tell where you Put your foot, your root, I never could talk to you. The tongue stuck in my jaw” meaning she couldn’t find where her father roots were from and she wasn’t able to tell her dad because “the tongue stuck in my jaw” meaning she wasn’t able to speak to her father because she was afraid of him. As we go to the next stanza she continues to explain how she felt when she wanted to speak to her father. In lines (26-28) it states”  It stuck in a barb wire snare. Ich, ich, ich, ich, I could hardly speak”. In these lines she continues about how it was hard speaking to her father by saying that the words from her mouth “stuck in a barb wire snare ich, ich, ich, ich,” emphasizing that Ich in German means I which means she stuttered and couldn’t say what she wanted to say because of her fear towards him. In the last lines(29-30) of this stanza, she says” I thought every German was you and the language obscene”. In these lines, she is saying she now sees her father as a German man who is harsh and cruel and he is nothing related to her.

Sylvia Plath starts the next Stanza by comparing herself to Jew that is being moved by a chuffing engine. Its states in lines (30-35)” An engine, an engine Chuffing me off like a Jew. A Jew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen. I began to talk like a Jew. I think I may well be a Jew”. she compares herself as a Jew because of how she suffered from her dad for most of her life and she now sees him as a German or in other words a Nazi. she refers back to the Holocaust as if she was one of the jews that suffered in the concentration camps. She compares her feelings to a jew and the Holocaust and considers herself as a jew because of the suffering her father that she considered a Nazi, which he actually was.