Daddy
You do not do, you do not do
Any more, black shoe
In which I have lived like a foot
For thirty years, poor and white,
Barely daring to breathe or Achoo.
Daddy, I have had to kill you.
You died before I have time—
Marble-heavy, a bag full of God,
Ghastly statue with one gray toe
Big as a Frisco seal
And a head in the freakish-Atlantic
Where it pours bean green over blue
In the waters off the beautiful Nauset.
I used to pray to recover you.
Ach, du.
In the German tongue, in the Polish town
Scraped flat by the roller
Of wars, wars, wars.
But the name of the town is common.
My Polack friend
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.
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
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.
The snows of the Tyrol, the clear beer of Vienna
Are not very pure or true.
With my gypsy ancestress and my weird luck
And my Taroc pack and my Taroc pack
I may be a bit of a Jew.
I have always been scared of you,
With your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo.
And your neat mustache
And your Aryan eye, bright blue.
Panzer-man, panzar-man, O You—–
Not God but a swastika
So black no sky could squeak through.
Every woman adores a Fascist,
The boot in the face, the brute
Brute heart of a brute like you.
You stand at the blackboard, daddy,
In the picture I have of you,
A cleft in your chin instead of your foot
But no less a devil for that, no not
Any less the black man who
Bit my pretty red heart in two.
I was ten when they buried you.
At twenty I tried to die
And get back, back, back to you.
I thought even the bones would do.
But they pulled me out of the sack,
And they stuck me together with glue.
And then I knew what to do.
I made a model of you,
A man in black with a Meinkampf look.
And a love of the rack and the screw.
And I said I do, I do.
So daddy, I’m finally through.
The black telephone’s off at the root,
The voices just can’t worn through.
If I’ve killed one man, I’ve killed two—
The vampire who said he was you
And drank my blood for a year,
Seven years, if you want to know.
Daddy, you can lie back now.
There’s a stake in your fat black heart
And the villagers never liked you.
They are dancing and stamping on you.
They always knew it was you.
Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I’m through.
By: Sylvia Plath (1962)
Synopsis:
This poem focuses on a speaker’s struggle in handling the oppressive nature of her father, his untimely death, and her encounter with a “vampire.”
Major Themes and Motifs:
- World War Two
- Religion
- Death
- Freedom and Confinement
- Feminism
- Patriarchy
- The Self/Body
Literary Terms Used in “Daddy”:
- Alliteration
- Ambiguity
- Analogy
- Antagonist
- Auditory Imagery
- Cacophony
- Caesura
- Connotation
- Denotation
- Diction
- Enjambment
- Euphoney
- Feminist Lens
- First Person Narrative
- Juxtaposition
- Meter
- Metaphor
- Mood
- Motif
- Onomatopoeia
- Protagonist
- Quintain
- Register
- Repetition
- Rhyme
- Rhythm
- Setting
- Simile
- Speaker
- Stanza
- Structure
- Symbolism
- Syntax
- Tactile Imagery
- Theme
- Tone
- Visual Imagery
Characters:
The Speaker-
She was oppressed by Daddy to such an extent that she felt like she was a Jew/Romani in a concentration camp. She describes him as a member of the Aryan race, and is tender in her depiction which alludes to an electra complex. The speaker is ten when Daddy dies, and twenty when she tries to commit suicide before being “repaired.” Later in life, she meets a vampire, who claims to be Daddy. The vampire drinks her blood for seven years. Eventually the vampire is staked, and the speaker can finally move on from her memories of Daddy.
Daddy-
The father or the fatherly figure of the speaker, who oppresses her when she is a child. He dies when she is ten years old. He’s described as being German, having a Luftwaffe, a neat mustache, and blue eyes. When the speaker meets a vampire, she sees him as being similar to Daddy.
The Vampire
A character which represents men or a man similar to Daddy, who drinks the speaker’s blood. He stays with her for seven years before being staked.
Detailed Description of the Events Within the Poem:
- The speaker talks about being oppressed by a person, whom she calls ‘Daddy.’
- Daddy dies before the speaker can overthrow his oppressive nature.
- While Daddy is dying the speaker “used to pray to recover you” (Plath, Line 14).
- The speaker juxtaposes being constrained by Daddy with a Jewish/Romani in a concentration camp.
- Daddy is described as being Aryan.
- The speaker is ten when Daddy dies, and twenty when she tries to commit suicide.
- Other people gather parts of the speaker and “stuck [her] together with glue” (Plath, line 62).
- The speaker encounters a vampire, who says he is Daddy.
- The vampire is staked by others.
- The speaker speaker can finally move on from the memories of Daddy.
Significance of the Text:
Sylvia Plath is considered a confessional poet. Confessional poetry is usually written in first person, and there are a lot of references to events that occur in the poet’s life. There are several instances in this poem that supports this perspective. For example: Plath’s father was German, he had his foot amputated, and he died when Plath was eight. Another aspect that bears similarity to Plath’s life is that the speaker mentions trying to kill herself, which Plath succeeds in doing.
Interesting Tidbit:
Sylvia Plath’s father, Otto Plath, died shortly after Syvlia turned eight. He fell ill, and was convinced that he had lung cancer after witnessing a friend dying from the disease. It was later that he was diagnosed with diabetes. It had already progressed to the point where he had to amputate his foot. Eventually, he succumbed to the illness.
Where you can purchase Collected Poems by Sylvia Plath:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Collected-Poems-Sylvia-Plath/dp/0571118380
Let’s Explore… Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath
Works Cited:
Plath, Sylvia. “Daddy.” The Collected Poems. Ed. Ted Hughs. New York: Harper & Row, 1981. 222-224. Print.
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