Daddy (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Sylvia Plath
- First Published: 1965
- Type of Work: Poem
- Genres: Poetry, Dramatic monologue
- Subjects: Parents and children, World War II, Jews or Jewish life, Fathers, Death or dying, Nazism or Nazis, Holocaust, Jewish
“Daddy” has an ironically affectionate title, for this poem is a violent, discordant attack on the dead parent. One of the poems Plath wrote in the feverishly active last six months of her life, “Daddy” is a reworking of the evil-father theme so prominent in her poems. Because her father died when he still had mythic power to the child, the woman must deflate and exorcise the father figure somehow. She must go through a symbolic killing of the powerful ghost in order to be free.
In contrast to the subtle rhythms of her earlier work, this poem's movement is direct and...
[The entire page is 812 words long]
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