Eng Commentary - Daddy (stanza's 6 - 11)

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Daddy Daddy Commentary ( Stanzas 6 – 11)

Intro

Sylvia Plath’s poem, Daddy Daddy, is a very confessional poem, where she shows her feelings towards the two most influential people in her life, her father and her husband, Ted Hughes. The title of the poem is ‘Daddy Daddy’ which makes the reader feel that is a poem showing care and love for her father, but after reading the very first stanza, the reader feels the negative feeling and darkness of the poem. We also think that she is referring to her father throughout the poem, but there are signs which indicate that she is taking about her husband Ted Hughes.

At the beginning of stanza six, Plath shows the pain she felt that was caused by her father, “barb wire snare. Ich, Ich, Ich, Ich,” These references symbolise the pain felt by Plath which helps the reader understand the hatred towards her father, as they understand that the reason of her being alone and in such great pain is due to her father not being there for her. Throughout stanzas six to eleven, Plath refers to culture and many allusions to Hitler and the Nazis. This can be seen when she says “I thought every German was you”. She shows her hatred for Germans and their language, describing it as “obscene”. This might be because of her father’s background, suggesting he was of German descent. Plath references Nazis and Germans as extreme dictators which possibly shows that her father was very controlling and continuously oppressed her.  

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 She further describes her father as a Nazi in stanza ten, “Luftwaffe”, “neat mustache”. She is describing him as a Nazi and her being the Jew, using similes to describe herself as a Jew, “Chuffing me off like a Jew”. The way the Nazis treated the Jews is the effect he had on her, destroying her life and completely oppressing her. With these references, the reader thinks of Plath as alone and emotionally ruined. The ‘neat mustache’ is a reference to Hitler, but to describe her father as this shows how cruel and heartless he was. The reader knows Hitler ...

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