Sylvia Plath’s poem “Daddy”

 

Stanza-by-Stanza Analysis of Plath's Daddy

Stanza 1: 

A first line repeated, a declaration of intent, the first sounds of oo—this is the train setting off on its final death march. The black shoe is a metaphor for the father. Inside, trapped for 30 years, is the narrator, about to escape.

Stanza 2:

But she can only free herself by killing her "daddy," who does resemble the poet's actual father, Otto, who died when she was 8. His toe turned black from gangrene. He eventually had to have his leg amputated due to complications of diabetes. When young Plath heard this news, she said, "I'll never speak to God again." Here, the bizarre, surreal imagery builds up—his toe is as big as a seal, and the grotesque image of her father has fallen like a statue.

Stanza 3: 

The personal weaves in and out of the allegory. The statue's head is in the Atlantic, on the coast at Nauset Beach, Cape Cod, where the Plath family used to holiday. The father icon stretches across the USA. The imagery is temporarily beautiful: bean green over blue water. The speaker says she used to pray to get her father back, restored to health.

Stanza 4: 

We move on to Poland and the second world war. There's a mix of the factual and fictional. Otto Plath was born in Grabow, Poland, a commonname, but spoke German in a typical autocratic fashion. This town has been razed in many wars adding strength to the idea that Germany (the father) has demolished life.

Stanza 5: 

Again, the narrator addresses the father as you, a direct address which brings the reader closer to the action. I never could talk to you seems to come right from the daughter's heart. Plath is hinting at a lack of communication, instability and paralysis. Note the use of the line endings two, you, and you—the train building up momentum.

Stanza 6:

The use of barb wire snare ratchets up the tension. The narrator is in pain for the first time. The German ich(I) is repeated four times as if her sense of self-worth is in question (or is she recalling the father shouting I,I,I,I?). And is she unable to speak because of the shock or just difficulty with the language? The father is seen as an all-powerful icon, representing all Germans.

Stanza 7: 

As the steam engine chugs on, the narrator reveals that this is no ordinary train she is on. It is a death train taking her off to a concentration camp, one of the Nazi death factories where millions of Jews were cruelly gassed and cremated during World War II. The narrator now identifies fully with the Jews.

Stanza 8: 

Moving on into Austria, the country where Plath's mother was born, the narrator reinforces her identity—she is a bit of a Jew because she carries a Taroc (Tarot) pack of cards and has gypsy blood in her. Perhaps she is a fortune teller able to predict the fate of people? Plath was keenly interested in the Tarot card symbols. Some believe that certain poems in her book Ariel use similar occult symbology.

Stanza 9: 

Although Plath's father was never a Nazi in real life, her narrator again focuses on the second world war and the image of the Nazi soldier. Part nonsense nursery rhyme, part dark lyrical attack, the girl describes the ideal Aryan male. One of the aims of the Nazis was to breed out unwanted genetic strains to produce the perfect German, an Aryan. This one happens to speak gobbledygoo, a play on the word gobbledygook, meaning excessive use of technical terms. The Luftwaffe is the German air force. Panzer is the name for the German tank corps.

Stanza 10:

Yet another metaphor—father as a swastika, the ancient Indian symbol used by the Nazis. In this instance, the swastika is so big it blacks out the entire sky. This could be a reference to the air raids over England during the war when the Luftwaffe bombed many cities and turned the sky black. Lines 48-50 are controversial but probably allude to the fact that powerful despotic males, brutes in boots, often demand the attraction of female victims.

Stanza 11: 

Perhaps the most personal of stanzas. This image breaks through into the poem, and the reader is taken into a kind of classroom (her father Otto was a teacher) where daddy stands. The devil is supposed to have a cleft foot, but here, he has a cleft chin. The narrator isn't fooled.

Stanza 12: 

She knows that this is the man who tore her apart, reached inside, and left her split, a divided self. Sylvia's father died when she was 8, filling her with rage against God. And at 20, Plath attempted suicide for the first time. Did she want to re-unite with her father?

Stanza 13: A crucial stanza, where the girl 'creates' male number two, based on the father. The narrator is pulled out of the sack, and 'they' stick her back together with glue. Bones out of a sack—Sylvia Plath was 'glued' back together by doctors after she failed her suicide attempt but was never the same again. In the poem, this suicide attempt is a catalyst for action. The girl creates a model (a voodoo-like doll?), a version of her father. This replica strongly resembles Plath's husband, Ted Hughes. He has a Meinkampf look (Mein Kampfis the title of Adolf Hitler's book, which means my struggle) and is not averse to torture.

Stanza 14:

 Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes were married, hence the line with I do, I do. The speaker addresses daddy again, for the last time. There'll be no more communication, no voices from the past. Note the emphasis on "black" again. This telephone belongs to the father.

Stanza 15: The penultimate five lines. The speaker has achieved her double killing, both father and husband have been dispatched. The latter is referred to as a vampire who has been drinking her blood for seven years. It's as if the narrator is reassuring her father that all is well now. He can lie back in readiness. For what?

Stanza 16: The father's fat black heart is pierced by a wooden stake, just like a vampire, and the villagers are thoroughly happy about it. A bit of a bizarre image to end on. But, just who are the villagers? Are they the inhabitants of a village in the allegory, or are they a collective of Sylvia Plath's imagination? Either way, the father's demise has them dancing and stamping on him almost jovially. To put the lid on things, the girl declares daddy a bastard. The exorcism is over, and the conflict resolved.