Sylvia Plath: “Daddy” commentary by Mel Mc Guinness

Sylvia Plath ~ “Daddy” has relevance to “The Shot” byTed Hughes

This poem conveys tension from the very outset. It is a confessional poem, in which Plath reveals a love-hate relationship for both her father and Ted Hughes, her husband. The title “Daddy” has positive connotations associated with love, warmth and security. This is sharply contrasted with the first line “You do not do, you do not do”. The tone can be interpreted as insistent because of the repetition but it is also possible to view it as accusatory because of the repetition of the work “not”. When you consider that Plath has used enjambment here, then the opening line must be read to include the first tow words of the second line, “Any more”. This then brings us to the idea that ‘daddy’ is no longer active, hence no longer alive. The speaker then establishes the image of the black shoe. Black is a colour used frequently in this poem and each time the connotations are negative. Plath uses colour to great effect within this poem, “black, white, green, blue, bright blue” and red is implied through the idea of blood.

The image of the speaker living in a black shoe in which she dared not breathe conveys a feeling of restrictions and fear. This is conveyed through the use of the simile in line 3.

The second stanza becomes darker in tone and from this point on the poem descends into proverbial darkness. In this stanza we note that the speaker idolised ‘daddy’ and he is represented as larger than life but in an intrusive and freakish way. He is described through an allusion of him being a seal that stretches from the east to the west. The speaker continues by stating that she longed to recover him “pray”. This however is in the past tense. Thus she is implying that she no longer prays to recover him. Something has changed and this poem gives the reasons for this change.

In the following stanzas, Plath refers to her father’s ancestry. Plath’s mother was Austrian and her father was German. Within this poem she connects his German descent to the holocaust and applies images of him as her persecutor and therefore she sets herself up as his victim- a Jew, “I think I may well be a Jew”. She finds the German tongue unappealing “language obscene” and it is evident that she feels this way about her father in this poem. There is a strong sense of disconnection form her father within this poem, “I have always been scared of you”. The images that are constructed around this notion of her father as a Nazi persecutor and herself as the Jewish victim are symptomatic of her psychotic state. She uses sarcasm to set up the idea of him as a brute, “Every woman adores a Fascist/ The boot in the face, the brute”. There is strong use of the repeated use of the word “brute” which conveys extremes of emotion.

In the stanzas that follow her father is described as a devil and as the devil that destroyed her heart. The idea of him biting her heart is grotesque and inhuman. We discover that she tried to kill herself at the age of twenty in order to be reunited with her father. The description of her recovery implies that she was noever quite the same- it was a temporary fix, “stuck me together with glue”.

There is a turning point in the poem as the focus shifts from ‘daddy’ to the man with the “Meinkampf look”-a reference to Ted Hughes. He is described as having a love of torturing her. She describes him as a vampire who sucked the life from her for seven years. For this reason, she addresses ‘daddy’ telling him that he can now rest because she has a new torturer.

In the final stanza “daddy” and Hughes become one and the same person. These last five lines are loaded with anger, frustration and desperation and speak strongly of her intention to suicide.
In his poem “The Shot” Hughes makes reference to many aspects of this poem and Plath’s “Ariel”.

Related text for Belonging

Other Related material for Module C “Birthday Letters”

When LOVE looks like WAR

July 14,1861
Camp Clark, Washington DC

Dear Sarah:

The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days – perhaps tomorrow. And lest I should not be able to write you again I feel impelled to write a few lines that may fall under your eye when I am no more.

I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how American Civilization now leans upon the triumph of the government and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution. And I am willing – perfectly willing – to lay down all my joys in this life, to help maintain this government, and to pay that debt.

Sarah, my love for you is deathless, it seems to bind me with mighty cables that nothing but omnipotence can break; and yet my love of Country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me irresistibly with all those chains to the battlefield. The memory of all the blissful moments I have enjoyed with you come crowding over me, and I feel most deeply grateful to God and you, that I have enjoyed them for so long. And how hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes and future years, when, God willing, we might still have lived and loved together, and see our boys grown up to honorable manhood around us.

If I do not return, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I loved you, nor that when my last breath escapes me on the battle field, it will whisper your name…

Forgive my many faults, and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless, how foolish I have sometimes been!…

But, 0 Sarah, if the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they love, I shall always be with you, in the brightest day and in the darkest night… always, always. And when the soft breeze fans your cheek, it shall be my breath, or the cool air your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by.

Sarah do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for me, for we shall meet again…

---

Sullivan Ballou was killed a week later at the 1st Battle of Bull Run.

http://www.jayandmolly.com/ballouletter.shtml

DULCE ET DECORUM EST₁

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares² we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest³ began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots⁴
Of tired, outstripped⁵ Five-Nines⁶ that dropped behind.

Gas!⁷ Gas! Quick, boys! –  An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets⁸ just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime⁹ . . .
Dim, through the misty panes¹⁰ and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering,¹¹ choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud¹²
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest¹³
To children ardent¹⁴ for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.¹⁵

8 October 1917 – March, 1918

These two texts represent conflicting perspectives on the idea of war. In Sullivan Ballou’s letter it is clear that he supports the war and sees it as his duty to be of service. He has a strong belief in his role in this war. It is also clear that his love for his wife Sarah and their sons, is very strong and knows no bounds, other than his love of Country.

He uses many language features like similes, metaphors, alliteration, superlatives and much more. He also uses high modality in his language. You need to examine this text closely to explore the ways in which the reader is positioned and thus influenced by his representation of war.

On the other hand, Wilfred Owen’s poem uses strong visual imagery and auditory cues to ‘transport’ the readers to the battlefields where they ‘witness’ the horrors that soldiers face. Owen also uses high modality in his language.This is intended to show us that it is not “sweet and right to die for your country”. The title of the poem “Dulce Et Decorum Est”, translates into “it is sweet and right”  and the last line “pro patria mori” means ‘ to die for one’s country’. Owen’s statement is anti war. He too uses many poetic devices which you need to closely examine, in order to explore how he positions the reader to understand HIS perspective.

Even animals have a sense of belonging.

What ideas about belonging can be drawn from this short clip?

Sylvia Plath Reads Daddy

It is worthwhile reading and considering both “Daddy” and “Ariel” before you start exploring The Shot by Ted Hughes. “Daddy” is a great source of background knowledge in relation to the study of Birthday Letters. It gives insight into Hughes’s references to Plath’s relationship with her deceased father.

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Australia

Makes some good inferences about belonging

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