Poetry - Daddy Flashcards
You do not do, you do not do / Any more, black shoe
Repetition of the accusatory pronoun “You” emphasises speaker’s frustration and breaking point in relationship
Metaphor symbolises oppressive suffocating influence of her father. Recurring theme (Fascism)
Childlike rhythm juxtaposes vicious tone
Daddy, I have had to kill you. / You did before I had time
Hyperbole and full stop establish sense of power - doesn’t last
Contextual reference - Plath buried her father when she was 8, before she had a chance to know him.
The vampire who said he was you
The vampire metaphor refers to the men who have drained her of her life. Blood symbolises the Speaker’s soul.
Contextual reference - Links back to “bit my heart” - monstrous figure has haunted Plath all her life, first her father and now her husband.
I began to talk like a Jew. / I think I may well be a Jew.
Plath uses suffering of Jewish people and holocaust to convey suffering her father caused her. Father-daughter relationship.
Plath, like Jewish people during WWII feels hopeless and powerless. No control over her life. Her words overpowered.
Every woman adores a Fascist, / Brute hear of a brute like you
Ironic reference to the Electra complex, woman attracted to their oppressor
Repetition of “brute” emphasis the cruel nature of her father.
The tongue stuck in my jaw. / It suck in a barb wire snare.
Personification of “the tongue” represents speaker’s inability to communicate, making it a physical struggle.
Imagery of suffering and metaphor representing entrapment by her father. Connotations of pain and suffering
Sibilance reinforce entrapment and pain
I made a model of you / A man in black with a Meinkampf look
“Man in black” evokes image of an authoritarian, oppressive figure, reinforced by the allusion to Mein Kampf, Hitler’s book
Metaphor of her father being a “model” means the speaker has created a representation of her father and internalised it to suppress past pain and trauma.
What does the structure suggest?
Sixteen quintains.
No set rhyme scheme, however double ‘oo’ sounds prominent at the end of every line e.g ‘you’, ‘through’, ‘do’, ‘Jew’, ‘blue’ create a childish, nursery-rhyme repetition.
