Notes on Plath's "Daddy"

The focus of the poem tends to focus on control, or the lack of in the speaker’s case.

The title character is essentially the same “Colossus” but it now represents Ted Hughes and Otto Plath.

Portrays father and husband as rigid “fascist” men, but in my opinion, for different reasons.

Her father’s control over her life and emotional state is in his memory. His memory and the memory of his death are the oppressive and controlling factors.

Use of metaphor: “lived like a foot” essentially means that the speaker is beneath this father figure, he walks on her, dominates her.

Plath uses the portrayal of a familiar enemy, the Nazis, in an extended metaphor to create an image of the speakers “reality” of suffering at the hands of this oppressive man.

Perhaps comparing herself to the Jews, the Nazi’s “prey” per say. Therefore the woman in this poem containing the fascist bogeymen assumes the role of the Jew to create a feeling of genuine suffering.

Male oppression upon women is a dominant theme in many of Plath’s poems and prose.

The father figure is described as a sexually dominant, malicious and domineering person.

The female in “Daddy” hates the father figure so much that he must die at her hand. Because of her dependence on this character, she too much die with him, be it emotionally or literally. “Daddy, Daddy, you bastard, I’m thru”

Look into Electra complex…

**An explication will eventually form outta these notes. Look for it next week.