Daddy

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1964

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

Complicated Father-Daughter Relationships

The title “Daddy” suggests a child’s name for their father. This innocence immediately becomes complex when Plath bursts out with “Daddy, I’ve had to kill you” at the top of Stanza 2 (Line 6). This startling declaration refers to the killing of his memory but also seems to reveal that the speaker may actually desire to kill him, if he were not already dead, out of self-defense. Throughout the poem, Plath extends the metaphor comparing her daddy to a German Nazi and herself to a Jew: “I’ve always been scared of you/With your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo” (Lines 41-42) with “Luftwaffe” referring to the German air force of World War II. His behavior is both foreign and frightening to her even though they are of the same blood, much like the Jews were forced to leave a homeland that began to despise rather than welcome them. This comparison is complicated by the speaker also comparing her father to a “bag full of God” (Line 8), implying how the young version of herself worshipped him. In Stanza 10, her adult self attempts to unravel her two perspectives with “Not God but a swastika” (Line 46).

“Daddy” has the feel of Plath talking aloud to herself or a therapist, working through her daddy issues, from her father’s early demise to the memories of her subservient role in his world—a man’s world. In the first stanza, she writes, ”Black shoe/In which I have lived like a foot” (Lines 2-3). With this image, she makes herself small juxtaposed against the grandness that she sees as her father: “Big as a Frisco seal” (Line 10). As if experiencing a breakthrough in treatment, Plath lays all of the contrasts, all of the frustrations with their relationship to rest in Stanza 14 when she states, “So daddy, I’m finally through” (Line 68).

Sometimes referred to as a breakup letter to her father, “Daddy” shows one perspective of their relationship. She is not interested in his point of view and was not able to ask for it even when he was alive: “I never could talk to you” (Line 24). She even becomes giddy at the thought of others agreeing with her about his shortcomings: “And the villagers never liked you” (Line 77). As she repeats her being “finally through” (Line 80) with her daddy at the end, the dark tone of the poem combines with an innocent sing-song that immortalizes an archetypal stolen girlhood that has echoed from Plath’s poetry through to the break-up songs of today.

Suburban Housewife Suffocation

In the mid-20th century, American women often moved straight from their father’s home to their husband’s; even college-educated women who shelved their career goals for the sake of their husbands’ careers and children’s nurturing. Plath acknowledges that even though her father is gone, she still has a version of him by her side. In Stanza 13, she says, “I made a model of you” (Line 64), meaning she met another man in the likeness of her father. Perhaps there is comfort in this decision because this is just what 1950s women did. Even if her relationship with her father was by no means ideal, it is what she knew. This comfort turns to discomfort in Stanza 15 when Plath repeats the phrase about killing her father from Stanza 2, but this time she also includes a second man, presumably her husband: “If I’ve killed one man, I’ve killed two” (Line 71). The desire for the severing of ties seems justified in the speaker’s mind because her husband is “The vampire who said he was you/He drank my blood for a year/Seven years, if you want to know” (Line 72-74). Plath’s father died, so fate precipitated the severing, but she had to choose to severe ties from her husband. As an ambitious writer who did not want to give up on her own desires, Plath was often conflicted about falling in love vs. falling in line. In The Journals of Sylvia Plath, her college self writes,” I plan not to step into a part on marrying—but to go on living as an intelligent mature human being, growing and learning as I always have” (43). Despite the complex reality, she kept this statement at the forefront as she approached age 30 feverishly writing poems with two babies in a separate room in her London flat, away from her estranged husband. In 2017, newly-discovered letters from Plath accuse Ted Hughes of physical abuse, which makes the vampire line all the more eerie and autobiographical.

Life-Death Cycle

Death takes center stage in this poem. Homicide, suicide, and natural causes are several methods of death that take shape in “Daddy.” Plath writes, “Daddy, I have had to kill you/You died before I had time” (Lines 6-7), acknowledging her father’s death due to diabetes complications when she was young as well as her inability to kill the godly image of her father. The word “kill” is a recurring one, which she repeats later in the poem in regards to her husband: “If I’ve killed one man, I’ve killed two” (Line 71). In Stanza 12, Plath turns the killing inward when she says, “At twenty I tried to die” (Line 58).This need to kill, whether herself or the men in her life, suggests her ultimate need for rebirth. If she just kills off the men, whether figuratively or literally, she can gain a fresh start. If she just kills herself, she can replace the pain of living with whatever situation faces her beyond the grave. Death only functions when in conjunction, or in contrast, with life. In Stanza 13, she shows this contrast with life beating death post-suicide attempt through the following image and simile: “They pulled me out of the sack/And they stuck me together like glue” (Lines 61-62). The last line of the poem, “Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I’m through” completes the life-death cycle of the poem with her acknowledging the end of one facet of her life, so she can concentrate on others. With Plath’s autobiography in mind, the ending line is bittersweet; Plath finally comes to terms with her father’s death only to commit suicide, successfully this time, shortly thereafter.