...Augustina Asiafor Hayley Esther Hedgpeth English 1102 4 February 2014 A Paradoxical Relationship Sylvia Plath’s poem “Daddy” emphasizes the ill-fated relationship between a woman and her deceased father. The speaker conveys her paradoxical feelings for the one man who she worshipped during her young years, but feared his malicious influence and domination after his death. Throughout the poem, Plath use of tone changes with the progression of German inferences in order to escape the oppression of her father while attempting to preserve the idealistic mirror of him. The poem begins with a childlike tone, misleading the reader on the upcoming subject matter. The first line echoes a nursery rhyme, feeling like a charm against some brooding curse: “You do not do, you do not do/ anymore black shoe” (lines 1-2). Metaphorically, the shoe is a trap, smothering the foot. The adjective “black” suggests the idea of death, thus it can relate to a coffin. The speaker feels a submissiveness and entrapment by her father. In an attempt to rid herself of the restriction in her own life, she must destroy the memory of her father. “Daddy, I have to kill you” (3). However, the description of the father as “marble-heavy” (8) and “ghastly statue” ( 9) reveals the ambivalence of her attitude. The speaker reacts with hate to her father who had made her suffer by dying when she was young, but she is still affectionate towards him. The tone becomes more realistic and is composed of less...
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...Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) An American poet and novelist of the 20th century was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Sylvia Plath is best known for her semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar and her second volume of poetry collection, Ariel. She was one of the most dynamic and expressive poets of her time. As a student she was successful, won many awards and scholarships ,at the age of 11 she started keeping a journal of her poems of which many were published in her early years itself. However, inspite of such perfections in her academic life she felt anything but perfect in her own skin. Her poems show her deep anguishes with her own life involving her broken marriage with Ted Hughes, unresolved issues with her parents with so much light on the passing of her father when she was only eight and her own vision of herself. At the time of her undergraduate years she has started showing symptoms of severe depression and already had a history of mental illness since childhood which ultimately lead her to her death. Her conditions led her to try to commit suicide not once but twice before she finally succeeded the third time. She had a sort of disturbed mind which can be felt through her much personal poems such as “daddy” which brings out her deep insecurities of being “fatherless” Feminists potrayed Sylvia as a woman driven to madness by a domineering father, unfaithful husband and demanding duties of motherhood. The hardness of her life increased her need to write ,which she could...
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...Craziness in Desperation --Reading Ariel Abstract: The American poetess Sylvia Plath with her short, yet brilliant life is a notable figure in the field of twentieth-century American poetry. Ariel is one of her late poems which marks her maturity in poetry and is of great importance to the study of her works. Through interpretation of Ariel, we can learn her psychological struggle which stems from the conflicts of the duality in identity. Key Words: Sylvia Plath, poetess, identity, craziness The poem Ariel is the title poem in the posthumous poem collection of the same name of the American Poetess, Sylvia Plath who plays a remarkable role in mid-twentieth American poetry, especially in the movement of Confessional Poetry. As a woman writer, Plath was always in conflict of her two identity -- a woman as a docile and domestic housewife, mother or daughter and on the other side a writer of independence and free mind. She was forever struggling all her life which she ended at the age of 31. Her suicide, which is often related to her disastrous marriage with English laurel poet Ted Hughes, alongside with her identity as a woman poet drew much public attention right after her death and has remained a contested topic until today. Her poems has been constantly reprinted in the UK and USA as well as in numerous translated versions. She is widely “recognized as one of the leading figures in twentieth-century Anglo-American literature and culture”.1 Her late poems which are often...
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