Alex Acosta Carambot
Prof. Mongar
Ingl 3104
7 May 2004.
Life & Literature: A Focus on Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy”
How can life experiences affect the work of an author? How can they bring new meaning to their literature? Many authors throughout history have been known for using their own life experiences as a source of inspiration for their writing. However, just because they serve as such a great source of inspiration does not necessarily mean that writers give these ideas literal meaning in their writing. A good example of this behavior is a poem titled Daddy by American poet Sylvia Plath. A deep analysis of this poem may prove that although it is somewhat autobiographical, not every aspect of this poem actually took place.
In her poem, Plath gives a clear description of the childhood image she has built of her father. If literal meaning is to be given to this poem, then her father would have been a German Nazi and the speaker a part Jewish – part German woman who has been oppressed by her father. But as author Helen McNeil points out, Otto Plath (Sylvia’s father), “was not a Nazi, nor was his daughter Jewish, nor is there evidence that he mistreated her” (McNeil, Voices and Visions: the Poet in America). This statement completely changes the perspective of the poem. Still, if Sylvia’s father was not a Nazi, and if no evidence exists to prove he mistreated her, why did she build this image of her father?
First off, it is important to point out that Plath’s father did in fact die when she was only eight years old. This fact gives place to the childish image she carried of her father throughout her life. In one of his books, author Jon Rosenblatt, points out that it is Plath herself who in her own words describes this poem as one “..spoken by a girl with an Electra complex” who’s “father died while she thought he was a God.” (Rosenblatt, Sylvia Plath: the poetry of imitation.) Therefore, given the fact that this poem is “one of Plath’s most detailed autobiographical poems…” (Breslin, The Psycho-Political Muse: American Poetry since the Fifties.) a connection can be established between the speakers point of view in the poem and Plath’s real image of her father.
Focusing on Plath’s own description, the Electra complex she speaks about can be defined through Freudian theory as “The desire and conflict of the female child who wants to posess her father sexually…” (Edgerton, American Psychiatric Glossary. 7th Ed.). If this is also true for Plath’s own view of her father, then it is clear why she urges to “kill” the image of the abandoning male.
Throughout this poem we find that Plath’s earlier attempts to rid herself of the image of her father had failed. Therefore she decides to make a model of him. This model being the man she later married. According to Plath’s biography, she and poet Ted Hughes were married for seven years. Seven years which she describes in her poem as years in which “he drank my blood.” (Plath, Daddy.) In her poem it is clear that she married this man in search of somebody who resembled the image of her father. Further ahead in the poem she says that she had to “kill” the image of her father to be free, also letting go of her husband.
There are many aspects of this poem that were actually true. Plath does use real allusions of her father and of her husband. But not everything she writes about them was necessarily true. That is what makes understanding literature like this so difficult. The important thing is to remember that not every life experience necessarily took place as written.
The Process of Writing a Research Paper
First off, I would like to say that writing this research paper was no easy task. It was very time consuming and especially very difficult to meet the Professor’s specifications. It took me a while to get started and even more to understand my poem, but it was a very nice experience which gave me the opportunity to discover the life and literature of an extraordinary woman.
Sylvia Plath is in part a great example of bouncing back from disaster and not letting go of your dreams. Although she did have a bit of problems maybe even mentally, she achieved many things in her short period of life. I can see now the importance of researching what one reads. It made an incredible difference for me in order to understand Plath’s poem.
I’d like to thank the Professor for this assignment and for making us do new things. It’s been an incredible learning process for me as well as for others.
Links to Sylvia Plath:
A very complete Sylvia Plath webpage.
Daddy (poem)
On Daddy
