Summary Of The Poem Daddy

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In Plath’s poem “Daddy”, she relates her journey of coming to terms of her father’s image. The poem begins with “you do not, you do not”, which means that her father has not been much of a parent since she was raised “poor and white”. During the time she was staying raised in such a manner, she felt trapped, “barely daring to breathe or achoo.” Living in such condition drove the speaker to come to the illusion of killing her father, but he had “…died before I had time”. At this point of time she has mixed feelings about her father. He was “marble-heavy, a bag full of God”, a “Ghastly statue…” whom loomed over her to keep her in check of what she was doing. She “… used to pray to …” her father, but gives the “Ach, du” of pity. The poem then moves to talking about the village in Poland while the speaker and her father remain talking in German. The speaker tries to
But the man she modeled her father after is far worse than what he was, and refers to his look as a “Meinkampf”. She could have an Electra complex because in the end she says “I do, I do” to a man that has similar characteristics as her father. She is now “…finally through” with her father and the memories that he rests in. But the “…voices” that are trying to reach her cannot convince her otherwise. The speaker now “…killed two - the vampire who said he was you”. She claims that the man that she was married to was extremely draining for an awfully long time. She had now told her father that he “… can lie back down now” once again since she is trying to rid of him from her memory. Using the allusion to the work of Dracula, she claims that there is a “…stake in your fat black heart” and that “...the villagers never liked you” as they “… are dancing and stamping...” on his grave. The speaker finalizes their poem with a beat down, saying that she’s “through” and calls him a

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