In her poem “Daddy,” Sylvia Plath uses violent, disturbing, and controversial imagery to illustrate her tumultuous relationship with her father before and after his death in 1940. Her work, and this poem in particular, is often notable for the juxtaposition of unsettling metaphors with bouncy alliteration and a childish rhyme scheme. This and other contradictions found in the work depict the speaker's lack of control and understanding over her relationships with men. Despite the play's undeniable feminist overtones, Plath lacks tangible statements about gender equality; instead, “Daddy” acts more as a commentary on his struggles against patriarchy and psychological abuse. This idea is supported by the metaphor she creates of herself as a Holocaust victim and her father as a Nazi soldier. Plath's way of symbolizing Nazism in relation to her father moves throughout the poem from subtle to blatant, and ultimately encompasses her relationships with her father and her husband, Ted Hughes. While many critics discuss his metaphors and allusions to World War II regarding his personal relationships, this essay will discuss how the Nazi imagery in "Daddy" asserts that patriarchy is a form of fascism in society in its together. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay In “Daddy,” I argue that Plath uses inductive reasoning to generate discussion about the patriarchal world that destroyed her. Although harsh, the symbolism found in his Holocaust metaphors is honest, which he feels is more important than being politically correct. His use of these violent metaphors in "Daddy" can be applied to any power trip: whether it's an attempt at domination by a Führer, a father or a husband, the process is brutal and its effects are damaging and long-lasting. Plath's experiences with men inspired her to write candidly about the pain and helplessness she felt as a victim in a patriarchal society. The poem introduces our speaker and “daddy” with a series of contrasts: “black” and “white,” big and small. , powerful and formidable (Plath, 2, 4). However, contradictions are not limited to the surface of language. Each stanza deals with Plath's internal contradiction – the desire to hold on versus the desire to let go. Thirty years after her father's death, she has a lot to say, but communicating is difficult and uncomfortable. While the poem presents “Daddy” as fearsome, cold, and domineering, in a moment of vulnerability the speaker says, “I used to pray to get you back” (Plath, 14). Despite the dissonance between the speaker and the father, she wants to reach him, understand him and know him. The act of praying gives the audience insight into our speaker's inability to communicate both with her father and also with God, another father figure. The only description that Plath offers us of her father is distant and vague; the only detail is his German origin, but he still doesn't know exactly where he comes from. Perhaps the lack of information is what motivates his fixation; she doesn't understand how a dead man she knows so little can have so much control over her. In the sixth stanza, “Ich, ich, ich, ich” carries a wealth of meaning: it is another reinforcement of his father's German heritage. , but it is also a stutter, which could be caused by the speaker's fear of speaking in front of her father (Plath, 27). However, coupled with the following stanza, it appears that Plath intended the lineserves as onomatopoeia. When spoken out loud, the repeated German word sounds like the sound of a train. This transitions into his first reference to the Holocaust: “An engine, an engine / I get angry like a Jew” (Plath, 31-32). The words of his father, represented by the German, are his captors. The train serves as a metaphor for how she feels as a victim of her father. She then said: “I started talking like a Jew. / I think I might just be Jewish” comparing her father’s oppression to that of the Holocaust concentration camps (Plath, 34-35). The speaker is so strongly opposed to her father's language and oppression that she begins to "speak like a Jew"—a denial of the German language and, by default, of her father. Although it has been subtly implied in previous stanzas, the speaker begins to address her father's Nazism more directly. Once again, she evokes her fear “of you, / With your Luftwaffe, your gibberish”; his fear indeed has several layers. It seems to directly affirm his involvement with the Nazis by associating him with the Luftwaffe, the German air force. Following his statement with “gobbledygoo” can be seen as a mockery of what the German language sounds like to foreign ears. It now seems clear that hearing her father speak German had a terrifying effect on her that she struggled to understand, even long after his death. For the first time, Plath offers us a physical description of “Daddy.” She says: "your neat mustache, / And your Aryan eye, bright blue" referring not only to the "perfect race" that the Nazis were trying to create, but also to the "neat mustache" also evoking the image of Hitler (Plath, 42 -44). The speaker's father now resembles the German image of terrible perfection – with Hitler's mustache and idealized bright blue eyes. Unlike the “Ach, du” that followed the prayer to bring him back, this stanza ends with the English translation “O You –” in reaction to his cruelty. Now that the speaker has returned to her sigh of "O You" earlier in the poem, she also returns to the concept that her father seemed to her to be God. Now he appears to her "not God but a swastika." It's so black that it blocks out the whole sky (Plath, 46) This brings us to one of the most controversial and discussed lines in the poem: "Every woman worships a fascist", this is the first time. that Plath is making a statement about women outside of herself The question arises: did she choose to be oppressed This stanza seems to me to be the first glimpse of a new male. be inferred that Plath is referring to her tumultuous marriage to Ted Hughes; she couldn't choose your father, but she chose her husband. Although the tone here is sarcastic, she is nevertheless self-deprecating by saying "every woman". ., if she seems to be making a general statement about women as a whole, perhaps her voice is changing from simple victim to something more complicated. Just as she contradicted herself at the beginning of the poem, this line seems to question whether she is herself. , and women in general, want to be dominated. This idea can even be reinforced by the title of the poem. “Papa” is a term of endearment compared to “father” or even “daddy”. Calling the poem "Daddy" insinuates that the speaker still cares about her father despite his assertions throughout the work. The speaker's relationship with men is both terrifying and dependent and can be interpreted as a metaphor, questioning society's demand for structure and traditionalism. Plath returns attention to the speaker again when she refers to her “pretty red heart” broken in two (Plath, 56). These two lines continue the contrast of the father with the