Research Paper On Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath seemed to have the ideal life on the surface but underneath was another side, tamed but on the verge of breaking out. Sylvia Plath started writing at age 11 in her journal and soon after pieces of her work began to be published. Even though she started writing at a young age, her best poetic works did not emerge until she and her husband, Ted Hughes, were separated. At this time of Hughes and Plath’s separation, Plath was living alone with her two children through one of England’s coldest winters. (O’Cain 2) As a single mother she was under pressure to provide for her family, leading to the creation of Ariel, which wasn’t edited and published until after her death by Hughes. Plath poured her depression, conflict and love of language …show more content…
In “Daddy” Plath begins saying “You do not do, you do not do anymore,” to represent the person whom she speaks about, which is understood as her father, Otto Plath, is dead but she feels like a foot which has been trapped in a shoe for thirty years. Unable to “breathe or Achoo” because of the fear she will upset her father, but at the same time Plath states, “Daddy, I have had to kill you. You died before I had the time-,” which shows she has wanted to rid herself of her father even before his death. Even in her fear of troubling her father she needs to escape from him and the only way of doing so is by killing him, however he died before she got the chance but even still she feels controlled by him. Later in her poem she says, “I thought every German was you,” because this was post war when the Nazi took over and placed the Jews in the Holocaust and she described herself as a Jew. She depicts herself being a victim to her father like a Jew to a German, unable to escape the her father and she “always had been scared of …show more content…
She represents her dead father as a fallen statue which “crawl[s over]like an ant in mourning.” Even though she is free from his grasp, there is something holding her back from letting go and moving forward as she stays by this fallen statue tending it and keeping it company. But even by staying with this fallen statue isn’t enough, in “Daddy” she says, “I was ten when they buried you. At twenty I tried to die and get back, back, back to you. I thought even the bones would do.” Plath tries to kill herself get back to him, the years being stuck with this man under his tight hold she doesn’t know what to do without him. As one would assume, Plath should rejoice in her freedom but the baggage connected to him ties her down. Plath was still a victim to her father even in his death, “But they pulled me out of the sack, and they stuck me together with glue.” She had to be pulled away from him to be saved, describing Plath being saved from her suicide attempt. After this time of being the victim to her father, Plath is being rescued and put back together. After this rescue Plath’s eyes were opened and saying to herself, “So Daddy, I’m through.” and finally killing her father a second time. The first time she killed of his physical presence and the second time the mental hold he had. Plath