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Sylvia Plath's Daddy As A Feminist Poem

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The feminist movement started in 1960 since the limitation of American women motivated them to stand up for their rights. Sylvia Plath’s DADDY was written in 1962 and it is considered to be a feminist poem. Sylvia’s dad passed away when she was 8 years old from diabetes. It was said through her biography that he was a strict dad. Her dad, by his death along with the way he treated her, was one of the major inspirations behind the famous poem DADDY. In 1956, Sylvia and, the famous English poet, Ted Hughes got married. Their marriage did not last long. After giving birth to their children Frieda, in 1960, and Nicholas, in 1962, her husband, Ted Hughes, left her. Their divorce left her in a deep depression that also inspired her to write her poem. …show more content…

She continues to describe her dad as, “marble-heavy, a bag full of God”. In this line, the speaker might be associating her dad’s corps with the heaviness of the marble. Taking into consideration that her dad passed away when she was at the age where he was a God to her and her idol, “a bag full of God” could be a reference to his body in the coffin. She continues by saying that her father looked like a scary statue with one swollen grey toe, which has full power over her full life and calls for her entire dedication. She claims that the toe is situated in northern California, while the head is all the way in the Atlantic. She uses this imagery to show how huge the statue was. In ancient Greek myths, the God is said to be a giant. Sylvia might have used this imagery of the statue as a reference to the God in the bad, which is her dead dad. Since it was said in her biography that her dad was a strict man, it can be assumed that he was the God and she was his slave in a way. A contradiction is clear between these two stanzas when the speaker says, “I have had to kill you” in the second stanza, and “I used to pray to recover you” in the third stanza. This contradiction is to show that no matter how much she hates …show more content…

She wanted to show how men used to treat their women and that the women should stand up for themselves to put an end to the men’s treatment. Daddy is considered to be a feminist poem for the way the speaker portrays her dad and her husband, as well as she finally stands up for herself, and she breaks out from the chains she was locked in all her life. Sadly in her real life, she ends up killing herself because she thought it would be the only way possible for her to break free. The message behind this poem is believe to be that women should not be silent and walk blindly and in control with their men, they should have their full freedom to express how they truly feel and to behave the way they

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