Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” is a poem about her father about how her father negatively impacted her life. The poem can also be interpreted as a declaration of independence from the clutches of her controlling father after he has passed away. Plath uses imagery in her poem, which makes it all the more effective. Such examples include the shoe, which Plath uses to describe her relationship with her father: “You do not do, you do not do/ Any more, black shoe/ In which I have lived like a foot/” (1-3). Plath describes herself as a foot, living her life covered by a black object. Also, Plath could be referring to “walking around on eggshells” with her father, as if she had to watch her every step. In the second stanza Plath goes on to describe her father using imagery once again.  Lines 7-10 illustrate him and also tell of how he died: “You died before I had time--/ Marble-heavy, a bag full of God,/ Ghastly statue with one grey toe/” (7-10). Plath’s father died of complications from gangrene, and she is describing this by telling of the “ghastly statue with one grey toe. Also, he was a God-fearing man and the reader can even be lead to acknowledge that he had a god-like mentality.