Why could I consider sylvia plath's Daddy an expression against the voice of Patriarchy?
Answers
The poem titled “Daddy” was written by well renowned feminist American Poet Sylvia Plath in 1962. There are multifarious reasons because of which this confessional poem can be categorized as a resisting voice against the set norms of patriarchal society.
It raises a loud and clear voice against the male domination as Sylvia herself explained it to be consisting of the words of a girl suffering from Electra complex. The poem is thought to be addressed to her deceased father named Otto Plath.
Her analogy of being like a foot in a shoe that is unable to breathe speaks of the patriarchal stipulations imposed on her by the society which bound her free will and freedom of expression. Then she compares him to a black man who bit her tender heart into two pieces. This again signifies the brutal nature of the man who is impolite to female.
She establishes herself a victim and identifies different oppressive roles of man i.e. a devil, a Nazi, a vampire and a husband. She wanted to get rid of all.
Plath weaves together patriarchal figures – a father, Nazis, a vampire, a husband – and then holds them all accountable for history's horrors. Like "The Colossus," "Daddy" imagines a larger-than-life patriarchal figure, but here the figure has a distinctly social, political aspect. Even the vampire is discussed in terms of its tyrannical sway over a village. In this interpretation, the speaker comes to understand that she must kill the father figure in order to break free of the limitations that it places upon her. In particular, these limitations can be understood as patriarchal forces that enforce a strict gender structure. It has the feel of an exorcism, an act of purification. And yet the journey is not easy. She realizes what she has to do, but it requires a sort of hysteria. In order to succeed, she must have complete control, since she fears she will be destroyed unless she totally annihilates her antagonist.