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daddy by Plath

 

            A sense of loss and mourning pervades the stanzas dealing with her father. It is important to note that while the overall tone of the poem is angry, nothing overtly hostile is expressed in the first half of the poem. Though the second stanza begins with "Daddy, I have had to kill you" (line 6), its inclusion in a stanza still heavily shaded with tones of sadness and regret leads the reader to believe that the statement is not made in rage, but in remorse. Yes, she has to kill him -- but only because her situation has forced this option upon her. The emotions conveyed still resound with a sense of what her father must have meant to her, as when she refers to his dead body being carried away in a body-bag as a "bag full of God" (line 8) and when she laments, "I used to pray to recover you." Her father died at a time when she was so attached to him, and yet hadn't had enough time to get to know him. As remarked by Judith Kroll, "The need for exorcising her father's ghost lies in the extremity of her attachment to him" (472). He was ripped from her grasp before she had time to break away on her own; the harsh resentment felt by the speaker is not directed at her father, but rather at the failed replacement that was her husband. This contrasts sharply with the mood set in the first half of the poem. The speaker briefly describes her suicide attempt at the age of 20, confessing the reasoning behind such a course of action: "At twenty I tried to die/ And get back, back, back to you" (lines 58-59). This does not strike me as something someone would do for someone she hated; as far as we can tell, the speaker's father himself has committed no crimes against the speaker other than the fact that he died so early in her development.
             The childlike nature of the speaker underscores the authenticity of said remorse. The childlike nature itself is emphasized in several ways, not the least of which is the very scheme that got her into trouble in the first place: Trying to replace her father and marry him rather than actually dealing with and getting over his death.


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