Imagery, Power, Trauma, Memory and Identity in Daddy (Part 2)

Imagery, Power, Trauma, Memory and Identity in Daddy (Part 2)

Introduction

In the last lecture, we studied confessional poetry and the first stanzas of “Daddy,” where the speaker feels trapped like a foot in a shoe. Today we study the rest of the poem and its major ideas.

1. Summary of the Remaining Poem

The speaker says she cannot speak to her father, especially in his German language. She then imagines him as a German soldier and herself as a Jew being taken away on a train to a concentration camp. She remembers a photograph of him and sees him as a devil. She says she tried to join him in death when she was twenty. She then describes marrying a man who looks like her father. At the end, she says that she has destroyed both men and declares that she is finished with her father.

2. Imagery

Plath uses harsh, shocking images, and many come from Nazi Germany.

• War and Nazi imagery: Words like Luftwaffe, swastika, boot and concentration camp present the father as a cruel dictator.
• Devil and vampire: These images show evil and endless suffering. The vampire also stands for her husband.
• Photograph: A calm picture of her father becomes a frightening one in her memory.
• Sound: Short lines, repetition and a nursery-rhyme beat sound like a child’s chant, which makes the anger more shocking.

3. Power

The poem is about power. The father is like a tyrant with total control over the speaker. The line “Every woman adores a Fascist” suggests that women are taught to love men who dominate them. At the beginning, the speaker is powerless. At the end, she takes power back through speech. By naming and rejecting her father, she gains control over him.

4. Trauma

Trauma is a deep emotional wound that stays with a person. Plath lost her father at eight, before she could understand or settle her feelings. In the poem, this loss becomes an ongoing nightmare. The poem shows how childhood loss can shape adult relationships, as when she marries someone who resembles her father.

5. Memory

Memory in the poem is partial and unreliable. The speaker recalls her father through a photograph, a language and old stories. She is not describing a real person alone, but a figure created by her mind. Memory mixes love, fear and fantasy, so the father seems both a god and a devil.

6. Identity

• Divided self: The speaker sees herself as both the daughter of a German and a victim like a Jew. This shows her inner conflict.
• Persona: Plath introduced the poem as spoken by a girl whose father died while she thought he was God. So we should treat the speaker as a created voice, and not assume that every detail is exactly Plath’s life.

Key Points to Remember

• Nazi imagery expresses extreme fear and control.
• The poem moves from powerlessness to rejection of the father.
• Trauma, memory and identity are tightly linked.
• Many critics have questioned the use of Holocaust imagery. We will discuss this in the next lecture.

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