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A psychological contextual issue from Sylvia Plath's poem "Daddy"

Introduction

Sylvia Plath is an American poet and writer, known for her contributions in writing and in the end, her suicide as well. Her famous and well known poem Daddy was written in October 1962, a little before her suicide and was finally published in 1965. The poem is especially known for the fact that it has a number of thematic concerns and implications, and has been discussed in various academic circles in different contexts. Although the poem mainly deals with the relation of the poet with her deceased father, it serves to highlight a number of controversial psychological issues as well, which would be discussed in detail in the following paragraphs:

Discussion

In order to understand and get a clear idea about the context of Daddy, it is eminent to have an understanding about the background of the poem. The poem was written in context of the death of her father, who died due to undiagnosed cancer. Plath's father refused to get treated and passed away due to the same. In her well known poem Daddy, Plath has highlighted her relationship with her father and the pain she feels due to his attitude and refusal to get the treatment. Otto Plath, father of Sylvia Path refused to get his illness treated and refused to visit a doctor, thus passing away and leaving a ten year old daughter behind. Losing her father at such a tender age turned out to be the major setback for her, and the intensity of the incident kept haunting her for the rest of her life. She has highlighted the fact in the following lines: “Bit my pretty red heart in two. I was ten when they buried you.”

In order to explain the grief and sorrow, Plath assumes that her father committed suicide (the refusal to get consultation is considered equivalent to committing suicide) expresses her grief and sorrow by expressing her views in the form of another person. This implies that in the poem, Plath has taken an unnamed narrator and has tried to find ways to reduce her pain and suffering, in order to move ahead and carry on and continue with life. Plath has also used the same narrator to explain the efforts and the hardships that she faced after her father passed away and the psychological issues that she faced, including the feeling of emptiness and hollowness (Riebe, 2010).

The poem thus highlights the impact that the death of her father placed on her life and the way it turned out to be, after the most reliable and confidant figure passed away. Since Plath's father died because of his own deterrence and refusal to get the treatment of his disease, it highlights the psychological fact that human beings are afraid of knowing the truth, and at times they prefer remaining ignorant. The writer has also blamed her own self for being unable to convince her father of treatment, and has expressed her ...