This poem displays Sylvia’s emotions and feelings towards her Father. She feels frustrated and there is a lack of communication between Father and daughter. She has been hurt, betrayed, and may not have be cared for as a child. For all we know he may have abused her. ‘Sorry I had to kill you.’ This poem has German backgrounds, note the use of the term ‘swastika’ instead of God and the reference to the Jews ‘Chaffing me of like a Jew.’ In Nazi Germany, Germans hated Jews. This poem shows the feelings between families that suffer from lack of interaction and selfishness and do not have good foundations. I believe Sylvia Plath is showing her emotions in this through the possible hatred in her farther, referring to him as a vampire who has now be stacked.
November 11, 2012 at 12:53 pm
These interpretations make sense. You are speculating about the possible nature of Path’s relationship with her father, and these guesses do make sense considering the extremity of Plath’s imagery. But in other parts of the poem she refers to how little she remembers him
“You stand at the blackboard, daddy,
In the picture I have of you,”
Which reminds us that she was 8 when he died of the complications of diabetes that were partly a result of his not seeking appropriate medical help.
This means that your sense that they have no communication is correct, but this could be due to the fact that she barely remembers him. He left her by dying.
Does this make sense? It may be more the memory of him and his absence that makes her so angry.
You have done well to present ideas and support them with quotations – and the quality and clarity of your writing is improving all the time.
CW