Log In
|
My Passes
|
Sign Up
Learning Guides
Teacher Resources
Test Prep
College Readiness
Schools & Districts
All of Shmoop
Literature
Bible
Poetry
Shakespeare
Mythology
Bestsellers
Dr. Seuss
Pre-Algebra
Algebra
Algebra II
Geometry
Biology
US History
Flashcards
DMV
Careers
SAT
ACT
AP Exams
En Español
Essay Lab
Videos
Literary Critics
Shmoop Shtuff
Cite This Page
To Go
iOS Learning Guide
Scribd PDF
Kindle: Learning Guide
Nook: Learning Guide
Sony Reader: Learning Guide
Amazon Print-on-Demand
Daddy
by
Sylvia Plath
Home
Poetry
Daddy
Literary Devices
Symbols, Imagery, Wordplay
Intro
The Poem
Summary
Analysis
Themes
Quotes
Study Questions
Best of the Web
How to Read a Poem
Symbolism, Imagery, Wordplay
Nazis and the Holocaust
Vampires
Size
Communication
Advertisement
Table of Contents
ADVERTISEMENT
Daddy Symbolism, Imagery & Wordplay
There’s more to a poem than meets the eye.
Nazis and the Holocaust
The speaker indicates that her German father is like a Nazi, and that she is like a Jew. This is a very powerful metaphor for how the speaker feels like she is a victim of her father, or perhaps fo...
Vampires
At the end of this poem, the metaphor for the speaker's father and husband, and potentially all men, shifts from Nazis to vampires. These men go from being depicted as living horrors to undead horr...
Size
The speaker in this poem describes herself as small, and her father as immense. But for the most part she doesn't just come out and say so: she shows us with imagery and metaphors. This adds to the...
Communication
If a fan of Cool Hand Luke, a classic movie starring Paul Newman, took a look at this poem, she'd probably quote the film and say, "What we have here is failure to communicate." As we have seen, th...