Analyze critically the role played by Sylvia Plath's father in her poems. (MEG 102) (SYLVIA PLATH AND CONFESSIONAL POETRY)

Sylvia Plath's father, Otto Plath, plays a prominent role in many of her poems, particularly in her later work. Plath's relationship with her father was complex, and she both admired and resented him for his intellectual achievements and his strict parenting style.

In her poem "Daddy," Plath portrays her father as a Nazi and herself as a victim. The poem is a powerful expression of the anger and resentment she felt towards her father, who died when she was just eight years old. Plath uses a variety of metaphors to describe her father, including "a bag full of God" and "a swastika," suggesting that he was a dominating and oppressive figure in her life.

Similarly, in "The Colossus," Plath describes her father as a massive statue that she must come to terms with. She writes, "I have always been scared of you, / With your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo. / And your neat mustache / And your Aryan eye, bright blue." The poem suggests that Plath was haunted by her father's memory and struggled to reconcile her feelings towards him.

In other poems, such as "Daddy's Boy" and "Medusa," Plath explores the complex psychological dynamics of the father-daughter relationship. In these poems, she portrays her father as both an object of desire and a source of fear and anxiety.

Overall, Plath's portrayal of her father in her poems is a powerful and complex expression of her own psychological struggles. Through her poetry, she confronts her feelings of anger, resentment, and fear towards her father, and explores the ways in which his legacy continued to shape her life and her work.