This picture really represented the overall emotion in Sylvia Plath's "Daddy." The poem is full of anger, resentment, and violence resulting from the anger and resentment. Plath obliviously had a lot of bottled up emotion towards both her father and her ex-husband that she flooded this poem with. This picture is of an angry face being pushed by a strong hand, much like how Plath's life was dominated by her father and ex-husband, both physically and mentally. The face is basically Plath's internal emotions and the hand is her father and ex-husband. Plath described her father and husband using various words that implied strength, control, and violence, words such as: "God," "statue," "Marble-heavy," and "wars." The hand in the image definitely displays all three qualities: strength (pushing down upon the head), control (the firm grip on the head), and violence (the forceful and rough handling of the head). The same applies to the way Plath described her own emotions: "barely daring" (fear), "stuck" (helplessness), and "kill" (anger). The head in the picture is in fear because it at the mercy of the hand, helpless because it cannot overpower the hand, and angry because it is living in fear and being controlled. The strong words Plath carefully choose in her poem to describe the thoughts and emotions within herself presents a strong, effective, and convincing image. Although it is very obvious what the negative feelings behind the poem are, having an image further enhances what the poem is trying to convey. An image aids the reader in imagining and understanding the poem, they can relate the image to the poem and visually see what the poet wants the reader to take away from the poem.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Imagery and Language
This picture really represented the overall emotion in Sylvia Plath's "Daddy." The poem is full of anger, resentment, and violence resulting from the anger and resentment. Plath obliviously had a lot of bottled up emotion towards both her father and her ex-husband that she flooded this poem with. This picture is of an angry face being pushed by a strong hand, much like how Plath's life was dominated by her father and ex-husband, both physically and mentally. The face is basically Plath's internal emotions and the hand is her father and ex-husband. Plath described her father and husband using various words that implied strength, control, and violence, words such as: "God," "statue," "Marble-heavy," and "wars." The hand in the image definitely displays all three qualities: strength (pushing down upon the head), control (the firm grip on the head), and violence (the forceful and rough handling of the head). The same applies to the way Plath described her own emotions: "barely daring" (fear), "stuck" (helplessness), and "kill" (anger). The head in the picture is in fear because it at the mercy of the hand, helpless because it cannot overpower the hand, and angry because it is living in fear and being controlled. The strong words Plath carefully choose in her poem to describe the thoughts and emotions within herself presents a strong, effective, and convincing image. Although it is very obvious what the negative feelings behind the poem are, having an image further enhances what the poem is trying to convey. An image aids the reader in imagining and understanding the poem, they can relate the image to the poem and visually see what the poet wants the reader to take away from the poem.
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That picture that you provided quite well showed the overall emotion of the speaker in the poem "Daddy" by Sylvia Plath. It reminds me of a person full of hatred, anger, and resentment being forced down by a more powerful person like someone to be feared as the speaker was afraid of her father. It makes one feel powerless when one cant do anything, but bottle up all these emotions and not having someone to let it out on until that person is gone.
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