Decoding the emotion code between body and mind in Plaths Daddy

It is well known that Sylvia Plath is one of the sensational women poets in American Literary World. Sylvia Plath's poem Daddy remains one of the most controversial modern poems ever written. It showed the contradictory feelings between love as well as great hatred and disappoints feelings to her beloved daddy, who does not give any affection to her like a biological daughter. It symbolizes the relationship that they once had and how it has affected her throughout her whole life. The father in the poem, just like Plath’s father, died when the protagonist was just a child, a young girl. Sylvia Plath’s poem Daddy is a powerful and haunting piece of literature that delves into complex themes of power dynamics, gender roles, and the struggle for personal identity.  The term daddy in Plath’s poem is fraught with complexity, reflecting the troubled relationship between the speaker and her father figure. Plath uses the word to symbolize not only the literal father-daughter bond but also the larger societal constructs and power imbalances. This paper, will discuss  Plath’s poem Daddy as example and will  attempt to probe into the evolution of the representation of gendered body in her poetry.

Keywords: Mental Health, Trauma, Psychoanalysis, Confessional Poetry, Imagery, Symbolism