Sins of the Father Revisited: A Psychoanalytic Reading of Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy”
Sins of the Father Revisited: A Psychoanalytic Reading of Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy”

Summary/Abstract: This article analyzes Sylvia Plath’s poem “Daddy” from a Freudian perspective, suggesting that the traumatic loss of paternal figure left Plath with unresolved issues. The focus will be on the traumatic symptoms ,the exploration of her relationship with her father, its consequences and the way her trauma is represented in the poem. This article proposes that the poem “Daddy” is a cathartic text or a translation of Plath’s feelings in the sense that it reveals her unhealthy relationship with her father, the severe impact of his death, her feelings of abandonment and the attempt to regain power and control through purgation of her undesired feelings. In psychoanalytic terms, the direct confrontation with trauma or reliving childhood worst fears and memories is considered to be curative.

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