Analysis Of Sylvia Plaths Mushrooms, Daddy And Lady Lazarus

The collection of poems, Mushrooms, Daddy and Lady Lazarus by renowned poet Sylvia Plath, all detail similar values regarding the oppressive roles of women during the 50s and 60s. The prominent themes and values within her poetry reflect her own personal encounters, thoughts, relationships and her struggles with mental health. By adopting the gender and biographical critical perspectives, it allows the audience to explore Plath’s struggles as an oppressed woman with a mental disorder allowing her to become the voice for many women and a feminist icon. Mushrooms (1960) For the entirety of Plath’s life, her world was dominated by the patriarchy, with her father and husband becoming influential figures in her life. Her experience of†¦show more content†¦However, Plath continues with ‘we shall by morning/ inherit the earth/ Our foot is in the door,’ indicating the feminist movement will rise and overcome the male dominated society. Daddy (1965) Plath is considered a confessional poet with one of her most controversial poems Daddy, detailing her relationship with her father and husband. Daddy, highlights Plath’s strained and oppressive relationship with her German father, Otto Plath, who died when Plath was young. Within the first stanza ,the lines ‘black shoe/ in which I have lived like a foot/for thirty years’ references Plath’s age whilst highlighting her personal oppressive relationship with her father. Although, the poem is directed at Plath’s father, her father becomes a patriarchal symbol of women’s oppressors particularly evident within her mocking line ‘every woman adores a fascist.’ To enhance the magnitude of her oppression she felt with her father, Plath compares him to Hitler, ‘not a god but a swastika’ and herself to a Jew, ‘I think I may well be a Jew.’ Extending the biographic aspect of the poem, Plath mentions her husband, Ted Hu ghes, metaphorically referring to him as vampire whom drank her blood for seven years - the time they had known each other. When Plath wrote Daddy, the couple had split as Hughes had an affair, thus the vampire metaphor is another symbol representing Plath’s obedient and required duties to her husband as a women. In the end,