Nicholas Wang

"The vampire who said he was you": War and Men
According to Merriam-Webster, war is “a struggle or competition between opposing forces or for a particular end” (War). In Sylvia Plath’s life, she has to struggle and compete with the hardships of her life which included the men who were significant in her life and the World War II society. Of the many images used by Sylvia Plath, one of her more prominent and important images are her images of war. Sylvia Plath uses images of war in order to criticize men and war through her poems “Lady Lazarus”, “Daddy”, and “The Swarm”.
Throughout much of Sylvia Plath’s life, men have been the reason for much of her grief. Her father died when she was very young, causing Sylvia to be traumatized the rest of her life, and her husband whom she loved very much, was cheating on her. All of these problems fueled Plath’s resentment towards men and helped assist in writing her poetry. In “Lady Lazarus”, Sylvia writes “Out of ash/ I rise with my red hair/ And I eat men like air” (82-84). The ash refers to how the Nazi’s during World War II burned many of their prisoners in chambers and their remains. Sylvia uses this comparison to show how, in her life, the men held her prisoner, and kept her within their clutches. As a result, she says that she’s eating men like air to show that men area bountiful so using them is not a big loss. She also shows resent towards men when she says “I knew what do to/ I made a model of you. / A man in black with a Meinkampf look” (Daddy 63-65). By saying she will make a model of her father, she is criticizing how men are easily replaceable and worthless. The man in black refers to her husband, and by saying he has a Meinkampf look, she’s showing how evil her husband is. The use of Hitler’s book makes her image very extreme and shows her real feeling towards the men in her life.
In addition to her hatred towards men, Plath despises war just as much. In “Daddy” Plath says “I have always been scared of you. / With your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo” (41-42). By using the word gobbledygoo, the true nature of war is shown. Gobbledygoo is a very childish words, and in this context, Plath is using it to show how war is very immature and irrational, which has no concern to the world. In addition to childish references, Plath says “Shh! There are chess people you play with” (Swarm 11) which refers to the soldiers of war. Sylvia Plath is criticizing the politicians of war in this line because they are telling soldiers what to do, and the soldiers have to obey. Like chess figures, they have no will for themselves, only to obey orders. Finally, Sylvia believes that war makes people blind to their surroundings by saying “A black intractable mind / Napoleon is pleased, he is pleased with everything” (Swarm 58-59). Napoleon failed in taking over Europe, so Plath says Napoleon is happy because he is oblivious to what has really happened to him and his army.
The use of extreme war images in Sylvia Plath’s poetry makes her themes pop out at the reader very well. They portray her thoughts about men and war, both of which she loathe because of what has happened to her in her life. Of all of Sylvia Plath’s imagery, her war images are the strongest.