Literature is most successful when it deals with the great problems of the world. Successful literature is one in which we can better understand the world around us from the subtle details of the text. Sylvia Plath's poems "Lady Lazarus" and "Daddy" are two such literary works that use the deeper, hidden meanings behind the imagery to convey major issues such as the oppression of women. Although the poem focuses on the narrator's personal experiences of suicide, she successfully uses her own experiences as a platform to address the major issues of her time - the oppression of women and this is what makes her poems particularly significant and successful. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Plath wrote her poem in the 1960s, a time when society was largely patriarchal. Plath successfully critiques this patriarchal nature of society through the use of Holocaust imagery and clever structure. By referencing the suffering of the Jews, she is able to offer the reader an insight into the great emotional suffering felt by an oppressed woman, a major issue rarely discussed at the time. In the poem "Daddy", Plath explains that she "started to talk like a Jew" and she uses the simile "blowing like a Jew". A Jewess in Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen” to compare her intense emotional suffering in a male-dominated society to the suffering of Jews. In the same way that the Jews had no control over where they would be taken by the Germans, the narrator believes that a woman's life was outside of her own control, but rather under the absolute authority of the men. This lack of self-control and the silenced voice of women in society at the time is further emphasized by the regimented five-line stanza throughout the poem. The lack of variation in line numbers gives the poem a rather mundane structure which reinforces the idea that an individual's oppression or lack of freedom takes away the dynamism and pleasure of life. Additionally, the rigid five-line structure also serves as a reminder of the inflexible role women were expected to take in the patriarchal society of the 1960s, which would have been a major concern for many. Plath also uses repetition successfully in “Daddy.” For example, she starts by repeating “you don’t, you don’t.” This repetition creates a rhythm to the poem that seems innocent, almost like a nursery rhyme. Through the constant repetitions throughout the poem, Plath successfully highlights the dangers of oppression that is almost demeaning to the individual as it forces the victim into a submissive, child-like state. Plath uses her poems as a platform on which she is able to address major issues, particularly oppression. women in the sixties. Lady Lazarus is another poem of his that also centers around this same idea of ​​female oppression. As with Daddy, Plath uses Holocaust imagery to highlight how deep and damaging oppression can be for an individual to the extent that it strips them of their identity and ability to express themselves. This is evident through the metaphor “My face is fine Jewish linen without features.” The face is part of a person's identity and it is how we distinguish between different people. However, here the narrator describes her own face as unrecognizable and the alliteration of the "ff" sound is soft, suggesting that a person's individuality is fragile and that oppression.