Imagery in literature provides the writer with an instrument for establishing a viewpoint or perspective. The author can use an unlimited amount of symbols, similes, and metaphors that produce an atmosphere for the reader to visualize the story effectively. In the poem "Daddy," written by Sylvia Plath, the author utilizes numerous clusters of images to represent the fury and wrath of a crazed woman haunted by her father's frightening and domineering disposition. Plath uses this imagery to depict the emotional chaos controlling fathers inflict on their offspring.

One of the most prominent groups of images Plath uses to show the turmoil and fear the narrator feels for her father is comparing him with Nazi Germany, the devil's hoofs, and a vampire. Evil, mean-spirited images flourish within "Daddy." The speaker characterizes her father as a Nazi. Phrases like, "With your Luftwaffe" (l. 42), "your neat moustache and your Aryan eye" (l. 43), and "Panzer-man, panzer-man" (l. 45) fill the poem with images of Deutschland during the Second World War. The "Luftwaffe" (l. 42)Cthe most powerful air force in EuropeCimplies that no matter where the speaker runs and hides, her father will always find her. In line 43, the "neat moustache" and "Aryan eye" compares her father with Adolf Hitler, the most ruthless, evil man in history. "Panzer-man" (l. 45) implies her father was like one of the most feared military machines, an armored tank producing a mind-chilling sound when approaching its target. She also says he is "not God but a swastika" (l. 46), the flag which signifies pure hatred. The speaker continues her assault with images of a devil's hoofs and a demon-like vampire. The affiliation of the vampire to her father is an image that still haunts her day after day until she finally kills him, driving a stake in his "fat black heart" (l. 75). The mind-numbing emotions these images instill can rip apart any human's sanity.

Plath focuses on images with somber and dreary shades of color that enable her to create a dismal backdrop for the poem. The narrator uses the color black throughout the poem to depict her father as a wicked man. She mentions a model she made of her father as, "A man in black, with a Meinkampf look" (l. 65). Here, Plath uses a German word that reminds the reader again of the Nazi empire. The color black associates the father with death and destruction. In the beginning of the poem, an image of a "black shoe in which I have lived like a foot" (l. 2) is mentioned. Consequently, the shoe is the father's web, manipulating the speaker's awareness. Line 47 describes the sky as black, that light cannot penetrate the darkness. This image illustrates thick, black smoke rising from a war-torn landscape. Here the father destroys the narrator's future, darkening her emotions. His war machine is relentless. In line 56, the speaker refers to her own heart as "pretty red," but in line 75, she reveals that her father has a "fat black heart." The difference between colors of hearts emphasizes the hatred the speaker has for her father. Her emotional misery toward her father will never diminish.

The author's choice of imagery allows the reader to establish a connection with the emotionally unstable narrator. The images are blended together so the reader can have a better understanding of the narrator's thoughts and feelings. With Plath's use of colors, shades, and illustrations, the reader can experience the emotional torment and anger of the speaker. The rousing images in "Daddy" produce a forbidding atmosphere which consumes the reader. Even though the father is dead and gone, the torture and pain he inflicted on his daughter will forever remain eternal. Just as the aroma of a rose will dissipate with time, the scars produced by its thorns are reminders of the pain it once administered.