Parker's 'Résumé', Plath's 'Daddy' and Smith's 'Not Waving but Drowning' approach traumatic and fatal experiences through the use of dark humour. Each poet succinctly addresses forms of suffering and taboo through saturating their poetry with an irony and cynicism, which allows them to mask graver messages or societal ideas they wish to explore. Through juxtaposing imagery of life and death they create for themselves a forum whereby they can freely apply humour to stereotypically negative motifs like war and death. In doing so, they manage to subliminally speak of controversial societal issues relating to suicide, existence and patriarchy in ways which are striking to their audiences and spark reflection upon what lies underneath the surface readings of their poetry. Thus, the poets’ employment of imagery laced in dark humour allows for the exploration of more profound subject matters.
Dorothy Parker’s ‘Résumé’ tackles the taboo topic of suicide as her poem advocates not to put effort into trying to die and instead suggesting how it would be a lot easier to just live. In doing so she ties together the pain attributed to the desire of wanting to end one’s life with wit into a union whereby they can be viewed to both compliment and diminish one another simultaneously. Emotion is severely lacking in this poem, as amplified by the poems rigid form and concise sentence lengths, therefore the dark humour Parker uses is more cutting and more prevalent. Notably, Parker whose poem was written in 1926, was writing in a decade where ‘humour figured prominently’, shifting especially towards wit and dark cynicism, therefore her stylistic approach is in keeping with the developments in American humour in literature during the 1920s. Furthermore, Parker’s epigrammatic style results in a lack of metaphors and poetic language, and so the speaker simply presents a list of possible ways to commit suicide, then immediately dissects them by examining the faults that arise from each option. It is within these short rationalizations that Smith can be seen to incorporate a dark humour as the speaker suggests that drowning is not an ideal method for ending one’s life due to the nature of rivers being ‘damp’ (l.2). Consequently, the severity of a drowning attempt is nullified by the superfluous suggestion that a person seeking to end their life would worry about getting ‘damp’ in the process. This comical reasoning can be read as Parker’s suggestion that the reasons to continue living need not be multifaceted and instead should be as simplistic and trivial as not wanting to get wet. The suffering from the ‘cramps’ (l.4) and ‘smells’ (l.7), although they would come to a sooner end, are suggested to be worse than prolonging a life, which from the lack of enthusiasm in the final line infers one without happiness.
Parker concludes the poem with a fatalistic tone, proposing ‘You might as well live’. The personal pronoun of ‘you’ adds a universal element to the poem, therefore the message of life being able to just about overcome a desire to die is projected onto an audience that despite the generation would still find such a matter of fact discussion on a topic as delicate as suicide, shocking to the point they refute Parker for pushing the boundaries with dark humour. The diction of ‘might as well’ displays a lack of confidence and conviction in this solution. However, in comparison to the lengthy list of failed alternatives, living is presented as the most feasible option available. The final line lacks passion to advocate living therefore it reads as a mere resignation. This final line consists of five syllables, breaking the previously regular metrical pattern whereby all but one line is written in dimeter. This shift mirrors the shift from imagery relating to death to a brief discussion of life, which is not entirely positive as living is portrayed as a last resort. Parker cleverly overturns taboo here, since usually suicide is classified as a last resort not living. Additionally, Parker’s decision to opt for this simple meter detracts from the severity of the subject matter, reducing it to almost a child’s rhyme. With an ABABCDCD rhyme scheme, the poem is easily remembered, much like children’s rhymes are. The dark humour in this decision derives from the fact that the grotesque matter of suicide and death is being put against the innocence of a children’s rhyme.
Nevertheless, the use of Parker’s dark humour is most apparent in the title of her poem, which holds a double meaning. A ‘résumé’ being a list of achievements, therefore implies that the ‘razors’, ‘rivers’ and ‘drugs’ are all a part of a list of things the speaker has achieved or experienced. However, the irony comes from fact that the speaker despite the lengthy list created has found no success at all and is still alive. Consequently, the second meaning derived from the title seems to offer an interpretation more in keeping with the message of the concluding line of the poem. The implications of the word ‘résumé’ without the accents leaves it referring to the continuing on of something. Parker can be argued to have picked this pun to highlight the irony of having failed achievements part of one’s ‘résumé’ whilst also subtly hinting that it is most likely better to ‘resume’ life than to go through the hassle trying to end it. Subsequently, Parker is successful in using dark humour to explore the matter of suicide, using it in various ways to achieve different effects.
Plath’s poem ‘Daddy’ instead approaches the matter of childhood trauma, something which has seen countless attempts for autobiographical analysis. Plath harnesses dark humour in her exploration of a troubled father/daughter relationship post the death of the father, making use of overstatements. Furthermore, she explores what at the time was controversial to discuss, the notion of patriarchal bullying, through humorously likening the father-figure to a Nazi and the speaker to a Jew, thus aligning the persona with powerless victims, a choice which is ultimately hyperbolic and preposterous. Plath writes, ‘With your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo. / And your neat moustache / And your Aryan eye, bright blue.’ (ll. 42-44) Here, Plath deliberately steps away from ‘lived experience’ through her employment of Holocaust iconography as part of her elaborate joke, in order for her to show how the persona finds difficulty articulating in any other metaphors other than those that are extremely brutal in referencing the Holocaust as to convey the magnitude of the damage caused by the suggested patriarchal oppressor. The imagery of the ‘neat moustache’ prompts associations with Hitler, an intrinsically evil being who severely abused his power and brought about incredible amounts of suffering. Plath’s dark humour here likens the father-figure’s personality and actions to that as evil as Hitler’s, which is an extreme overstatement, ironically placing both figures on same the level. As a child’s perspective is conveyed throughout the poem, it is understandable that the persona draws such strong comparisons and makes such huge exaggerations as they can be argued to be pent up with angst which fuels impassioned projections of grief and confusion, which cannot be communicated effectively thus inevitably being displayed as name-calling, emphasizing the childish mindset. The repetition of the personal pronoun ‘your’ accentuates the attacking tone, however, the anonymity of the speaker and thus the father-figure allows for this ‘you’ to be reflective of all patriarchal figures in general, thus vilifying all men who abuse their status to the disadvantage and/or suffering of others.
Much like Parker, Plath contrasts her dark humour with childish rhyme. The poem repeats an end slant rhyme, whereby the vowel sounds of ‘u’/‘oo’ reoccur in every stanza, and this is most clearly seen in the word choice of ‘gobbledygoo’. Plath alters the word from ‘gobbledygook’ to her ‘gobbledygoo’ thus verifying to the reader that the presence of this rhyme is not merely coincidental. This change suggests the child’s perspective in the poem is reflected through language and is sown into the very framework of the poem as the trauma from childhood remains deep within the being of the persona. Moreover, the fact that war imagery is juxtaposed so closely by the gibberish of ‘gobbledygoo’ suggests a hint of dark humour as it dramatizes the conflict within the speaker but it cannot be rationalised and communicated fully due to the child’s perspective as the father died whilst the speaker was still a child – ‘I was ten when they buried you’ (l.57) hence the gibberish of ‘gobbledygoo’. The memories and feelings are foggy therefore creating a great war within the protagonist, suggest that it results in fatalities and suffering as severe as in World War II.
What is most striking in Plath’s poem is the visceral feeling of loss, a raw emotion which is not detected in Parker’s poem, which sharply contrasts the dark humour apparent from the association of the father-figure with Hitler or at least a Nazi. In this ‘comic-grotesque scenario of “Daddy,”’ the presumed female persona grows her voice to reject patriarchal bullying and to reveal that as a female, she refuses to be eradicated in the same kind of senseless genocide faced by Jews in the Holocaust. Although this use of exaggeration to such a degree where fathers become cruel patriarchal leaders and women become victims, can be interpreted as incredibly insensitive as the persona’s attempt to articulate personal emotions relating to her father do not warrant the use of Holocaust imagery, Plath has been praised for not ‘sanitizing consciousness at its most centrifugal; she lets the wrong notes in her song stay wrong.’ In fact, Plath’s ability to push boundaries of what was deemed politically and morally acceptable allowed her to explore grief and trauma in a way that was witty, yet relatable to the contemporary reader, using motifs and symbols that were all too familiar. Plath’s overstatements are therefore her trademark in this poem, allowing her to be ironic and for her persona to belittle and scorn a patriarchal tyrant, who she seems to encounter time and time again in her father and in her husband – ‘the vampire who said he was you’ (l.72). The ability to overcome the trauma is due to her ability to use dark humour to draw parallels with history’s most brutal of events, allowing her to separate herself from ‘the black telephone’ (l.69) and negative elements that haunt her life and stifle progression. The contrast of life and death in the poem, of Nazi against Jew, depicts how innocent lives were effected by patriarchal control and there is a sense of death of the self with the holding onto the childhood trauma. It is only when the speaker announces ‘Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I’m through’ (l.80) that she regains control of her life and no longer let’s herself be a victim of oppressive forces.
Finally, Smith’s ‘Not Waving but Drowning’ masks the issues relating to living a troubled existence through telling a story where a man’s attempt to prevent himself from drowning is witnessed by others and interpreted as him waving, with the effect of being darkly humourous. Smith sharply contrasts the comic and the tragic throughout this poem to convey the morbidity of death especially when it could have easily been prevented. Firstly, it seems unrealistic for someone to misinterpret someone’s cry for help as a casual wave whilst being submerged in water but Smith can be seen to use this in order to present the focal metaphors of miscommunication and deafness to other’s troubles in a way which physically alienates the male character in the poem, causing his downfall. Inevitably, Smith highlights a societal flaw of people being unable to extended their concern to others, thus neglecting others resulting in a needless loss of life. The humour lies in the fact that the relatively clear body language was misinterpreted so severely, posing the onlookers as idle, therefore possibly reflective of the stupidity of society as they turn a blind eye to people in need of help in their troubled lives. The line ‘It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way, / they said’ (l.7) reiterates society’s vacant observation of others. The diction of ‘must’ and ‘they said’ shows the lack of certainty, the lack of clarification and lastly that there is a lack of genuine concern or empathy surrounding this death. Consequently, this line encapsulates the ignorance of society which Smith possibly seeks to critique.
The dark humour is continued through the employment of colloquial language in the reference to ‘poor chap’ (l.5), whereby the man remains unnamed whilst also receiving little pity or sincere empathy for not being saved. Smith explores the disconnect in society through not having an omniscient third person narrator and instead using ironic, juxtaposing interjections from the dead man in his attempt to correct the mistakes made when recalling his death. The dead man states, that in fact ‘I was much too far out all my life’ (l.11), suggestive of the fact that he was alienated his entire life and now will remain in this isolated state in death as still his interruptions fall on deaf ears. The metaphor of drowning which was originally employed humourously to uncover society’s flaws now takes on a different meaning as the dead man suggests that he has been drowning all his life, thus living in constant battle and flux against death. Here, life and death are not separate entities and so the dead man after trying to keep afloat alone figuratively and literally calls out for help yet receives none, so inevitably gives up resisting the battle to against drowning. Smith’s dark humour has the most tragic effect out of all three poems, depicting the real consequences of ignorance and the importance of awareness.
In conclusion, all three poets work their way through traumatic, harrowing subject matters by deflecting their seriousness and overbearing nature with the use of dark humour. The effect of this is that they are liberated from the restraints of having to keep up a ‘polite veneer’, thus allowing them to overturn taboo and face negative issues head-on. Furthermore, through the use of nameless characters and personal pronouns, the poets make their poetry personable to different extents, all by discussing relatable issues and by leaving their targets open-ended. Overall, their dark humour and wit accentuates the craftsmanship of their poetry, highlighting their ability to easily explore serious topics with a veil of humour.