Analysis of "The Applicant" by Sylvia Plath

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Applicant analysis

At first, a reader might think the title 'The Applicant' refers to a job applicant. Perhaps one will visualize a job interview scenario in which the applicant is sitting across the desk from someone who expects her to sell herself as a good candidate for the role. Upon further reading, it seems that the role being applied for is that of a wife-and that the applicant is not being offered any chance to speak for herself; it is more as if this role is being sold to her or told to her, as if she has little choice in the matter-or perhaps the speaker of the poem is meant to be a version of the applicant herself, in a snide attempt to talk herself into acquiescing to a role that does not suit her.

Another way to read this poem is that the applicant is a man applying to receive a wife as if a wife is some kind of a product-and it almost seems as if the voice of the poem is trying to talk this man into accepting a defective product; trying to convince him that a defective wife/product is better than no wife/product, especially in the second to last line of the piece, in which it is flat out stated to be a 'last resort'.

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Substantial conflict related to how to respond to and fit into the domestic sphere is a recurring issue in Plath's writing, suggesting this was an issue she struggled with in her real life. A small part of her seemed to buy into and even desire a fairy tale marriage, but a larger part of her seemed to bitterly realize that she was not the type who could ever fill the role of wife successfully, because she could not help but to perceive the role as docile and vapid and otherwise weak and she could not help but to disdain and ...

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