About Poem "The Applicant". Literature and Language Paper.

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The Applicant by Sylvia Plath
This poem “the Applicant” was published for the first time on 17th January 1963 in the London Magazine. In details, the poem discusses about the meaning of marriage, social pressures and gender using the framework of an interview. When Plath wrote this poem in the early 1960s, debate on part played by women in marriage was seriously questioned. Sylvia Plath was a short story writer, a novelist and an American poet. She was born on October 27, 1932 in Massachusetts. At the age of ten, poet Sylvia Plath tried to slit her throat and this was after the death of her father. In 1956, Plath married a fellow poet and lived together in the United States. They later relocated to England. When his husband made another relationship, Sylvia Plath was depressed since she had contracted a virus infection and was looking after two of his children on her own.
The ‘Applicant” is a poem that examines the meaning of gender stereotypes, marriage and social pressure with the use of an interview framework. In the poem the authors questions the applicant who is a man who has been given an opportunity to possess a commodity. The commodity in this case is a wife. The man regards the wife as a commodity, a product of the market and the man has all the right to own her. The poem condemns gender stereotypes and gives views on the meaning of marriage. It also focuses on women’s role in a conventional marriage. Sylvia Plath wrote this poem a few days after decision to divorce his husband Ted Hughes. During that time, women held no power in her society and so she interpreted it as a comment on her isolation w...