Hello and welcome to the Discourse. ‘The Applicant’ is a highly satirical poem by Sylvia Plath first published in The London Magazine in 1963 and then republished in her posthumous poetic collection Ariel in 1965. Plath wrote the poem after she separated away from her husband Ted Hughes. The poem appears to be her own expression of exasperation with her tumultuous marriage to the poet Ted Hughes. The poem raises the themes of rampant consumerism and patriarchy. The poem reprimands the wider trends and gendered stereotypes in post-war British and American cultures. The speaker is a bombastic and menacing salesman who interviews and tries to sell a potential wife to a man, the Applicant.
The poem parodies the transactional nature of modern courtship and marriages. To facilitate the deal, the speaker points out the applicant’s supposed shortcomings and depersonalizes his potential wife, so that she appears to be the ideal solution to all the applicant's problems. The poet satirizes that consumerism constantly creates and exploits superficial needs to encourage product consumption. To sell the applicant’s potential wife, the speaker dehumanizes her and strips her of all personality so that she is highly adaptable to the applicant’s needs and desires. She is supposed to “fill” his empty hand and be “the ticket” to remedying his empty head. The speaker measures the applicant against a narrow definition of masculinity that prioritizes dominance in all areas of life while presenting the potential wife as the perfect archetype of a submissive woman, a 'living doll’. The speaker denies both the applicant and his potential wife their individual identities and right to self-determination. Thus, the speaker suggests that the market and society force the patriarchal gender roles to restrict the freedom of both men and women.
Structure of The Applicant:
It is a 40-line poem written in free verse. The lines are set in 8 five-line stanzas (quintains). The poem is a dramatic monologue with no rhyming scheme or specific metrical form. The poet uses satire, repetition, and dehumanizing language to critique consumerism, societal pressures, and the transactional nature of marriage. The poem uses aporia, synecdoche, symbolism, repetition, imagery, and irony.
Summary of The Applicant:
Stanza 1 Lines 1-5
“First, are you our sort of a person?
Do you wear
A glass eye, false teeth or a crutch,
Rubber breasts or a rubber crotch,”
The poem is set as a man reaches to face the interviewer, the speaker who is in the job of making matches. The speaker begins with an aporia, suggesting that there is no guarantee that he would be able to provide a proper match to the man because he is not convinced if the applicant is ‘our’ sort of a person. ‘Our’ suggests that the interviewer isn’t acting alone, but he represents society, the market, or a larger system. It also indicates a sense of isolation for the applicant as an outsider to society at large. The interviewer pushes the applicant to fit into the expectations to become the right person for a deal. The speaker goes on to ask if the applicant has a glass eye, false teeth, a crutch, a brace, a hook, rubber breasts, or a rubber crotch. The speaker queries if the applicant is a mutilated man, a man in need, and in desperation. The speaker evaluates the applicant for what he lacks instead of who he is. The first stanza shows the rigid and unjust standards of the market and how consumerism and societal pressure dehumanize individuals. The terms ‘rubber breasts’ or ‘rubber crotch’ sound harsh, demeaning, and mechanical.
Stanza 2 Lines 6-10
“Stitches to show something’s missing? No, no? Then
How can we give you a thing?
Stop crying.
Open your hand.
Empty? Empty. Here is a hand”
In the second stanza, the speaker further strengthens the idea that people are judged by what they lack, instead of who they are or what qualities they possess. The speaker asks if the applicant has ‘stitches’ to show if something is missing. It is a Biblical allusion suggesting that Eve was created from Adam’s rib and hints that a man is incomplete without a woman. The description may also allude to the creature in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, whose monstrous body is made up of body parts stolen from corpses. The speaker hints that the market is not for completely sane humans, it demands the consumers to be needy, lacking, and desperate, and if they are not, the market forces will try to make them desperate, otherwise, they are not ideal consumers. The speaker notices that the applicant is complete, he is not mutilated, and there is no stitch on him. He says that the applicant might not be a suitable consumer, implying that they won't be able to give him anything. The applicant appears to begin crying. The speaker stops him harshly and reprimands him ‘Stop crying,’ there is no need for emotions if the deal has to be made. The speaker asks the applicant to open his hand and observes it empty. Emptiness suggests a need. The speaker offers a ‘Hand’, a synecdoche to represent a wife. The empty hand symbolizes a need for service, rather than love or partnership.
Stanza 3 Lines 11-15
“To fill it and willing
To bring teacups and roll away headaches
And do whatever you tell it.
Will you marry it?
It is guaranteed”
In these lines, the speaker offers the role of the ‘hand’ he presented as the viable product for the applicant. The hand is meant to serve. The speaker mentions what the hand (wife) can do for the applicant. The hand can ‘bring teacups and roll away headaches’ which serves to epitomize the ‘traditional’ role of the wife characterized over time. The poet uses the imagery of servitude to show how societal expectations devalue individuality in favor of fitting into predefined roles. The speaker addresses the hand (wife) as ‘it’, completely dehumanizing the woman. It will 'bring teacups and roll away headaches.’ The speaker asks ‘Will you marry it?’ The wife is just a hand to serve, a handmaiden, a servile entity to please. The ‘hand’ or wife is a product that comes with a guarantee.
Stanza 4 Lines 16-20
“To thumb shut your eyes at the end
And dissolve of sorrow.
We make new stock from the salt.
How about this suit——”
In this stanza, the speaker mentions how the ‘hand’ of the entity to be sold is totally dependent on the applicant. The hand (wife) will be with the man even when he dies (til death do us part) and then ‘dissolve of sorrow,’ without him, ‘it’ has no purpose and will simply fade away. The speaker notices that the man is naked, he is incomplete without a wife and offers a suit, which symbolizes the societal pressures men experience to take on a hard-nosed masculine persona, without it, they are incomplete and vulnerable. The man is naked because without a woman he is incomplete.
Stanza 5 Lines 21-25
“Black and stiff, but not a bad fit.
Will you marry it?
It is waterproof, shatterproof, proof
Against fire and bombs through the roof.
Believe me, they'll bury you in it.”
The speaker describes the suit which is black and stiff but will fit anyway. Without it, the applicant is naked and vulnerable. The speaker mentions the ‘hand’ again and asks the applicant if he is willing to marry it.
The 'suit' for marriage, like the woman (hand) the applicant needs to prop up his masculinity for life. The suit offers special powers to the man as it is waterproof, shatterproof… The Speaker suggests that marriage is an unbreakable agreement, the hand will remain obedient for life, the suit will never perish and the applicant will be buried in it after he dies, he will remain married forever. This durability suggests inflexibility, making it seem as though once someone enters this role, there is no room for growth or escape. Marriage is a confinement, it suggests. Plath gives off a sympathetic tone towards the applicant himself, implying that men are simply products of existing cultural norms.
Stanza 6 Lines 26-30
“Now your head, excuse me, is empty.
I have the ticket for that.
Come here, sweetie, out of the closet.
Well, what do you think of that?
The speaker notices that the applicant’s head is empty, which suggests that he lacks his own thoughts and is unable to make a decision. The poet shows how men are forced into roles like marriage without questioning why, simply because society expects it. The speaker depicts the applicant as a naive boy with a sense of naivety and helplessness. The speaker offers a ticket, the girl to be married. The 'hand' that he already presented is now presented as a whole. The speaker asks the woman to come out of the closet and mentions it ‘naked’ as paper to start. The ‘nakedness’ of the woman is different from that of the applicant. Her nakedness is a symbol of the wife’s submission: she is a blank sheet of paper on which the husband can write anything he wants, telling her what to think or do. The woman is “Naked as paper to start” because, like Pygmalion, the applicant can shape her according to his needs. The stanza indicates the deep imbalance between men and women, with the man given some illusion of choice, while the woman is treated as an object to mold, without any say in her future. However, the applicant, the man too is naked, and likewise has no voice.
Stanza 7 Lines 31-35
“But in twenty-five years she'll be silver,
A living doll, everywhere you look.
It can sew, it can cook,
It can talk, talk, talk.”
The speaker mentions that though the wife is a blank paper now, she will keep changing as per the applicant’s life, and will be silver in 25 years and fold in fifty, comparing the wife to a wedding anniversary. In a way, the wife is an investment for the applicant, the speaker suggests. The speaker offers the woman to the applicant as a ‘living doll’, a helpless, docile person, a plaything, again suggesting imagery of servitude with sexual connotations. The speaker further mentions the services the woman can offer, ‘it can sew, it can cook,’ showing the limited roles assigned to women in marriage. The speaker also mentions ‘it can talk. ‘Talk’ is repeated two more times, suggesting that he talks, her opinions don’t hold any worth, other than entertainment if need be. Her role is reduced only to serve, to entertain, and to please like a ‘living doll.’
Stanza 8 Lines 36-40
“It works, there is nothing wrong with it.
You have a hole, it’s a poultice.
You have an eye, it’s an image.
My boy, it’s your last resort.
Will you marry it, marry it, marry it.”
After mentioning that the woman may talk, talk, and talk, the speaker says that it works, it is perfect for the applicant who lacks something. The marriage is presented as a transactional arrangement focused on function rather than emotional fulfillment. The speaker stresses the practicality of the relationship irrespective of it is meaningful or not. The speaker mentions the neediness of the man as a hole. The husband lacks something—physically, psychologically, or emotionally, the hand, wife, or ‘it’ is expected to be a tool for healing the husband as a poultice covers a wound. The speaker also stresses the beauty of the woman, suggesting that the wife must be useful but decorative as well. She is a ‘living doll’, a work of art to contemplate and admire, so she must remain attractive. The speaker then mentions that it is the ‘last resort’ for the applicant, there is no other choice and he has to say yes, and then he asks again ‘Will you marry it?’ The repetition of ‘marry it’ suggests the societal force that the applicant cannot ignore, there is no choice for either the man or woman, both are victims of societal norms and gender stereotypes.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
No comments:
Post a Comment