The Applicant

“The Applicant” works as a feminist poem as it critiques the way society commodifies and dehumanizes women, especially when it comes to the institution of marriage and the social conventions associated with it. The entire poem’s premise centers around the way men “shop” for a wife and the reasons why men are encouraged to marry. At no point in the poem are the woman’s needs, desires, or perspective explored; instead, the woman is an object that the man needs in order to conform to the expectation society has of him. Plath identifies how patriarchy is a negative for both women and men, though the poem focuses on the effects this society has on women.

The main way Plath communicates patriarchal society's treatment of women is by having the speaker assign all meaning to the woman based on how she fulfills a need of the male applicant. The key line here, which Plath includes in such a matter-of-fact way in the middle of the third stanza, is, “And do whatever you tell it” (Line 13). Here, the speaker presents the woman as nothing more than a servant to the man whose only purpose is to be ordered around.

The way Plath presents transaction is satirical, making the poem an example of dark comedy.