The Applicant
by lhansford87
One of the best poem I would have to say I like of Plath is ” The Applicant”. The more I read and did research about this poem they more I liked it. First of all Plath’s reading of this poem makes it even better. When you get to hear a poem read by the person who wrote it there is a different experience and also new insight on the poem. When she read it she sounded fierce, and angry. She wanted to be heard and she wanted people to understand where she was coming from.
Some of the issues in the poem definitely still hit come today. The expectations of a marriage are different now , well I wouldn’t say completely different depending on the couple but women are more independent now. Some of the roles that women were expected to do men now are too. Men cook, clean, take care of the kids, etc. We even have stay at home dads and the wife goes out and brings home the bread. I think Plath really wanted society to realize the limits and responsibilities they put on both men and women
lhansford87 
My favorite voice of Plath’s is her angry voice. I love when she writes out of anger or frustration because the feeling is so raw. After she wrote an angry letter to a young man she had been seeing, Plath tried to persuade herself to feel guilty about the letter and tried telling herself that she behaved inappropriately. But, sure enough, the hypocrisy of gender inequalities fired her up. She asked why women were “the receptacle of emotions, the carer of children, the provider of solace” and that since the moment she was conceived, her destiny was decided for her because whew as a woman. At the end of her entry she wrote “Being born a woman is my awful tragedy.” The Applicant speaks to me so much more after having that insight, especially the lines “It can sew, it can cook, / It can talk, talk, talk.” Because why should women be expected to only be those things and not their own independent career woman?