Sylvia Plath Research Paper
Sylvia Plath, the renowned poet who took her own life, was tormented by the standards established for women in a largely patriarchal society. During the mid twentieth century, when Plath was in her young adult years, gender roles were very rigid. Men’s duty was to provide for the family while the woman’s was to be a housewife. Plath struggled greatly with these preconceptions throughout her life, and expressed her inner struggle between contempt for the objectification of women and her submission to it. How exactly did Plath use her poems, The Applicant (Ariel 1965, Plath) and Mirror(Crossing the Water 1959, Plath), as a medium to express her ambivalence concerning the role of women in mid-century America?
There was a 256.8% increase in the amount of women in the workforce from 1950 to 2000 in comparison to only a 71.7% increase for men.(The Editors Desk, Bureau of Labor Statistics). The median age at first marriage of women was at it’s lowest point, between 20 and 21 years old, in the 1950s (Elliot, US Decennial Census). Another analysis concludes that “in 1950 about one in three women participated in the labor force. By 1998, nearly three of every five women of working age were in the labor force.”(Toossi, Bureau of Labor Statistics ). Such statistics qualify the idea that the 1950s and early 1960s were heavily influenced by idea of marital gender roles, as women were getting married younger, than ever before and working significantly less than men.
The Applicant from her poetry book, Ariel, published in 1965, two years posthumously, is a poem by Plath in which she defines societies objectification of women in marriage. The speaker of the poem, according to critic M. D. Uroff, is a commanding “marriage broker” (Iowa Review, 104-15) that is attempting to sell a wife to a man.
First, are you our sort of a person?
Do you wear
A glass eye, false teeth or a crutch,
A brace or a hook,
Rubber breasts or a rubber crotch,
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.
“The Applicant, Sylvia Plath”
M. D. Uroff says that what interests the speaker is “not what we might expect from someone who would ask that question” because it is not concerning ”the social qualities of her marriage applicant, but rather her physical parts” (Iowa Review, Uroff). The use of synecdoche in in the line “here is a hand” serves to draw a parallel with a well known idiom, hand in marriage. However, Plath twists the meaning by adding “a” instead of ‘her’ before the word “hand”, causing the woman being offered to the man in the poem to be objectified. In the second part of the poem, Plath goes on to define ways in which women are used as tools for men.
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
To thumb shut your eyes at the end
And dissolve of sorrow.
We make new stock from the salt.
I notice that you are stark naked
How about this suit –
“The Applicant, Sylvia Plath”
After the speaker has clarified that the subject has no physical imperfections she goes on to offer the woman into marriage (Iowa Review, 104-115). From there on the speaker summarizes the full scope of a woman’s purpose, which is basic menial tasks to serve the husband like “bring teacups and roll away headaches”. Brita Linberg, from the Department of British and American Studies in the University of Oslo, describes the language of The Applicant as “highly informal, matching the poem’s urgent tone and fast pace.”(24, Lindberg). The poem is meant to be read at a quick pace, as though a salesman is pitching his sale. This idea of selling a woman’s hand in marriage like an object is reinforced by the line “Will you marry it? It is guaranteed” in which the woman is guaranteed in the same way products are. Besides the marketing of women in marriage, The Applicant creates an image of a hollow marriage by characterizing a woman as a hand and a man as a “suit”, revealing Plath’s view on contemporary conventional marriage as a hollow sales pitch.
Plath’s poem, Mirror, though also in second-person narrative, is a lot more personal because of the issue it addresses. Unlike The Applicant, which focuses on how society pressures women to be, Mirror focuses on the way a woman struggles under these pressures and attempts to make herself fit societies image.
I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful,
The eye of a little good, four-cornered.
“Mirror, Sylvia Plath”
I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
What ever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful---
The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
Dr. Neslin Ekmekcioglu, a professor at Indiana University Northwest, states, in an essay from a larger series focused specifically on Plath compiled by the university, that “Plath regards life from the perspective of the mirror on the wall, personified in the use of the first person pronoun ‘I’ but only reflecting a view which is full of objectivity and indifference.”(Plath Profiles, 92). The mirror only shows an objective truth of physical being, and is “unmisted by love or dislike”. The first verse of The Mirror establishes the speaker, the mirror, as non-judging which serves to juxtapose the subjects own opinions of herself when she looks in the mirror.
Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,
Searching my reaches for what she really is.
Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.
I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.
She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.
I am important to her. She comes and goes.
Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.
In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman
Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.
“Mirror, Sylvia Plath”
Cathleen Allyn Conway, a poet and journalist from the University of Greenwich, London, states that
Plath used the mirror to “voice her insecurities”(41, Plath Profiles). The mirror, a universal image of objectivity, is poisoned with Plath’s distortions of self image. The mirror says that it is “important to her” and “each morning it her face that replaces the darkness”, meaning that Plath comes to see herself in the mirror first thing in the morning every day. However, although the mirror reflects her “faithfully” all Plath can do is give back the mirror “tears and an agitation of hands”. Although the mirror, objectively speaking simply reflects Plath back at herself, Plath struggles deeply with attempting to fit the image established by society that she is not satisfied with who she is. Plath then resorts to “the candles or the mooon” which are symbols for distortions of the way things really look.
Plath used poetry as a means to express her inner turmoil. It cannot be said that she was an ardent feminist because it is obvious through her poetry that, to her disdain, she often gave in to the standards established by society. Plath struggled with her identity as an individual versus that which was forced upon her by social standards. Through The Applicant Plath establishes women's roles during the mid twentieth century, and Mirror stands to be a more personal approach to the struggles strong women faced in light of predestined roles.
There was a 256.8% increase in the amount of women in the workforce from 1950 to 2000 in comparison to only a 71.7% increase for men.(The Editors Desk, Bureau of Labor Statistics). The median age at first marriage of women was at it’s lowest point, between 20 and 21 years old, in the 1950s (Elliot, US Decennial Census). Another analysis concludes that “in 1950 about one in three women participated in the labor force. By 1998, nearly three of every five women of working age were in the labor force.”(Toossi, Bureau of Labor Statistics ). Such statistics qualify the idea that the 1950s and early 1960s were heavily influenced by idea of marital gender roles, as women were getting married younger, than ever before and working significantly less than men.
The Applicant from her poetry book, Ariel, published in 1965, two years posthumously, is a poem by Plath in which she defines societies objectification of women in marriage. The speaker of the poem, according to critic M. D. Uroff, is a commanding “marriage broker” (Iowa Review, 104-15) that is attempting to sell a wife to a man.
First, are you our sort of a person?
Do you wear
A glass eye, false teeth or a crutch,
A brace or a hook,
Rubber breasts or a rubber crotch,
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.
“The Applicant, Sylvia Plath”
M. D. Uroff says that what interests the speaker is “not what we might expect from someone who would ask that question” because it is not concerning ”the social qualities of her marriage applicant, but rather her physical parts” (Iowa Review, Uroff). The use of synecdoche in in the line “here is a hand” serves to draw a parallel with a well known idiom, hand in marriage. However, Plath twists the meaning by adding “a” instead of ‘her’ before the word “hand”, causing the woman being offered to the man in the poem to be objectified. In the second part of the poem, Plath goes on to define ways in which women are used as tools for men.
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
To thumb shut your eyes at the end
And dissolve of sorrow.
We make new stock from the salt.
I notice that you are stark naked
How about this suit –
“The Applicant, Sylvia Plath”
After the speaker has clarified that the subject has no physical imperfections she goes on to offer the woman into marriage (Iowa Review, 104-115). From there on the speaker summarizes the full scope of a woman’s purpose, which is basic menial tasks to serve the husband like “bring teacups and roll away headaches”. Brita Linberg, from the Department of British and American Studies in the University of Oslo, describes the language of The Applicant as “highly informal, matching the poem’s urgent tone and fast pace.”(24, Lindberg). The poem is meant to be read at a quick pace, as though a salesman is pitching his sale. This idea of selling a woman’s hand in marriage like an object is reinforced by the line “Will you marry it? It is guaranteed” in which the woman is guaranteed in the same way products are. Besides the marketing of women in marriage, The Applicant creates an image of a hollow marriage by characterizing a woman as a hand and a man as a “suit”, revealing Plath’s view on contemporary conventional marriage as a hollow sales pitch.
Plath’s poem, Mirror, though also in second-person narrative, is a lot more personal because of the issue it addresses. Unlike The Applicant, which focuses on how society pressures women to be, Mirror focuses on the way a woman struggles under these pressures and attempts to make herself fit societies image.
I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful,
The eye of a little good, four-cornered.
“Mirror, Sylvia Plath”
I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
What ever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful---
The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
Dr. Neslin Ekmekcioglu, a professor at Indiana University Northwest, states, in an essay from a larger series focused specifically on Plath compiled by the university, that “Plath regards life from the perspective of the mirror on the wall, personified in the use of the first person pronoun ‘I’ but only reflecting a view which is full of objectivity and indifference.”(Plath Profiles, 92). The mirror only shows an objective truth of physical being, and is “unmisted by love or dislike”. The first verse of The Mirror establishes the speaker, the mirror, as non-judging which serves to juxtapose the subjects own opinions of herself when she looks in the mirror.
Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,
Searching my reaches for what she really is.
Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.
I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.
She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.
I am important to her. She comes and goes.
Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.
In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman
Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.
“Mirror, Sylvia Plath”
Cathleen Allyn Conway, a poet and journalist from the University of Greenwich, London, states that
Plath used the mirror to “voice her insecurities”(41, Plath Profiles). The mirror, a universal image of objectivity, is poisoned with Plath’s distortions of self image. The mirror says that it is “important to her” and “each morning it her face that replaces the darkness”, meaning that Plath comes to see herself in the mirror first thing in the morning every day. However, although the mirror reflects her “faithfully” all Plath can do is give back the mirror “tears and an agitation of hands”. Although the mirror, objectively speaking simply reflects Plath back at herself, Plath struggles deeply with attempting to fit the image established by society that she is not satisfied with who she is. Plath then resorts to “the candles or the mooon” which are symbols for distortions of the way things really look.
Plath used poetry as a means to express her inner turmoil. It cannot be said that she was an ardent feminist because it is obvious through her poetry that, to her disdain, she often gave in to the standards established by society. Plath struggled with her identity as an individual versus that which was forced upon her by social standards. Through The Applicant Plath establishes women's roles during the mid twentieth century, and Mirror stands to be a more personal approach to the struggles strong women faced in light of predestined roles.
Works Cited
Plath, Sylvia. “The Applicant” Ariel. New York: Harper & Row, 1966. Print.
Plath, Sylvia. "Mirror." Crossing the Water. London: Faber and Faber, 1971. N. pag. Print.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Editor's Desk, Changes in women’s labor force participation in the 20th century on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2000/feb/wk3/art03.htm(visited November 13, 2013).
USA. Census. Historical Marriage Trends from 1890-2010: A Focus on Race Difference. By Diana B. Elliot, Kristy Krivickas, and Matthew Brault. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
USA. Bureau Labor of Statististics. A Century of Change: The U.S. Labor Force, 1950–2050. By Miltra Toossi. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
Uroff, Margaret D. "Sylvia Plath and Confessional Poetry: A Reconsideration." Iowa Review. Iowa Review, Vol. 8, No. 1, 1977, Pp. 104-15, n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2013.
Neslihan, Ekmekçioglu . "Sylvia Plath’s Mirrors Reflecting Various Guises of Self." Plath Profiles. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar 2013. <http://www.iun.edu/~nwadmin/plath/vol1/ekmekcioglu.pdf>.
Lindberg-Seyersted, Brita. "'Bad' Language can be Good: Slang and Other Expressions of Extreme Informality in Sylvia Plath's Poetry." English Studies 78.1 (1997): 19-31. ProQuest. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.
Conway, Cathleen Allyn. "Through the Looking Glass: A Discussion of Doubling in Sylvia Plath's "Mirror"" Plath Profiles 3 (2010): 39-46. Web.
Plath, Sylvia. "Mirror." Crossing the Water. London: Faber and Faber, 1971. N. pag. Print.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Editor's Desk, Changes in women’s labor force participation in the 20th century on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2000/feb/wk3/art03.htm(visited November 13, 2013).
USA. Census. Historical Marriage Trends from 1890-2010: A Focus on Race Difference. By Diana B. Elliot, Kristy Krivickas, and Matthew Brault. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
USA. Bureau Labor of Statististics. A Century of Change: The U.S. Labor Force, 1950–2050. By Miltra Toossi. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
Uroff, Margaret D. "Sylvia Plath and Confessional Poetry: A Reconsideration." Iowa Review. Iowa Review, Vol. 8, No. 1, 1977, Pp. 104-15, n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2013.
Neslihan, Ekmekçioglu . "Sylvia Plath’s Mirrors Reflecting Various Guises of Self." Plath Profiles. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar 2013. <http://www.iun.edu/~nwadmin/plath/vol1/ekmekcioglu.pdf>.
Lindberg-Seyersted, Brita. "'Bad' Language can be Good: Slang and Other Expressions of Extreme Informality in Sylvia Plath's Poetry." English Studies 78.1 (1997): 19-31. ProQuest. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.
Conway, Cathleen Allyn. "Through the Looking Glass: A Discussion of Doubling in Sylvia Plath's "Mirror"" Plath Profiles 3 (2010): 39-46. Web.