Perspective on the poem the Applicant by Sylvia Plath II

'A miracle!'
That knocks me out.
There is a charge

For the eyeing of my scars, there is a charge
For the hearing of my heart—
It really goes.---Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath

 The Applicant 

           by Sylvia Plath

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

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 you are stark naked.

How about this suit——

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.

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?

Naked as paper to start

But in twenty-five years she'll be silver,

In fifty, gold.

A living doll, everywhere you look.

It can sew, it can cook,

It can talk, talk, talk.

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.

 Perspective: 

I personally identify with the Lady Lazarus poem in that. I have a strong heart and a scar that can read like a new pair of cold eyes. And I don't need to assume that was about me to see myself there. Poetry is about increased self awareness, not cuckhold type sickness attachments. 

The Applicant title seems to imply that there's an applicant applying for a job. The actual subject is a mix of hospital imagery that imply fixing a person: 

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 implication perhaps could clearly describe a psychiatrist being willing to indulge in the delusional fantasies of a mentally ill patient. But the patient is clearly willing to listen. The patient appears to have "stopped crying" and opened his or her hand to be willing to be helped. It also seems to say that the patient refused to admit that he or she needed help. 

 

In the absence of refusing help from a hospital, the bad patient was sent to his or her death bed in the form of marriage to die with dignity. 

 

The fault being the choice of the patient for refusing to communicate his or her needs to the doctor and the doctor accepting the free will of the patients choice to not have their sickness be treated by prescribing marriage as a last resort. 

 

The sin perhaps was being willing to accept sympathy but not willing to accept help. 

 

resort could be a vacation hotel or a last resort to get well like a last option. Implying marriage could cure the person of denial like Diana the huntress to shed self deception. 

 

If that's the case then it implied the patient tried to possess the hospital and was sentenced to life long imprisonment in marriage as a punishment. 

 

And since marriage is a common sense world, those are chains that a person could easily undo by choice. 

 

But people often don't. Pride being preferred to true dignity, the life long sentence would prove to be deserved because the person has the choice of freedom and continues to choose to be imprisoned.

 

The real ethical test of every day being whispered in her ears:

 

"You preferred to be important and tried to own the hospital. Your twin accepted help and exploited the hospital but still chose to get well. You too could get well, if you only had the courage."

 

But like Tom Sawyer, the voice knows people prefer misery over wisdom most days, because that's what Jesus would do. 

 

What life you choose is always a choice you can make.

 

But I choose to accept that love is more important than being important.

 

And so I took the path less traveled by.

 

And that has made all the difference.