In Sylvia Plaths poem The Applicant she writes But in twenty-five years shell be silver, / I fifty, gold. / A living doll, everywhere you look. / It can sew, it can cook, / It can talk, talk, talk (ll. 31-35). We see visual imagery when Plath discusses the life of a living doll; dolls normally do not cook or clean or even talk hence it is very surreal. Plaths use of visual imagery is used to represent how women only have duties towards the house. Plath later on transitions to auditory imagery because women can talk and gossip as oppose to working. This shows there is no sense of a real job besides being a housewife. Another way to look at this is by thinking of dolls as being controlled and owned by someone. In connection to women being like dolls the line everywhere you look implies that everywhere you looked and saw a women you would see all of them doing the same thing cooking, cleaning, talking, doing domestic duties and most importantly following the instructions of their husbands. Similarly, Plaths word choice of a women being a doll can suggest that women are also owned and controlled by their husband, hence portraying gender hierarchy.
In Sylvia Plaths poem The Applicant she writes But in twenty-five years shell be silver, / I fifty, gold. / A living doll, everywhere you look. / It can sew, it can cook, / It can talk, talk, talk (ll. 31-35). We see visual imagery when Plath discusses the life of a living doll; dolls normally do not cook or clean or even talk hence it is very surreal. Plaths use of visual imagery is used to represent how women only have duties towards the house. Plath later on transitions to auditory imagery because women can talk and gossip as oppose to working. This shows there is no sense of a real job besides being a housewife. Another way to look at this is by thinking of dolls as being controlled and owned by someone. In connection to women being like dolls the line everywhere you look implies that everywhere you looked and saw a women you would see all of them doing the same thing cooking, cleaning, talking, doing domestic duties and most importantly following the instructions of their husbands.
