The Munich Mannequins

Plath’s work is often read with special attention to its biographical context because of her confessional poetry style. This poem was likely inspired by certain events in her life. Plath did take a trip to Munich where she took a late-night walk through the city as she struggled with insomnia. At the time of writing this poem, Plath was living in London during one of the coldest winters in a century. Plath’s isolation after her separation from her husband while caring for an infant and toddler child likely informed the poem’s themes. Just months later, Plath would die by suicide, and her troubled mental health likely contributed to the tone of the poem.

Autobiographical readings of Plath’s poetry divide scholars of her work. Many scholars see the overwhelmingly personal topics and themes as a defining trait of her writing, with some even criticizing her for being melodramatic or self-indulgent. Other academics argue against strictly autobiographical interpretations of her material. For example, while The Bell Jar includes events that correlate to events in Plath’s life, there are also elements that, these scholars argue, should be read as literary, figurative, and fictitious.