Munich Mannequins

In “Munich Mannequins”, Plath conveys a sense of entrapment through the superficial identity
women are constrained to. Plath dispels any romanticised images of artificial beauty through the
plosive and cracking “t” consonant in “Perfection is terrible”-this statement the crux of Plath’s
criticism where women must conformed to a constricting image of womanhood that “tamps the
womb”. The regular enjambment that connect the thirteen couplets implies a lack of control or
agency, exacerbating a sense of restriction the speaker feels under the stringent demands of society-
echoing the rhythmic insistence of “will you marry it. Marry it. Marry it.” in “The Applicant” that
imposes a constant sense of restriction that traps the speaker. Furthermore, the paternal “yew
tree”, symbolised by the “tree of life”, conveys the overwhelming male power that constrains the
speaker as it enjambs across stanza 2 and 3, mirroring the movement of the “blowing hydra” that
devours the speaker’s sense of womanhood- its fecundity stripped as it “cannot have children”.
Hence, the discordances by the caesura in “intolerable, without mind.” portrays the “mannequin’s”
disjointed and fragmented existence under the constricting social demands, reducing the female
experience into “million filaments” of lost female identity -as conveyed in “Lady Lazarus”. Thus, the
encroaching “pieces of darkness” creates a desolate atmosphere that trails the speaker as it returns
in the final stanza- “ the snow has no voice”- Plath weaves a motif of “snow” that signals the
inescapable suffering exerinced by the speaker. In this scene of “glittering and digesting”, Plath’s
lamentation is epitomized by the “voiceless snow”, a symbol of society’s removed womanhood that
is “terrible” as it reduces the female experience, one that is choked of its fecundity and denied
escape from society’s “terrible perfection”.

Plath’s employment of the “domestic…hotels” becomes a damming representation of the serive and
dull routines of “black phoens” women are confined to……….