This chapter considers those moments where Plath becomes a character in somebody else’s text, whether a novel, a poem, a film or even a biography. Such a representation can be central and sustained, or momentary and incidental. It may involve describing Plath and her actions, or inhabiting her viewpoint, or inventing dialogue for her.

To fictionalize a real person in this way risks intrusion into the lives of people connected with her. Artists are often aware of the various problems involved in such intrusion. To consider such representations critically is necessarily to explore the ethical questions involved. It is not only to ask whether a work is written well or badly, but also what responsibilities, if any, the writer owes to accuracy and the feelings of people associated with the person depicted. In the course of such an investigation, one is led to questions about the boundary between fiction and biography.