| Collection
Introduction | The World's Wife, 1999
Allusion to Greek mythology - the Gorgon sisters who turned those who looked into their eyes into stone |
| Subject | The mythical protagonist is consumed with aggression and jealousy following the unfaithfulness of her lover |
| Form (3) | One quintet and six sestets
Dramatic monologue
Unstructured composition reflects the erratic emotions of the speaker |
| Theme (3) | Effect of infidelity and betrayal on a person
- Power and destructive nature of jealousy
Duffy subverts centuries of misogynistic representations of women as evil, to show that men are the true root of the world's ills. Woman have been long ignored and silenced.
- Betrayal
- Women's rights and positions in society
- Broken relationships
- Longing for love |
| Motifs (3) | "Love gone bad/showed me a Gorgon"
"A suspicion, a doubt, a jealousy" (tricolon)
"Wasn't I beautiful...Look at me now" |
| Diction; Language
Extended metaphor
Lexical fields
Conceit metaphors (2)
Oxymoron
Anaphora
Kenning
Apostrophe | Standard diction universalises the experience
The use of a Greek mythological creature explores feminist undertones; the protagonist overpowers the man that hurt her, in the same way Medusa sought revenge on Poseidon
Destruction and disgust; 'shattered', 'filthy', 'stank'
'shield for a heart'
'sword for a tongue'; the complete hurt the woman feels at his betrayal - she is not a complete monster
- The harshness and danger in his actions are prevalent; words can cut people just like a sword
'bullet tears'; aggression and weakness that exist within the protagonist
'I glanced/I looked/I stared'; implies disbelief upon seeing what she has turned into
'mouth of a mountain'; her emotional eruption is clear in this volcanic image
'Are you terrified?' highlights the aim of the poem |
| Imagery and Symbolism; Symbol
Pictorial
Zoomorphism (2)
Contrasting images
Visual (2) | Medusa herself is a symbol for all those women who have been betrayed by men and whose fine and loving natures become distorted and destroyed by their experience
"turned the hairs on my head to filthy snakes"; captures the pure transformation into a monster
- 'filthy'; she is not only gruesome but stained by his actions
Snakes that "hissed and spat" (onomatopoeic); the emotions are controlling her, not the other way around
- animal images of snakes, bee, 'singing bird' emphasise her animalistic nature
'bride', whose breath 'soured, stank'; extremity of her change "shattered a bowl of milk" "rolled in a heap of sh*t" (vulgarism); the humour eases the tension, creating a lull before the climax |
| Rhythm
Sibilance (2) | Stresses are placed on key ideas; 'PERFECT man', 'greek GOD', 'my OWN'
'I glanced at a buzzing bee'
'hissed and spat on my scalp'; sinister effect |
| Rhyme (4) | Internal rhyme and assonance; 'foul mouthed now, foul tongued'; grotesque association to vulgarity
Internal full rhyme; 'betray', 'stray'
Masculine endings; 'stray', 'home', 'stone'; powerful and dangerous creature
Feminine endings; 'Gorgon', 'dragon', 'mountain'; provide rhythmic variation |
| Tone
Mood (2) | Dark, gothic mood
- 'grey bags of my lungs' (chromatic image)
Sympathy is induced for a character who is portrayed as hideous and unfeeling
Her bitter yet shameful last line is meant to induce guilt in her lover whilst bringing out compassion in the reader |
| Conclusion | Duffy presents the world from the woman’s perspective, much unlike the patriarchal trend within literature in history |
