“ln this collection, Duffy shows no sympathy for men”
How far do you agree of this assessment of “The World’s Wife”?
Due to the fact that Carol Ann Duffy to a certain extent is a
feminine writer, it is easy to make the proclamation that she
fundamentally undermines male status in ‘The World’s Wife’. Duffy
uses the collection to give women who have not been heard previously
a voice, and by using this sense of ‘L’ecriture feminine’ Duffy does
wholeheartedly have to conform against the phallocentric world many
women have found themselves living in now and in the past.
With the poem ‘Mrs Tiresias’, Duffy strongly explores ideas on the
basis of
masculinity and femininity, and the male persona in this
poem is vastly ridiculed. In the poem, Duffy uses many humorous ideas
to highlight how she sees women to be the stronger sex
and as a
result men are shown not to be able to fill the boots of women. Duffy is
able to do
this by taking a classical Greek myth, the story of the
prophet Tiresias who wounded a female snake after seeing her mating
with another snake and as a result he was turned into a woman, and
satirizing any masculine ideology that women lead easy lives. This is
particularly shown with the use of the menstrual cycle in the poem as
“Three painkillers four times a day” allows Duffy to highlight male
fussiness over the simplest of problems and hence Duffy shows how if
men had women’s problems more consideration would be given to
them. This truly shows how ‘The World’s Wife’ shows no sympathy for
men. Furthermore, with the use of “his selfish pale face peering at the
moon” Duffy could be using this dramatic image not only to show the
power of women with the use of the feminine symbol ‘moon’ but also
the fact that Duffy use’s the verb ‘peering’ to describe Tiresias’s actions
presents him in an envious light towards women, additionally by using
‘selfish’ Duffy shows no sympathy for men as she shows they have
shown no sympathy for women.
The poem ‘Pilate’s Wife’ is similar to ‘Mrs Tiresias’ as in both
poems, Duffy re-tells a classical story, in this case the biblical story of
Pontius Pilate who people hold responsible for Jesus’ death, in order to
satirize men who have been viewed in positive lights previously. Due to
the death of Jesus, “the Nazarene”, in the poem Duffy wasn’t able to
use humour to ridicule the idea of masculinity; instead she uses the
physical symbolism of hands in the poem in
order to present the
futileness of the male sex. With description such as “Their pale, mothy
touch made me flinch” Duffy is able to present Pilate to be lacking in
masculinity which is also illustrated with “Camp hands that clapped for
grapes”. These descriptions are effective because they lay in sharp
contrast to the descriptions used to describe Jesus’ hands such as “each
tough palm was skewered”, not only does this represent the biblical
image of Jesus' crucifixion on the cross, but also the use of “tough”
shows that Jesus was a real man who wasn’t afraid to work hard. This
could be Duffy’s way of ridiculing the male breed as she uses the death
of Jesus in order to show how the best man was killed off by a useless
member of the male species.
‘Queen Kong’ is another poem in the collection whereby Duffy
shows no sympathy for men. In the poem, Duffy presents the form of
love whereby a person’s object of desire has no choice in the matter
which is shown with the emphatic simile “I picked him, like a chocolate
from the top layer of a box” and Duffy also in the poem satirizes the way
in which powerful men use women as objects, and she does this with
the role-reversal in the poem as Queen Kong is shown to be wearing her
man as an ornament, which is illustrated with “I wear him now about
my neck”. ‘Queen Kong’ is the only poem in the collection based upon the
original film however Duffy takes the story and reverses it in her bid to
show that a female gorilla would have gone about things differently.
There is a sharp contrast between King Kong and Queen Kong in that
Queen Kong has a vast amount of articulacy and thought whereas Queen
Kong has none, this is shown with the fact the Queen Kong has a human
way of grieving such as “to binge for a fortnight” which could be Duffy’s
way of highlighting the effect men have upon women, in that they lead
them into terrible spouts of depression and men are hence ridiculed for
this as the reader receives hardly any recognition of how the male
persona is feeling throughout the poem, which shows men do not
deserve sympathy. In similarity to
‘Mrs Tiresias’, Duffy has thread
through ideas about the menstrual cycle in ‘Queen Kong’. The use of the
menstrual cycle in ‘Queen Kong’ with “I bled when a fat, red moon rolled
on the jungle roof” is used to reinforce the extent of her passion for the
man, and the following line “and after that, I decided to get him back”
illustrates how a period changes a woman’s behaviour, which is an idea
similarly presented in ‘Mrs Tiresias’ with the fact that “Then he got his
period” stands as a one-lined stanza. This bodily function which is
constricted
entirely to women allows Duffy reinforce the idea of
feminity, and hence exclude any sense of masculinity having a higher
status.
Tiresias’s experience as a woman is presented in the poem as
external only, which allows Duffy to show that men will never be able to
think or feel like a woman. This idea is shown in the poem with “telling
the women out there…he knew how we felt” which shows how his
appearance may be feminine but his understanding is still male. The fact
Tiresias is presented by Duffy at the beginning of the poem as a typical
man with “out the back gate with his stick, the dog;” and to be doing
typically male things such as “whistling” is representative of the fact
that men are in retrospect all the same, and therefore Duffy is showing
no sympathy for the individual male. Due to the fact that the reader
feels no sympathy for
Tiresias because he has lost all sense of
masculinity, and even though this is a shocking situation, the fact that
Duffy presents Tiresias to be taking advantage of this female
appearance to become a celebrity, Duffy is able to present men in a
negative way in that nothing will stop them hunting for power and
status, even turning into a woman. This is shown in the poem with “on
the arms of powerful men” and the use of “On” instead of ‘in’ shows
how he is using them for his own benefit. In similarity to ‘Pilate’s Wife’,
‘Mrs Tiresias’ uses hand imagery in order to present powerful ideas on
masculinity and feminity in the poem. With the use of the ambiguous
statement “his hands, her hands, the clash of their sparking rings”
which on the one hand could be showing the rivalry between the new
and old lovers, the use
of ‘clash’ here could be Duffy’s way of
representing the battle of the sexes in the poem, and as the hands are
described to be typically female, Duffy is able to show a man can never
rival the status of a woman. This powerful sense of feminity in the poem
is further emphasised with more bodily imagery such as “A cling peach
slithering out from its tin” which is a reference to Tiresias’s lack of
naturalness and to the fact that men are sweet but heartless, which is
also shown with the idea of the new lover having “violet eyes”, with
‘violet’ being the colour of faithfulness. The sexual tone created in the
poem with “fruit of my lips” allows Duffy to show how the real woman
in this poem is far more natural, as this description of a woman is far
more typical than a “cling peach”. This is suggestible upon the fact that
men are totally unneeded in this life, and therefore Duffy shows no
sympathy when describing Tiresias’s experience as a woman.
In the poem ‘Pilate’s wife’ Jesus is seen as a representative of
manhood rather than divinity, and this is particularly expressed in the
poem with “He looked at me. I mean he
looked at me”, which
illustrates a sense of importance for Pilate’s wife because he looked at
her like an individual. Duffy here is able to illustrate how the collection
shows no sympathy for men as although Pilate’s Wife is longing for
“someone else” and usually adultery causes quite
a large deal of
emotional suffering for the victim, it is shown in the poem that the only
person Pilate has to blame is himself. This is illustrated with “carefully
turned up his sleeves and slowly washed his useless, perfumed hands”
the washing of the handshere is Pilate’s way of trying to forgo
responsibility, and hence he is not a real man as he cannot stand up for
what is right so therefore Duffy shows how no sympathy should be
given to those men with a small supply of masculinity. Additionally, this
quotation presents Pilate to be acting laid back and trying carefully not
to get wet, whereas Duffy shoes in the poem that the result of his
actions are far dirtier, especially with “They seized the prophet and
dragged him out” which allows Duffy to illustrate that men live their
lives in many ways without a conscience and therefore do not deserve
sympathy as they do not give it out themselves. Duffy presents Pilate’s
wife as a bored Roman woman stuck in a foreign country with little to
occupy her. This is shown in the poem with “my maid and I crept out”
which illustrates a sense of the two women trying to
amuse
themselves. This relates strongly to the idea of men whose wives stray
are part to blame as men often become so preoccupied with other
matters that their wives happiness is pushed into the background, and
therefore when their wife hurts them, they deserve no sympathy this is
also expressed with the emphatic pun “Pontius”, which illustrates
Pilate’s wife sense of disgust towards her husband.
Although it could be suggested that ‘Queen Kong’ is sympathetic
towards men, especially with descriptions such as “held his wriggling,
shouting life till he calmed” however the emotions expressed on the
female persona’s half are ones of which the reader can empathise with,
even though there is very little reality about the poem. The fact that the
male character reduces Queen Kong to numerous emotions, Duffy is able
to illustrate how men do not deserve sympathy because of the amount
of pain they cause for women. This idea is portrayed in the poem with the
fact that Queen Kong goes hunting for her man “pressing” her “Passionate
eye to a thousand windows” this shows the extent to what women are
drove to by men. Furthermore, with the use of “He liked me to gently
blow on him” Duffy is able to present ideas on the subversion of women
for men, tending to their every need. This shows how Duffy could feel that
men do not deserve sympathy in her collection as they lead perfectly
satisfactory lives.
To conclude the point whether ‘The World’s Wife’ shows no
sympathy for men , it is undeniable that many poems in the collection
portray men in negative lights; often through both their personality and
looks. Duffy wrote ‘the World’s Wife’ in order to give women who have
been metaphorically silent in both history and stories a voice; and by
doing so she had to undermine the status of the male characters in
order to elevate women.