The theme of motherhood is a key one in both the novel ‘We Need to Talk About Kevin’ by Lionel Shriver and the collection of poems ‘The World’s Wife’ by Carol Ann Duffy. Motherhood is seen as a key element of the female experience, and both texts explore the connection between motherhood, femininity, and the way in which women navigate motherhood in a patriarchal society. In the novel ‘We Need to Talk About Kevin’, Shriver uses the epistolary narrative through...
6 Pages
2737 Words
“Salome” is a poem taken from Carol Ann Duffy’s collection of poems The World’s Wife; most of the poems share a common feature: a historically marginalized narrator retelling the story from personal perspective. Salome’s character originally appeared in the New Testament and over the centuries many novels and paintings focused on Salome and the legend of Salome contributing to iconization of the character as a vicious femme fatale. One of the texts that followed the biblical story of Salome is...
2 Pages
1005 Words
Feminism is a social movement and ideology that fights for the political, economic and social rights for women. Feminists believe that men and women are equal, and women deserve the same rights as men in society. The feminist movement has fought for many different causes, such as the right for women to vote, the right to work and the right to live free from violence. The theorists I am going to be using are Simone de Beauvior and Betty Friedan....
4 Pages
1737 Words
“Mrs. Midas”, the poem by Carol Ann Duffy was one of the various poems included in her 1999 collection named “The World’s Wife”. Within this collection, she uses different figures from history and myths while allowing the persona of the poems to be the wife of infamous or famous male figures. This allows a perspective entirely new and revealing about the women’s place in that time period. This poem is focused on the ancient myth which depicts of Midas, king...
3 Pages
1214 Words
The World’s Wife was written in a way that the positions of man and woman are explored with a feminist point of view. Carol Ann Duffy wants to show the different kinds of view and relationships man and woman can have in a society based on power and identity as represented in the poems “Little Red Cap”, “Thetis” and “Queen Kong”. In the poem “Thetis”, the narrator is trying to change and explore new identities and relationships. In the beginning...
3 Pages
1194 Words
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“Avoid sketchy-looking strangers,” parents often say to their children. Usually, these children listen to their parents. They avoid scruffy men, with messy hair, and black clothes. However, “Psychopath” by Carol Ann Duffy suppresses this idea. This poem allows readers to gain an understanding of what a psychopath is really like and how he/she lures in victims. Jack, the speaker and subject of the poem, reveals the nature of psychopaths through his actions revealed in his thought processes, and they are...
2 Pages
713 Words
Mrs Tilscher’s Class and Originally by Carol Ann Duffy were intricately detailed recollections based on the authors transition from child to young adult. They feature many typical conventions of a poem, including metaphor, imagery and symbolism. The poems are formed by the authors personal life experiences., ‘Originally,’ reflects on the emotions felt by someone experiencing teenage confusion. ‘Mrs Tilschers Class,’ was a recollection of common experiences throughout childhood. Both poems depict the transition from child to young adult. They portray...
2 Pages
788 Words
Carol Ann Duffy analyses society’s attitude to women in ‘The Diet’ and throughout Feminine Gospels, connecting it to other poems in the collection. The poet explores themes through an extended metaphor of society’s pressures and the effects it has on women such as isolation, loss of identity and loss of control. A variety of literary techniques are used to convey themes of feminism and the struggles of womanhood as ‘She starved on, stayed in, stared in the mirror, svelter, slimmer’...
2 Pages
1097 Words
Modern poets have pushed past societal norms, and have given themselves the platform to conquer and challenge topics and issues in regards to racism, class division and sexuality. Two poets who have interrogated traditional concepts of gender, include Sylvia Plath and Carol Ann Duffy. Their questioning of female/male relationships, and the misogyny involved challenges society’s patriarch structure, and showcase the female thought process. This essay will analyse Plath’s poem ‘Daddy’, and Duffy’s poem ‘Standing Female Nude’, and their success in...
6 Pages
2559 Words
Both the ‘Captain of the 1964 Top of the Form Team’ and ‘Stafford Afternoons’ written by Carol Ann Duffy explore their respective characters’ past written in said characters’ perspectives. In the Captain of the 1964 Top of the Form Team, Duffy impersonates someone who’s life peaked in the past which makes him insecure of his current situation and longs to return to that time, while ‘Stafford Afternoons’ focuses on a woman who is trying to escape her memory of her...
3 Pages
1333 Words
The themes first introduced are predominantly modern consisting of promiscuity and infidelity. The theme of feminism is first introduced towards the end of the piece when it becomes evident to the reader how much power Salome has over her male counterpart Duffy’s reference to the tale of John the Baptist shows her modernising of the tale as it is subverted to suggest that Salome has had a one night stand, thus showing the theme of promiscuity. The story reverts to...
5 Pages
2249 Words
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