One interesting failure Duffy uses is seen in the poem ‘The Devils Wife’, Duffy interestingly splits this poem into six sections which all relate back to different themes, we see the value of a relationships, motherhood and repentance. The poem is written based on the background history of the Moors Murders, with the protagonist Myra Hindley and how she became besotted with sociopath Ian Brady. In the first part of the poem we as the readers see how Duffy, displays Hindley as being the ordinary office worker with a crush “I scowled and poured and sneered. I gave as good as good as I got till he asked me out” we can see that she was the one who initiated the whole relationship. The story changes “He entered me.” From this moment she was now his, this could be another failing that men have more control than women and she was just his puppet “he made me bury a doll.” Duffy uses an interesting metaphor here, she say “doll” instead of a child as a doll is thought to be a child’s toy and just a possession which they eventually no longer require. It ends with “I felt like this: Tongue of stone. Two black slates for eyes. Thumped wound of a mouth. Nobody’s Mam.” We can see that she has become so obsessed with him, her life has changed forever. Also we are able to identify another theme of motherhood, people were unable to understand how Hindley was able to commit the most abhorrent, sadistic and unforgivable crimes against children as women are associated with protective mother love.
We then see that in the third part of the poem, Duffy uses a sonnet in an untraditional form; instead of it being the ordinary love poem, the lack of punctuation shows Hindley’s state of mind and she’s finally repenting and blaming Brady for all of the murders. The final part of the poem gives different forms of execution and she finally admits she was in fact the Devil’ wife.
Although this poem is lengthy, the key themes all relate to the main subject of “human failings”, love is a key importance in this poem “He held my heart in his fist and squeezed it dry.” Here we can see that men are dominant in relationships and Brady was in control of Hindley, which could be deemed a failing. Also motherhood is a joyous gift in life and could be one of the most important things in life but Hindley displays apathy towards children and lets Brady control her life “I flew in my chains… where we’d buried the doll.” Finally we see another theme of repentance “Get me a Bible honestly promise you swear” but by the time she finally realised her mistakes it was too late.
Another them used is Power, this could also be assumed as a failing. In Mrs Midas, in which she finds that everything her husband touches turns to gold; soon after she realises the marriage will not work because of her husband’s selfishness. “I thought of the Field of the Cloth of Gold and of Miss Macready.” Here we can see that her husband valued wealth above everything else, but it wasn’t until he accidently touched his daughter he realised the mistake of his greed that was his failing.
In The Kray Sisters, Duffy subverts the original story by using female portrayals instead of men; the poem uses cockney slang which allows us as readers to interact more with the poem and makes it more believable. The Kray Twins ran a protective racket, and were well known ‘West End gangsters’. The poem actually displays the success of the twins and how they were feared among the streets. However interestingly this so-called respect may have given the Kray’s the authority they wanted “We wanted respect for the way we entered a bar, or handled a car, or shrivelled a hard-on with simply a menacing look” However ultimately this respect led to the demise of the twins and they may have ruled the west end during their time but landed themselves a life-sentence in prison. Was it really worth it? Respect and honour are meant to be earned with dignity not by threatening and violating people; therefore I think that although this poem contains positive connotations it ultimately displays a failing.
Duffy’s collection of the Worlds Wife is an interesting selection of poems and it is clear that one of the major themes associated with the collection is Human Failings, although these are not seen clearly and not every persona fails the actions they carry out could be assumed as a failing. The ironical and satirical way Duffy writes displays the dark humour of The Worlds Wife we can see that Duffy tries to impersonate the wives of famous characters both factious and fictions.
