Duffy depicts women as victims in the worlds wife

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‘The Worlds Wife by Carol Ann Duffy depicts women as victims’ Analyse three poems showing how far you agree with this statement.

   The Worlds Wife explores Duffy’s strong and, at times, controversial views on the women who have been traditionally overshadowed by their husbands. Duffy deliberately chooses to study women who are ignored or despised by their husbands or lovers, making it easier to portray women as victims. However the victimisation of the women within this book of poetry is not nessacerily all down to men, Duffy conveys different types of victims, ones who are self deistructive and those isolated and neglected by their patner. By giving these unheard of women a voice, duffy provides us with a perspective and illustrates struggles which epitomize those that average women face.

  The poem ‘Medusa’ by Carol Ann Duffy explores how a womans self destructive nature can lead to becoming a victim.  The use of first person narrative gives the poem a monological structure similar to other poems by Duffy such as The Devils Wife. Duffy uses various linguistic and literally features to create an emotional account of Medusas’ thoughts and feelings, through doing so she suggests that she has become a victim of her own feelings and insecurities. The personal accounts within the poem help the reader to empathise with Medusa, she describes events in her life as ‘terrifying’ this build up of sympathy is totalled with the use of rhetorical questions at the end of the poem ‘Wasn’t I beautiful’, ‘Wasn’t I fragrant and young?. These questions make the reader view Medusa as a victim, rather then the common portrayal of her as a evil

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. Duffy creates the air of innocence throughout the poem by having the character relate to human feelings such as

.  When the reader learns that Medusa cries ‘There are bullet tears in my eyes’ it instantly creates a connection between the speaker and audience as crying is a human emotion that cannot be duplicated. The harsh consonants and jerky irregular pace emphasises the bitter remorselessness she feels towards her husband and reflects the negativity with which she views her world.

  Similarly a victim is also portrayed in the poem ‘Mrs Quasimodo’. Initially Mrs Quasimodo is ...

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