"Duffy expresses her social criticism by giving voices to characters who reveal their lives as being without purpose."

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Asad Karim        

English Poetry

“Duffy expresses her social criticism by giving voices to characters who reveal their lives as being without purpose.”

How far do you agree?

Carol Ann Duffy presents to the reader through her poetry many views she has on society. Her recent poetry portrays her views on the treatment of females and how in the past they have not been given true status in society. Duffy is a strong feminist and I think that the fact that she was not chosen poet laureate for both her sex and her sexuality has further strengthened her views on the rights females should have and the power they should have relative to men. Her feminist views are provoked even further when she is second choice in the running to be laureate and not until Seamus Heaney drops out of the race it is only then that she is the favourite to become the new poet laureate. It can be seen that again because Heaney was male and she was female the automatic choice would have been Heaney because of the stereotypical views in society regarding men being better then women. These could be some of the reasons why Duffy writes many poems from a female’s point of view regarding the male gender. Carol Ann Duffy’s ability to give voices to previously silenced figures helps her tell the reader her views on society. By using characters' voices rather than her own, Duffy identifies with the speaker and confers authority onto a voice which might otherwise be silent. In the poems I have looked at she uses the characters that are portrayed as having lives without purpose but in reality their lives are without purpose the status society has given them. ‘Psychopath’, ‘Recognition’, and ‘Stealing’ are three of the poems I will be analysing to look at the way Carol Ann Duffy presents her point of view on society. The characters in the three poems are described as having lives ‘without purpose’. They lead lives with no meaning and these characters lives are ‘without purpose’ due to society giving power to men, such power that they are shown to be dominant gender in all three poems, and this dominance effects these characters lives.

Much of Carol Ann Duffy’s work is written in the form of dramatic monologue and by using the voices of both male and female in the three poems, she portrays the views of both male and female in society and through both the male and female narrator she still manages to get her outlook on society and her feelings on why society is failing because of the status both

men and women have been appointed with. This Idea of female identity is a recurring theme in Duffy's poetry. She stereotypes many of her characters in order to foreground the female characters incompatible place within a modern society. Although her poem ‘Stealing’ is not one of the poems which look at her feminist views the other two ‘Psychopath’ and ‘Recognition’ are based around looking at Females place in society. In 'Psychopath', Duffy uses the dramatic monologue to present, and weaken, the sexual power of men over women

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“One thump did it, then I was on her”.

Duffy shows the reader that although at first you think that Duffy is trying to show the woman as the weaker character it is in fact the man who is the weaker character. He has to physically abuse her to achieve his sexual status as 'Jack the Lad, Ladies' Man'. Duffy’s views on male dominance and male status are enhanced even further when he has killed her, but it is more important to him that he lives up to the constructed image of a 'real man'. He feels he too, is ...

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