Duffy has said that violence and evil arent owned by men. How far is this borne out in the poem Delilah?

by bumbledee (student)

Duffy has said that “violence and evil aren’t owned by men.” How far is this borne out in the poem ‘Delilah’?

Dee Homruen

The collection of poems in ‘World’s Wife’ was written with Duffy’s intent of focusing on transforming myths, historical events and stories that originally enlisted characters which were male dominated and through her feminist ways, elevating women to being superior to men. The main themes that are common are equality, sexism and supremacy between the male and female characters and modernised the poems to allow her readers to engage with her work. ‘Delilah’ explores the concept of violence and evil between Samson and Delilah within heterosexual relationships. The juxtaposition of Samson’s temperate voice with his violent ways and his inability to care shows his capability to be gentle, but must conform to society’s expectations, therefore is only violent because he has to be. Delilah’s sexual and destructive behaviour portrays the notion that evil and violence derive from her emotions, with motivation to strip Samson’s masculinity away.

‘Delilah’ opens with a directive from Samson, ‘Teach me... how to care,’ introduces the true character of Samson. It indicates that he’s commanding and wanting from Delilah, showing his physical powers (conforming); however he wants to be taught how to care. This suggests that Delilah holds emotive power over him, which can be more destructive. The hyphen in the first line is indicative of Delilah reporting the event, creating a metre that can be seen as very sexual, suggestive of Delilah using sexual powers to gain what she wants as shown in ‘What do you mean? Tell me more.’ The tone is sarcastic, portrayal of Delilah’s motive to be merciless. She gains information from him using sexual conduct, only to use it against him. As the first three lines show Samson breaking away from conformity, the last line concludes with ‘He sat up and reached for his beer,’ immediately depicting a stereotypical modern image of men. The juxtaposition of the two images illustrates two sides of Samson; the tender and the physical strength.

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Stanza 2 exemplifies the aggressive and violent nature of Samson, ‘I can rip the roar/from the throat of a tiger, / or gargle the fire.’ This mirrors the constraints society has for Samson, however he says, ‘all for a dare’ showing actually the reasoning was not because he wanted to, but only to prove to society that he’s very strong and masculine. This shows he’s violence but does not show the intention of evil. The whole stanza has a lyrical metre that demonstrates that Samson is very use to telling people of his powers due to their fascination; however the para-rhyme shows the insecurities which is embedded in the tone of his voice. The statement ‘There’s nothing I fear’ suggest that he is fully aware of his powers; however the tone, again, illustrates the desperation that he has to wanting to break free from this conformity. The hyphen in the concluding line creates a dramatic pause between the current and next stanza, whereby informs us it is now Delilah speaking.

Within stanza 3, we begin to see more of Samson’s insecurities. The event is being recalled by Delilah therefore we can’t help but think she’s belittling his powers. She puts very little emotion into the tone of her voice shown in ‘he guided my fingers over the scar’. Samson’s scar is a metaphor for emotional damage. His strength is shown in ‘a four-medal wound from the war’. Due to his ‘scar’ and ‘wound’, he ‘cannot be gentle, loving, or tender’. Ironically, the triad of ‘gentle, loving’ and ‘tender’ expresses his ability to care.

The next stanza opens with ‘He fucked me again/until he was sore.’ The sexual imagery portrays one that suggests he can’t be gentle even to the woman he loves, alike to ‘Mrs Quasimodo’ whereby ‘he fucked me underneath the gaping, stricken bells’, shows sex being rough, cruel and without emotion. He did it ‘until he was sore’ shows the pain to conform. Although he can’t be gentle, his voice has always been soft in contrast to Delilah’s, whose voice is very sinister and ironically without any loving emotion. Pathetic fallacy of ‘darkening hour’ prepares us for a foreboding act as Samson ‘wanted to change.’ Delilah says ‘I was sure’ and ‘I was there’ showing that the poem has been very confessional to a listener and she’s justifying her later actions, as she knows she’s done evil. She claims that Samson is ‘my warrior’, depicting that Samson is her possession therefore she has that strong domineering power over him. Medusa can be compared to the character of Delilah in the sense that Delilah has this strong prominent power over Samson, the same way Medusa does with her power of turning men into stone. The comparison is shown through both characters have dominance over the men that they ‘love’ and emotion expresses the power.

Sixth stanza starts with the sibilance ‘soften... sleep/started... snore’ which is lyrical and seductive, showing that she’s using her sexual powers to gain dominance over Samson, who ‘slip... slide... sprawl.’ The triad speeds up the metre, illustrating animalistic traits, evocative of him physically battling with Delilah; however her sexual prowess overrules his masculinity. Delilah then ‘fastened the chain to the door’ and ‘fetched and sharpened my scissor-,’ this shows us that there’s a need of secrecy in her action, thus awareness that what she’s about to do is morally impermissible. Even with this awareness, Delilah says ‘snipping first at the black and biblical air’ and ‘I cut every lock of his hair’, relieving Samson of his pain. The contrast of the sadistic imagery and the singsong tone represents Delilah as not caring; therefore the act is one that can be seen as evil and spiteful as she seems to be taking pleasure from it. She’s shown no remorse towards her actions, even when she’s aware that he had promise God of never cutting his hair has been demolished by her. The fact she has ‘cut every lock of his hair’ meant she did intentionally rid him of his powers compares with ‘Queen Herod’s’ orders of ‘Spare not one’. Both are selfishness whereby they did not consider anyone but themselves.

Through the progression of voice and character of Delilah, the concluding line of the poem is very ambiguous. She states she did it with ‘deliberate, passionate hands’ therefore her act is justified that she did it out of love. However, we are aware that Delilah has the upper hand in the relationship ergo uses that to her advantage. Samson has not shown any signs of committing evils acts but only violence. The character of Delilah shows no sympathy towards the confessions of Samson’s wants. He wants her to teach him emotions, yet she shows none towards him therefore its representative of evilness. Stripping Samson of his masculinity was a way of Delilah expressing to society that she is the domineering character with the emotional strength that is lacking in Samson, thus she’s able to enrol this to damage him.

Word count: 1000