Similarly, “Mrs Lazarus”, also has to face the consequences of her husband’s return after she finally manages to deal with her grief over his death and move on. The dramatic persona created in this poem is extremely loyal to her husband and devastated at the fact that she has lost ‘her other half’. ‘Howled, shrieked, clawed’ and ‘one empty glove’ reinforce the imagery of suffering and grief-stricken state. She is a persona very expressive of her emotions and goes through the entire pain of her loss, even to the extent where there are images of suicide because of what she is feeling, ‘double knot…round my bare neck’. The alliteration of soft, ‘slept..single..stuffed’ and harsh sounds, ‘gone…gutted…glove’, bring emphasis to the range of her emotional suffering. As her memory of him and grief is receding, she develops a more practical, factual tone in her diction, ‘Then he was gone’, showing that she has finally moved on. When her husband returns, her phrasing and diction changes and it begins to sound more harsh and bitter, ‘rotting…grave’s slack chew’, as a reflection of the fact that he is insensitive to her emotions, despite everything she has been through.
Conversely, in “Mrs Aesop”, the dramatic persona created is much more witty and in charge than the personae in the previous poems. The role reversal puts her in the superior position, as she is telling the story and she challenges her husband and his linguistic potency. There is an initial sense of her exasperation, where she condescends him and describes the pain of enduring his stories, ‘he could bore for Purgatory’. The persona is presented as intelligent, as she uses language to her advantage and as a weapon against her husband. The use of italics in the poem, patronise her husband and make his words sound like nonsense, ‘Dead men, Mrs Aesop…tell no tales’. She uses clichés to mock and control his fables as she rewrites them in her own manner, which is sharp and to the point unlike his, ‘bird in his hand...two worth less in the bush’. Clichés are also used to her advantage to show how triumphant she is after threatening him, ‘I laughed last, longest’, thus transferring the power from the male to the female.
Her speech constructions establish a humorous approach and she ridicules his stories, genre and generally him. As a contrast to the other poems, “Mrs Aesop” feels no loss and little if not any love for her husband, instead she enjoys proselytising. The dramatic persona was created to “punish” Aesop the writer of moral fables “in some way for the cliché he pumped into language”. The account of “Mrs Aesop” is rather bitter and the fable to almost spat out, bringing great emphasis to her contempt for him, ‘slow but certain, Mrs Aesop, wins the race. Asshole’, the use of italics ensure that the fact that she cannot stand him is crystal clear and the word on its own summarises her opinion of him. The irony is that she in a sense has written her own fable, which is more to the point and not as metaphorical and confusing as Mr Aesop’s.
The dramatic personae in Duffy’s poems are not the sole device that make the poems humorous and “help subvert and tease the way we think about myths”. The language used in the poem “Mrs Aesop” is sharp, hard and unyielding, where it shows her belittling him physically, ‘He was small’ and ridiculing his attempt to impress after mocking his physical appearance, ‘So he tried to impress’. Duffy uses similes and assonance to reinforce the feelings she wants to create, such as ‘slow as marriage’ and ‘story droned on’, where the idea of his stories dragging on due to the long sounds, is created. She singles out words, ‘Tedious’ and ‘Asshole’, summarising her opinion and attitude towards him. Aesop is ridiculed and made to look like a boring, cautious, not daring man, ‘look...then leap’. The style of the poem is rather humorous, due to the persona’s quick, witty remarks undermining her husband. The inclusion of her husband’s secondary voice in the poem is a contrast to hers as he is uninspiring, self-absorbed, considering himself wise when she makes him look like a fool, ‘Donkeys would…prefer to be lions’.
The structure of the poem is made up of short phrases and questions, with a repetition of clichés, which build up her frustration. The use of enjambment ‘sex was diabolical’, is humorous in presenting the idea and enforcing how bad it is. She succeeds in inverting his mythical stance even further, as no interpretation is needed of her account.
Similarly in the poem “Mrs Midas” the spouse is also made to look like a fool, however explores the failure to consider the self in relation to the other in a relationship. A domestic setting is established from the beginning of the poem, which juxtaposes with the myth and introduces comedy. ‘I’d just poured a glass of wine’, forms a false sense of security, through the conversational tone, as it contrasts the unusual situation that follows. The personified kitchen ‘filled with the smell of itself...relaxed’, highlights the familiarity of the situation and presents as a contrast between the domestic and sensual imagery, ‘blanching the windows’ and ‘my fingers wiped the other’s glass’. There is a narrative progression reinforced by the language, ‘Now the garden was long…visibility poor’ and a sense of distance between them. The ominous language introduces the feelings of unease, ‘dark of the ground’ that creates imagery of death and burial. It is at this point when the pace of the poem begins to slow down, with a spotlighted word, ‘plucked’, showing the gradual realisation and shock of what she is seeing.
Her assumption about the fairy lights is ironic as it turns into a serious matter, ‘is he putting fairy lights in the tree?’ shows her uncertainty through the question mark. The language begins to speed up through the increase of punctuation, turning her speech into a list and a recollection, ‘He came into the house…he drew the blinds…he sat’.
As the tragedy builds up the poem adopt and anecdotal approach, ‘I said, What in the name of God is going on?’ shows the natural, colloquial reaction of an exasperated wife at her partner’s actions. The alliteration of the ‘g’ sound, ‘glass, goblet, golden’, mimic the gagging sound and harsh reality of the events occurring. The account is continued with a sense of humour and bitter sarcasm, ‘At least, I said, you’ll be able to give up smoking for good.’ The use of ‘granted’ in two different senses, also increases the humour as it emphasizes the idea that the pursuit of money had no nourishment. Throughout the poem there is a lot of light imagery of gold, which is rather ironic as his wish was anything but enlightened, ‘light…gold…light-bulb…fairy lights…gleamed…luteous’.
“Mrs Lazarus” takes a rather different approach, through the imagery of suffering and assonance to show her grief. The punctuation in the poem make it short and show her emotional state, ‘Gone home. Gutted the place’ and the alliteration of the strong sounds reinforce the idea of her devastated state. The religious imagery, ‘gaunt nun’ shows that she does everything due to her loss and loses her sensuality and sexuality because of this. The temporal progression ‘months…dwindling’ present the idea that his, image, memory and her grief are slowly fading, which is then reinforced by the enjambment of ‘going, going’. Duffy uses repeated imagery of loss and reference to senses, ‘no longer…last hair…scent went’, to emphasize that he no longer plays a part in her sensual experiences. As that was left was ‘the small zero held by the gold of [her] ring’ where Duffy portrays the emptiness of relationships and marriage. The effects of time and memory are explored and the idea that one cannot return to the past, which is ironic as this is what happens in the poem.
The lyrical quality of her freedom and regained independence ‘moon…to the sky’, is disrupted by ‘a hare thump from a hedge’, creating a sense of panic, reflected by the harsh, sudden imagery ‘behind...barking...blacksmith’s’. Associated with his return are harsh sounds are bitter language, ‘croaking…cuckold’. The length of the stanzas in the poem is similar, however each stanza portrays a different episode consisting of a clear narrative progression. The punctuation and rhythm of the poem changes, denuding the emotional panic and ranging emotions of the persona.
“The World’s Wife, which trained an idiosyncratic eye on the women at the side of historical or legendary men”, was a vehicle for Duffy’s presentation of feminist and political points, such as the exclusion of women from history, where Duffy reminds the reader that the story of Midas is viewed purely considering the effect his actions had on him and not his wife who lost her chance of having a child. The decision making of male characters and how this affects their female counterparts is also an aspect that is explored in all three poems. “Mrs Midas” especially represents the collective voice of women, which are trapped in culture of phallocentric principles. “Mrs Lazarus”, however explores Duffy’s views on capitalism and the fact that the pursuit of wealth is a barrier towards spirituality. In all the poems Duffy shows that females tend to appreciate compassion and relationship more and are actively suppressed by the male dominated society. An example of this is in “Mrs Midas” where many verbs are associated with the husband enforcing the idea of male dominance.
Overall Duffy succeeds in undertaking a humorous approach to her poems through the rewriting of history from ‘her’ perspective to ‘his’ perspective. However underpinning the comedy there is a serious point being made about the effects and consequences of male behaviour upon females. This volume, succeeds in its addressing of important feminist issues, in a different, humorous and witty manner, which shows Duffy’s development of the dramatic personae to show how women have been suppressed or ignored throughout history.
