Select three poems from collection in which your opinion highlights the strength of the female as presented by Duffy.

Authors Avatar

Select three poems from collection in which your opinion highlights the strength of the female as presented by Duffy. 

Duffy uses, Frau Freud, Mrs Rip Van Winkle, and Mrs Darwin to demonstrate the independence of the females in the poems, and to highlight their strengths.

Frau Freud is an extremely gender orientated poem. The poem has a specific audience directed to females, and clearly from the start we notice the enthusiasm and strength of the female. It begins with a statement that is very bold and sharply addresses that the poem is not for males, ‘Ladies’. The poem is very fast paced showed by the listing of the particular descriptions.  ‘The rammer, the slammer, the rupert’. This shows us that this female has a sense of passion for what she is explaining and sharing. It highlights the strength of the female showing she is brave enough to upset an entire gender, it shows she has power and authority that she can share her experience with other women, and it show she is not weak and falls for a male obeying his every command. This female is clearly independent.

Join now!

When Mrs Freud talks about the males various names she is not afraid to hold back or use delicate terms. Despite her disregard to what the audience think, she manages to not offend, and use no crudity. This modern day humour would be popular and provoke a smile from the reader.

Towards the end of the poem the pace begins to slow down. This is to show she is building up to her justification. She explains she actually has no problem with the male penis, ‘I’ve no axe to grind’, she claims; she just wants to make a point. ...

This is a preview of the whole essay