Mrs Aesop is told by Duffy as the wife of the famous story teller, she tells her story as a dramatic monologue. As expected Duffy has empowered the female of the poem by portraying Mrs Aesop as unhappy and rather annoyed at Aesop.
“Well, let me tell you now
that the bird in his hand shat on his sleeve,
never mind the two worth less in the bush. Tedious.”
Through the use of the word “shat” Duffy has shown a sense of frustration & possibly anger at her husband’s foolishness.
Duffy creates Mrs Aesop through her feelings towards her husband by discrediting his stories and their morals and dismissing them as random and tedious events of their days out together;
“On one appalling evening stroll, we passed an old hare
snoozing in a ditch - he stopped and made a note -
and then, about a mile further on, a tortoise, somebody's pet,
creeping, slow as a marriage, up the road.”
Duffy draws on her reader’s knowledge of Aesop’s fables in order to emphasise the slight change of tone in the 3rd stanza as Duffy has incorporated a simile in which she compares Mrs Aesop’s marriage to the famous fable of the tortoise and the hare.
Here Duffy demonstrates Mrs Aesop’s anger at her husband’s slow-wittedness, in this stanza Mrs Aesop’s superiority and dominance starts to shine through at last as putting up with her husband’s constant fables and morals have become mind numbing for her.
“Asshole.
What race? What sour grapes? What silk purse,
sow's ear, dog in a manger, what big fish? Some days
I could barely keep awake as the story droned on
towards the moral of itself. Action, Mrs A., speaks louder
than words.”
In Mrs Aesop Duffy makes reference to women as blunt and constantly critisising, a trait that is very unusual for a feminist. Because of her jealousy she makes fun of his masculinity and insults him;
“The sex was diabolical”
This quote shows a much stronger side to Mrs Aesop as she is retorting to the comments made by Aesop throughout the poem, however her reaction can be perceived as both humorous and childish.
However Duffy has set out to inspire a reaction in her reader through the use of feministic vulgarity which is what Duffy was renowned for in the world of literature.
“ I gave him a fable one night
about a little cock that wouldn't crow, a razor-sharp axe
with a heart blacker than the pot that called the kettle.
I'll cut off your tail, all right, I said, to save my face.”
In this stanza Mrs Aesop has created her own metaphorical tale by referring to the animal kingdom – just like her husband’s tales – Mrs Aesop uses symbolism in order to infuse
shock in her husband (and to the readers) by comparing the “razor sharp axe” to her tongue which symbolically cuts Aesop down to size.
Duffy’s extreme feminism is what makes Mrs Aesop a fascinating poem as it follows Mrs Aesop’s transformation from the classic recessive wife with a dominant husband to an empowered and confident woman that was able to have the last word.
“That shut him up. I laughed last, longest.”
Mrs Aesop’s monologue was written in the form of a poem and structured with stanza’s which is traditional for a poem. Duffy assimilates a variety of poetic techniques such as symbolism, similes, internal rhyme etc all these participating in the creation of the new and improved Mrs Aesop that has become more dominant and confidant which is what Duffy has set out to do in order to express her feminist attitude.
I thoroughly enjoy Mrs Aesop as she is forthcoming, and witty. Mrs Aesop’s demanding voice draws my attention to the fact that she has conquered a huge problem that like many women before her have faced, that her views are not listened to and she is just dismissed as un important. This links to Duffys feminist agenda and adds humour and shock to the situation, this entertains me highly as it’s amusing and truthful.
