In this collection Duffy shows no sympathy for men. How far do you agree with this assessment of The Worlds Wife?

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Aimee

“In this collection Duffy shows no sympathy for men.” How far do you agree with this assessment of ‘The World’s Wife’?

It is clear that throughout Duffy’s poetry that she focuses on the negative aspect of men and speaks very dimly of them. She portrays men as being subordinate in comparison to women. It can be argued that Duffy wrote “The Worlds Wife” collection as retaliation against the dominance of male literature.

In 'Little Red-Cap', Duffy portrays the persona to be naive and meek by use of inferior clichés such as “sweet sixteen” accentuating to the reader that Duffy immediately places the female as inferior, however, this is misleading as there is a contrast in the final stanza; 'I took an axe to a willow to see how it wept, I took an axe to a salmon to see how it leapt.' Duffy, through the use of a rhyming couplet and first person narrative, makes the reader imagine how the persona is getting ready to kill the “wolf” and “cuts it from scrotum to throat.” This demonstrates to us, the reader that the killing is quick, sharp and no emotion is present as indicated by the simple verb of “cuts”. Moreover, the persona cuts the wolf in the two places which initially attracted her as these are the two aspects of him which lure naive girls, as indicated by the “glistening white bones of my grandmother”. She shows no remorse as it is for the ‘greater good.’

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‘Mrs Faust’ is also another poem in which Duffy makes the persona show no sympathy to the male. Duffy installs humour in the second last stanza as Faust is “dragged” to hell. Mrs. Faust comments on the “tuscan terracotta tiles” illustrating that she cares more about the kitchen floor being destroyed then her husband being taken away. The alliteration emphasises her materialistic trait. Moreover, the simple use of the cliché “ces't la vie”, which translates to 'that is life', is indicative of her callous and cold temperament.

There is an element of resentment in most of Duffy’s poems particularly in ...

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