Duffy then emphasises the loneliness of the husband by portraying him against the background of the natural world. At this point, the reader feels sympathetic towards him, as she has clearly gone off, and left him to his own devices. She judges his conduct as ‘pure selfishness’, not recognising her own selfishness as she has deserted him in his time of need. She states that she misses him, but Duffy is careful to emphasize that she misses the man not for his own positive qualities, but for the way he made her feel sexually: ‘ I miss most…his hands, his warm hands on my skin’. Even in mourning she is depicted to e selfish, as she is only thinking of her own personal needs. Duffy cleverly ends the poem with a play on words as she misses his ‘touch’ but this touch could have turned her to gold. It reveals Mrs Midas to be selfish similarly like her husband but in different aspects, whilst castigating her husband for his perceived ‘idiocy or greed’ she is happy to live off the proceeds.
Furthermore, the poem starts off very gentle and in a pleasant atmosphere; enjambment is also used throughout the poem to make it flow. But as she realises what he has done, she tries to rationalise. She does this by taking us along with her discovery, her side of the story. To end on a high note, the moral of the poem could be to be careful of what you wish for.
However, on the other hand, this poem can also be linked with Mrs Tiresias. This is from the Greek myth, Tiresias. Who, whilst he was walking on Mount Cyllene came upon two snakes mating, depending on which version I accepted, he either separated them by wounding them or he killed the female. In consequence he was transformed into a woman but he ultimately regained his male sex by intervening in the same way when once again he discovered, in the same spot, a pair of mating snakes.
The links between Mrs Tiresias and Mrs Midas are that they both had husbands who were radically changed in some way, however the consequence of that change are different in each poem. Mrs Midas remains alone and isolated, whereas Mrs Tiresias moves on to establish a new relationship with a female, and yet again the husband is left to indulge in self pity.
In addition, Mrs Tiresias opens with a bleak statement ‘All I know is this’. It emphasises the speakers surprise and lack of knowledge of any fore happenings of events and also her honesty and humility to an extent as if she might not be believed. The confusion upon the next line indulges in the perception of the poem, ‘he went out for his walk a man and came back home female’. The use of enjambment focuses the reader’s attention onto the key issue of gender change .Duffy expresses this mysterious remark in an understated and matter-of-fact tone, reinforcing the sense of shock and disbelief in the protagonist. The sense of relationship between the both, at this point seems to be a weak relationship where there is not a lot of communication between the man and woman of this poem.
Furthermore the use of the placing the word ‘whistling’ on its own on one line, implies the carefree tie in which the man felt at one with his surroundings, master of the house, accompanied by his dog, with his wife close at hand. The following stanza, then slowly then describes the mans habits and how the woman humours his male pride and ‘never lets on’. Hence Duffy creates a picture of the everyday life of middle England, the rather pompous self-important husband and the wife who humours his ego. This can also be related to Mrs Midas, as Duffy portrays it to be set in the middle England and the husband to be the ‘important’ man of the household, and her to be by his side.
Moreover, the following stanza opens with the picture of Mrs Tiresias engaging in her daily routine, ‘brushing my hair…ruining a bath’. But there is however more importance on the three consecutive lines ‘when a face…next to my own’ the use of ‘swam’ on this occasion creates an image of distortion, suggesting a lack of focus. A mirror however frames an image and the face is ‘next to my own’: this implies that the man has moved into her frame, into her world of female sanctity, and crossed major boundaries. But in doing so he is invading her personal space. But the fact that she does not see hi as a stranger implies that he is still the man she knows (even though the exterior is of a female status). ‘The eyes were the same’ portraying her knowledge of him as she recognises him straight away. The poem then seems to have reached its climatic moment, as this section is clearly separated from the next by an asterix.
In addition, the following stanza, after the rather large gap, opens with a positive statement ‘life has to go on’. She seems to be coping with this, whereas at this point Mrs Midas was out the door and wanted nothing more to do with her husband. There is however a suggestion of Mrs Tiresias’ determination to maintain a sense of balance, a normality that would enable them to be as normal and as they were before (a couple).
At this point the contrast is beginning to be observed, as before the man was the ‘master’ but now he has become vulnerable, as he is experiencing something which is beyond his control and he would have to overcome. Here the relationship status also changes gradually, from being a ‘wife’ to more of a ‘sister’, as he is undergoing woman experiences, and the only person he can turn to is his wife. The sense of female bonding and a suggestion of a relationship built on new terms, in the presence of entirely different circumstances. She extraordinary still remains calm and begins to get into a more intimate sense with her husband, as she holds ‘his soft new shape, in (her) arms all night’. The language here is also gentle as the graduation from the man becoming feminine, this also increases the bonding between them and brings the two closer, as there is ore connection between them, the love between them of marriage and the feminine side as well, so she can relate to him more now.
However, the disbelief of the following issue, would be a surprise to anyone, and deservedly needs a separate line for itself. This is to put across the sheer shock involved with the statement and creating division that now occurs between the couple also. His approach to this on the other hand, is a totally ‘male’ response, the self pity, selfish, insistent and demanding needs he puts forward shows contract between what women and what men have to go through, and also in a crude way, adds humour to the poem, as many women would like men to experience the pains they go though in life, whereas men ‘have it easy’. Duffy then shows the man to be ‘peering at the moon’ repeating the words ‘the curse’. Once again, Duffy plays with language as the moon is associated with change and transformation. But is also a female symbol because of its lunar cycle. The stanza then concludes with the husband ‘s imperative voice ‘Don’t kiss e in public’ emphasising the division between the two of them, and the sense that he could be afraid of what people might think, that he was a lesbian. Then the final statement, ‘it got worse’ develops the dramatic effect that something worse was yet to come, and it possibly could not get any worse, as she has undergone so much already.
Furthermore, the only way for Tiresias, as a woman to achieve power, was to be with men of power, this can be depicted by ‘entering glitzy restaurants on the arms of powerful men’ the lack of power is reinforced by the use of the conditional tense ‘if he had his way’. He wants his authority back, but the only way for him to achieve this was to be with powerful men, but really he knew that he could never be the primary source of authority and would always come second, which reflects on what his wife put up with, and reminds him of how much she underwent for him, and the sheer lack of communication between the couple, mainly due down to him. Duffy then further goes onto say ‘the one thing he never got right was the voice’ the use of enjambment here depicts the nature of his Mrs Tiresias, as she is reminding us that he is still a man. The relationship between the man and woman at this point has totally turned on the contrary. The contrast between the beginning and end of the poem shows how the tables have now turned in the nature of the relationship between the couple.
In addition the poem concludes with the fusion between masculine and feminine words as the lover engages in a very masculine gesture of shaking hands. This action reveals the truth about the situation to Mrs Tiresias, as she notices ‘his hands, her hands/the clash of their sparkling rings and their painted nails’. It could be suggested that there is ambiguity present there between the ‘his’ and ‘her’. The relationship here, is now at a point where it is almost humorous, whereby the woman goes off with another woman, where as the man is left trapped still inside a woman’s body and having to go off with other men. This can be related back to Mrs Midas, as he was left alone and she went off and left him. Both relationships are similar.
Both poems, Mrs Midas and Mrs Tiresias include many similarities and many differences. The main similarity being the relationship between the men and women in the poems, and how the relationship contrasts from what it was like at the beginning and what it turned out to be in the end. The fact that Mrs Midas never stuck around for that long, whereas Mrs Tiresias tried really hard to make things work in the relationship as normally as possible, shows a difference between the two poems. Both women derived of their status, due to the foolishness of their men. However there are two further poems also linked with the relationships between men and women, these being Medusa and Eurydice.
Medusa was a terrible monster who had laid waste in the country, she was once a beautiful maiden whose hair was her chief glory, but as she dared to vie in beauty with Athena, the goddess deprived her of her charms and changed her beautiful hair into serpents. She became a cruel monster of so frightening an aspect that no living thing could behold her without being turned to stone. Perseus, then approached Medusa whilst she slept , and taking care of not to look directly at her, but guided by her image reflected in the bright shield which he ore , he cut off her head and gave it to Athena. This manner of depiction reveals that Medusa was originally a lovely woman-it was her tragedy that she was foolish enough to compare herself to a goddess.
In addition, the poem opens with a triadic structure ‘A suspicion, a doubt, a jealousy’ the fact that it arouses form a suspicion into a doubt which finally becomes a jealousy. This sets the scene for the poem, and tells us how she feels. Up to this point there is no other mention of anyone except for her, which is contrasting to the other two poems which, right from the beginning began by mentioning the husbands or partner (male) first. Whereas here, the only person of importance is Medusa herself. Then in the second stanza, the lexis ‘bride’ signifies that there is someone else who is present, there is some kind of relationship. Duffy then further goes onto state ‘are you terrified?’ the use of rhetorical question here reinstates the anguish in which she is undergoing, the pain of loss. It then goes onto say ‘Be terrified’, so she wants him to be terrified. Then the use of ‘perfect man, Greek god, my own’ goes further on to reinstate that no-one can be perfect, she seems disillusioned, and the words ‘my own’ show her to be unstable, she feels he will leave her. ‘You’ll go, betray me, stray from home’ this depicts her to be very lonely, a very insecure being. She feels that because she now does not have the power of beauty, there is no way that he will stay with her now.
Moreover, Duffy then further goes on to use colloquial language ‘in a heap of shit’ to reinstate her state of mind, she has to express her views as vividly as she can and then ‘(her) stares in the mirror’ which emphasises and reminds herself of how she looks. In the previous poems there is no reference to physical beauty, and no real insecurity within the man leaving them, the contrast between the poems show the cynical attitude in which Duffy uses to approach and comment on the nature of relationships between men and women.
In addition, Medusa ends with her asking ‘Wasn’t I beautiful?, wasn’t I fragrant and young?’ she asks him, she almost at this stage boasts of how pretty she actually was, and this was what got her there in the first place, her stupidity as can be related to the previous poems where the men where seen to be unintelligent and selfish.
Duffy creates a very nasty character in the beginning and creates vivid images to express this, therefore exaggerating the hideousness of Medusa. She uses various negative diction, such as ‘filthy snakes’ and ‘yellow fanged’ which again builds up images to conform to the hideousness of the character. She also uses abstract noun to convey her feelings, when she says ‘A suspicion, a doubt, a jealousy grew in my mind’. The poem is also set in a deliberate way, this being in chronological order as we start with her hair becoming snakes, her powers progressing and then the person sent to slay her. Again Duffy builds up the character, showing her powers when she says ‘I glanced at a buzzing bee, a dull grey pebble dropped to the ground’. Medusa can also be viewed as a metaphor for jealousy. Duffy does this and then right at the end she draws sympathy from the reader when she says ‘Wasn’t I beautiful?’. The ending suggests that Medusa was in actual fact the victim of this, which is in relation to the men in the previous poems, which shows a similarity between the three but on the other hand, the women of the previous poems came out on top, whereas the men paid the price for their stupidity and here the woman suffers, but this was also her own doing, and she also pays the price for her vainness.
Furthermore, the last poem in which Carol Ann Duffy uses and manipulates the mythical character from, Greek mythology is Eurydice.
In this poem she has completely changed the story around, so that Eurydice doesn’t want to go back with her former lover Orpheus, and is seen to dislike him in the poem. She refers to ‘girls’ on various occasions, which could interpret into the fact that it could be showing her sexist point of view and showing her specifically talking to girls. She talks of being happy in the underworld when she says ‘it suited me down to the ground’ emphasising indirectly how she loathed being with Orpheus in the real world. She also uses short sentences such as ‘Him. Big O’ and this creates a mocking and sarcastic tone. Duffy uses rhyme, which adds a warped humorous touch when it says ‘deceased, I was resting in peace. Late, past my sell by date’. Duffy then adds a crude ending where she says ‘What else? I noticed he hadn’t shaved. I waved once and was gone.’ This reflecting that he isn’t really important. Another interpretation could be that it is Duffy’s view that women don’t need men, and this is probably an overall ideology for the majority of poems she has written by using Greek mythology.
To conclude, Duffy uses various ways in order to comment on the relationships between men and women in ‘The World’s Wife’ using classical myths. By looking at the poems stated above, Mrs Midas, Mrs Tiresias, Medusa and Eurydice, all have one thing or another in common; whether it is that the men in the poem have lost power or whether the woman (Medusa) has lost power. All could be the view of Duffy, and how she feels that women do not need men and this statement could be the overall ideology and motives for writing these poems, by manipulating Greek myths in order to put together this ideology in her poems.
