The World’s Wife is based on intertextual webs and most of the poems take the form of a dramatic monologue. Duffy chooses to play the intertextual game in order to convey a certain message, to voice her ideas through historical, religious and mythical figures. She focuses on the marginalized, women in particular.
Her trademark dramatic monologue is successfully employed in The World’s Wife (1999) in which, drawing on Greek mythology, the Bible, fairy tales, literature, history, and film, Duffy gives voices to such characters as Mrs. Midas, Queen Herod, Mrs. Beast, Mrs. Faust, Frau Freud, and Queen Kong, who present their versions of life behind the myth of famous men. (Haase 279)
Her good use of the dramatic monologue is tinctured …show more content…
In the “Little Red Cap” the girl is portrayed as an independent person while the stereotypical role of the wolf was altered. Duffy’s admiration of fairy tales’ archetypes can be traced to the tales told by her mother. The World’s Wife shows her ingenuity in subverting feminine archetypes (The Poetry Archive). The World’s Wife is “a series of witty dramatic monologues spoken by women from fairy tales and myth, and the women usually air-brushed from history…When it comes to character delineation, she is known, as novelist Charlotte Mendelson described her, for “ventriloquism”” (Savage). This multi-vocal representation of feminist features reflects a unifying concept, a consistent line of thought.
Some are from classical myth with Little Red Ridinghood (renamed Little Red-cap to point up her revolutionary potential) representing folk myth. Some are actual women, biblical (Delilah, Salome, Pilate’s wife) and more recent (Pope Joan, Anne Hathaway, Mrs Darwin and Frau Freud). The largest group are the wives of unpraised famous men, classical (Midas, Tiresias, Aesop, Sisyphus, Pygmalion and Icarus), biblical (Lazarus) and literary (Faust, Quasimodo, Rip van Winkle and the Beast, as in Beauty and). Finally and most originally, there are the female versions of hitherto male figures: Queen Herod, Queen Kong, the Kray Sisters and Elvis’s twin sister. …show more content…
The couple’s fast life and quick success are reflected in the pace and short statements. The opening lines show a relationship based on equal footing. Their success culminates in Ph. D degrees but without any kids. The meaning, or rather the meaninglessness of their life, is construed into material goods: Fast cars. A boat with sails. A second home in Wales. The latest toys-computers, mobile phones. Prospered. (Duffy
Her trademark dramatic monologue is successfully employed in The World’s Wife (1999) in which, drawing on Greek mythology, the Bible, fairy tales, literature, history, and film, Duffy gives voices to such characters as Mrs. Midas, Queen Herod, Mrs. Beast, Mrs. Faust, Frau Freud, and Queen Kong, who present their versions of life behind the myth of famous men. (Haase 279)
Her good use of the dramatic monologue is tinctured …show more content…
In the “Little Red Cap” the girl is portrayed as an independent person while the stereotypical role of the wolf was altered. Duffy’s admiration of fairy tales’ archetypes can be traced to the tales told by her mother. The World’s Wife shows her ingenuity in subverting feminine archetypes (The Poetry Archive). The World’s Wife is “a series of witty dramatic monologues spoken by women from fairy tales and myth, and the women usually air-brushed from history…When it comes to character delineation, she is known, as novelist Charlotte Mendelson described her, for “ventriloquism”” (Savage). This multi-vocal representation of feminist features reflects a unifying concept, a consistent line of thought.
Some are from classical myth with Little Red Ridinghood (renamed Little Red-cap to point up her revolutionary potential) representing folk myth. Some are actual women, biblical (Delilah, Salome, Pilate’s wife) and more recent (Pope Joan, Anne Hathaway, Mrs Darwin and Frau Freud). The largest group are the wives of unpraised famous men, classical (Midas, Tiresias, Aesop, Sisyphus, Pygmalion and Icarus), biblical (Lazarus) and literary (Faust, Quasimodo, Rip van Winkle and the Beast, as in Beauty and). Finally and most originally, there are the female versions of hitherto male figures: Queen Herod, Queen Kong, the Kray Sisters and Elvis’s twin sister. …show more content…
The couple’s fast life and quick success are reflected in the pace and short statements. The opening lines show a relationship based on equal footing. Their success culminates in Ph. D degrees but without any kids. The meaning, or rather the meaninglessness of their life, is construed into material goods: Fast cars. A boat with sails. A second home in Wales. The latest toys-computers, mobile phones. Prospered. (Duffy