English Study

TALENT:
She believes everyone has talent, she explores the idea of people whose talent whatever it
may be, notbeing allowed to come out or being suppressed for reasons of inequity poverty,
race, gender. People who express their talent change the lives of some
To express talent fully would change a life.

Duffy … (what does she do) … through the (technique) … (quote)

Discussion about what it does
Link

Litt le Red-Cap

- ABOUT
EXAMPLE TECHNIQUE EFFECT
“I clung till dawn to his Metaphor This clearly suggests her rite of passage to womanhood, where it is a
thrashing fur.” liberation from the chains of domesticity and a journey towards her
own independence as a poet. This relates to her personal story with
Adrian henry where she swayed away from relying on him and
became a poet herself independent of him. 
“White dove – which Symbolism The white dove reflects the little girl’s innocence, where the wolf
flew right from my hands which reflects the male patriarchy has completely devoured the
to his open mouth. One innocence of the girl, where takes her virginity, allowing her to pass
bite, dead.” through the threshold of womanhood.
“Out of the forest I come Juxtaposition This quote is reflexive of the power that Carol Ann Duffy has gained
with my flowers, from the relationship, where she was able to leave as a grown woman
singing, all alone.” years later with the power over her former lover. This illustrates how
she was able to be satisfied by destroying the male patriarchy,
allowing for Duffy to become an independent poet.
“I took an axe to the wolf Symbolism This illustrates the generational effect of the male patriarchy. The
… and saw, the ‘virgin white of my grandmother’s bones’ is reflective of how for
glistening white of my centuries innocent women all over the world have had a voice, but
grandmother’s bones.” they have always been crushed by the patriarchy. 
“That a greying wolf Asyndeton This illustrates how over time, her views and ideals have changed,
howls the same old song reflecting how she has changed from an ignorant child to an
at the moon, year in, year experience woman. However, his views and ideals have remained the
out, season after season, same reflecting how men don’t have progressive brains and their
same rhyme, same ideals on the normality of a relationship will always remain the same.
reason.”
“Words, words were
truly alive on the tongue,
in the head, warm,
beating, frantic, winged:
music and blood.”
Personification This represents how she is moving away from her co-dependence on
him, where she is now starting to move away from him and beginning
to focus on poetry instead. This illustrates how she has grown as poet
where her current life force comes from music, blood and poetry.

Sisyphus:

- About female suppression as a cultural practice

- ABOUT THE IGNORANCE TO FEMALE ACTIONS

Example What to do (Litt le Red Cap)

Duffy’s childhood innocence transforms with the ‘breath of the wolf’ in the metaphor, “I
clung till down to his thrashing fur.” This clearly suggests her rite of passage to womanhood.
It is a liberation from the chains of domesticity and a journey towards her own independence
as a poet, her being a symbolic ‘white dove’. Whilst highlighting the arrogance of the male
patriarchy with, “licking his chops,” Duffy further explores the attempt to liberate herself
from the suppression of the male patriarchy in the repetition, “year in, year out, season after
season, same rhyme, same reason.”

Advanced Q1: Powerful texts questi on cultural practi ces and inspire change. To what
extent do the texts you have studied in this module support this view?

Carol Ann Duffy’s modernistic adaptations of ancient narratives are powerful texts that
inspire change and question, to a great extent, the current cultural practices of the
domesticated suppression experienced by women like Duffy herself. Duffy explores this
theme along with the involvement of the male patriarchy in her poems ‘Mrs Sisyphus’ and
‘Little Red-Cap’, which share in ideas with Angela Carter’s ‘The Werewolf’, which also
explores the empowerment of women in a time of domesticated expectations. These texts also
explore the notion of women being a sub sex, relevant only when called upon by the male
patriarchy. Each text uses devices to enhance their meaning to further influence the reader by
questioning the prevalence of such toxic practices in society’s current practices.

Duffy questions the modern-day suppression of women in relationships by the male

patriarchy. She illustrates her own experiences as a poet in the shadow of a male through her
adaptation of the ancient myth of Sisyphus, revising it to portray the relevant perspective of
the wife whose actions are subdued by a counterintuitive task taken on by her husband. Duffy
emphasises this through the animalistic imagery of, “he might as well bark at the moon.” She
compares her husband to a dog, highlighting her underlying hatred for him as he lacks any
humanity to appreciate his own wife. This illustrates the ignorance of the male patriarchy to
the value of women, emphasising the cultural practice of the suppression of women to be less
than men. Duffy again uses animalistic imagery to describe the male patriarchy in, “keen as a
hawk, lean as a shark.” The use of similes directly compares Sisyphus to apex predators,
alluding to the fact that he is a beast of nature and lacks basic human competence. Duffy
challenges the social norms by questioning the importance of most things done by men. She
uses a metaphor in the line, “but my voice reduced to a squawk,” to highlight the current state
of suppression experienced by women in a relationship. The line directly compares the
female voice to a caged bird, which illustrates how her opinion is considered irrelevant to the
male patriarchy. This directly aligns with the general feminist movement of giving women
back their voice. Duffy uses a fricative in the line, “folk flock from miles around just to
gawk,” to express her anger to the fact that despite being a punishment, his actions still earn
him attention. This connects with the notion that despite the sense of the male’s actions, a
woman will receive less attention as their voice is suppressed. Overall, Duffy’s ‘Mrs
Sisyphus’ is a powerful text that questions the suppression of women in relationships by the
male patriarchy, directly aligning to her personal experience of being suppressed as a poet by
her male poet of a partner.

Paragraph on last two stanzas of Medusa

Duffy explores the enlightenment of young women oppressed by the male patriarchy to the
notion of their individuality from men. This notion originates from Duffy’s personal
experiences with the cultural expectation of domesticity and the relevance of age and beauty
to the patriarchy. Duffy explores the notion of age and beauty as she, “Stared in the mirror,”
which, “showed me a Gorgon.” The guttural of the “Gorgon” highlights her lack of beauty
when she looks in the mirror. The “Gorgon” is symbolic of her current view of herself,
representing a beast of which no man could love. Her liberation from the man is implied as
she, “stared in the mirror,” accepting her self-worth and power after becoming separated from
the male patriarchy. The built-up anger of being oppressed is expressed through the
metaphor, “Fire spewed from the mouth of a mountain.” The nasal noise created in the
metaphor of anger further reflects her oppression of opinion in the domestic and manipulative
relationship with the man. Duffy further explores the notion of women only being beautiful
when they are young in the rhetorical question, “Wasn’t I beautiful? Wasn’t I fragrant and
young?” The rhetorical questions challenge the cultural practice of oppressing women due to
their age, emphasising their jealousy of being young and beautiful before being burdened by
the male patriarchy.