Candidate Name: Emily Moggridge Candidate Number: 2425

Centre Number: 64015 Unit Number: F664

Unit Name: Texts in Time

To what extent are the feminist concerns explored in ‘The World’s Wife’ by Carol Ann
Duffy and ‘The Bloody Chamber’ by Angela Carter characterised by the rejection of
convention?
Feminism can be described as being: “…grounded on the belief that women are oppressed or
disadvantaged by comparison with men, and that their oppression is… illegitimate or
unjustified.”1. Throughout Carol Ann Duffy’s The World’s Wife, Angela Carter’s The Bloody
Chamber and Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls, all three writers reject entrenched gender
conventions that are “illegitimate or unjustified” 2, indicating that they should not be
“accepted ways of doing things”3. The overarching, fundamental concern that is prominent
throughout all three texts is the rejection of the convention of heteronormativity, the gender
binary. Heteronormativity is the suggestion that women and men are trapped within the
suffocating dichotomy of male and female gender stereotypes. By rejecting this convention,
the writers thus criticise issues such as the dominance of men over women in society,
including the literary world, the limitations of objectification and the male fear of female
sexuality. To a greater extent, all three writers reject these conventions throughout their texts
to explore new possibilities for men and women outside society’s construction of gender.
However, they also conform to these conventions in order to accentuate traditional gender
roles within their characterisations in order to criticise them.
The term heteronormativity was first introduced by Michael Warner in 1991, and is “…the
belief that people fall into distinct and complementary genders (man and woman) with
natural roles in life”4. Carter and Duffy’s subversion of conventional gender stereotypes
within their revised tales thus alludes to the deconstruction of heteronormativity. Whereas it
was previously asserted that a woman, “understands that men and women are different and
that those very differences provide the key to her success as a person and fulfilment as a
woman”5, Betty Friedan, a prominent feminist during the 1970s, described femininity as ‘a
comfortable concentration camp’6. The writers’ allusion to the deconstruction of the gender
binary thus rejects the convention of inherently male and female attributes, liberating the
reader from the confines of socially constructed gender restraints. Carter’s characterisation of
the protagonist’s mother in ‘The Bloody Chamber’ is particularly significant in her
subversion of the original tale, describing the mother as a heroic figure, yet not
stereotypically masculine. Whilst the original tale of ‘Bluebeard’ that this story revises saw
archetypal figures of masculinity saving the protagonist, Carter manipulates this, celebrating
the mother’s heroic femininity in doing so. This characterisation is opposing to Churchill’s
Thatcherite figure, Marlene from ‘Top Girls’, who contrastingly gives the character
conventionally male attributes. For example, Marlene demeans her female peers, alluding to
the patriarchal tendency to degrade or humiliate women, “…No As, all those Os you

1
James, Susan, “Feminism.” In Edward Craig (ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Vol. 10. London:
Routledge, p. 576
2
Ibid, James, p. 576
3
Oxford Student’s Dictionary, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, p. 220
4
Warner, Michael, Introduction: Fear of a Queer Planet, Diss. Duke University, 1991, p.16
5
Willoughby, Susan and Willoughby, Doug, Civil Rights in the USA 1865-1992, Heinemann, London, 2007, p.
276
6
Johnson, Paul, A History of the American People, HarperCollins, New York, 1997, p. 974

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Candidate Name: Emily Moggridge Candidate Number: 2425
Centre Number: 64015 Unit Number: F664
Unit Name: Texts in Time
probably/could have got an A”7. However, Carter’s use of “…her black lisle legs exposed to
the thigh, her skirts tucked around her waist” 8 rejects this entrenched belief that one must be
masculine to succeed, reversing the gender roles and consequently criticising the
conventional association of women with submissiveness and passivity.
By using revisionism of the conventional literary form of fairy-tale and myth, both Carter and
Duffy criticise these gender constructions more extensively. Fairy-tales and myths continue
to be propagated to children, yet problematically adhere to conventional gender stereotypes,
often presenting women as passive and inferior figures. As Susan Sellers accurately
comments, feminist rewriting of myths and fairy tales, “…can… thus be thought of in two
categories: as an act of demolition, exposing and detonating the stories that have hampered
women, and as a task of construction – of bringing into being enabling alternatives”. 9 Given
Sellers’ assessment, Duffy and Carter subvert the expectations of their readers towards the
end of the story or poem, if not throughout, to “…extract the latent content from the
traditional stories and use it as the beginnings of new stories” 10. For example, Duffy revises
the fairy tale of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ in her poem ‘Little Red-Cap’, presenting the
previously passive character as a girl who grows to become a woman who conquers her
oppressor, the wolf, a manifestation of patriarchy: “…took an axe to the wolf/as he slept, one
chop, scrotum to throat”11. Whereas the original fairy tale saw the male woodcutter saving
Little Red Riding Hood, Duffy rejects this idea. Little Red Cap saves herself, metaphorically
rejecting conventional gender stereotypes, notably the assertion that women are inherently
inferior and submissive, and in turn transcends the wolf. Further, the juxtaposition of ‘I took
an axe’12 and ‘scrotum to throat’13 and the hard monosyllabic sound of the blow of an axe
serves to emasculate the protagonist’s oppressor, subverting the stereotype of men holding
physical and emotional power over women. Equally, although Churchill does not use
revisionism, she does include Patient Griselda, the obedient wife whose story is told by
Chaucer in ‘The Clerk’s Tale’ of The Canterbury Tales, but also a notable figure from
folklore. Unlike Duffy and Carter’s rejection of gender conventions in their revised tales,
Churchill uses convention in some of her gender representations, such as her characterisation
of Griselda: “I asked him to bury her where no animals could dig her up./ It was Walter’s
child to do with what he liked with”. It is, therefore, evident that Griselda is utterly obedient
to her husband, believing that not only herself, but also her daughter, are his possessions. By
retaining Griselda’s passive nature through her characterisation, Churchill shocks her
audience, criticising the subordinate position in which some women place themselves as a
result of such relentless submission.
Duffy particularly criticises presupposing gender roles within intimate relationships. Judith
Lorber argues that these social constructions are arbitrary, leading to ‘…false expectations of
both genders’14. These expectations are often damaging, as highlighted in ‘Medusa’ and

7
Churchill, Caryl, Top Girls, Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, London, 1991, p.52
8
Carter, Angela, The Bloody Chamber, Vintage, London, 2006, p.40
9
Susan Sellers, ‘Feminist Literary Theory’, Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, 2011, p. 189
10
Simpson, Helen, Introduction to the Bloody Chamber, Vintage Classics, London, 2006, p. xi-xii
11
Duffy, Carol Ann, The World’s Wife, Macmillan Publishers Limited, London, 2000, p.4
12
Ibid, Duffy, p.4
13
Op. cit., Duffy p.4
14
Lorber, Judith. "Believing is Seeing: Biology as Ideology." In The Gendered Society Reader, Ontario, Oxford
University Press, 2011, p. 11-18

2
Candidate Name: Emily Moggridge Candidate Number: 2425
Centre Number: 64015 Unit Number: F664
Unit Name: Texts in Time
‘Thetis’. ‘Thetis’ sees the female character conforming to gender stereotypes, “So I shopped
for a suitable shape./ Size 8. Snake./ Big mistake” 15. The sharp, succinct lines with internal
rhyme are a reflection of the ‘big mistake’ women often make, echoing the first line of the
poem, “I shrank myself”16. Together they mock the female obsession over weight and
appearance, especially care over such things in order to please men. Duffy’s use of the term
‘big mistake’ sees the female protagonist acknowledging that by adhering to these
expectations she is putting herself into a vulnerable and consequently damaging position.
Similarly, in ‘Medusa’ Duffy accentuates gender stereotypes, presenting the female
protagonist as a woman who is jealous of the younger women whom she believes her lover is
having relations with, “A suspicion, a doubt, a jealousy/grew in my mind” 17 and further, “…
your girls, your girls./ Wasn’t I beautiful?/ Wasn’t I fragrant and young?” 18. Duffy’s use of
tripling suggests that this assertion is dominating Medusa’s mind, whilst her use of the verb
‘grew’ perhaps alludes to the cancerous and potentially harmful aspects of what the
protagonist perceives to be the expectations of men. ‘Medusa’ is particularly accurate in that
the poem portrays the limitations of heteronormativity for men and women. This idea is
stressed when Medusa idolises her partner, “It’s you I love,/ perfect man, Greek God, my
own”19. The ambiguity of the poem thus presents the reader with two gender stereotypes.
Whereas Medusa can be seen as a woman desperately attempting to retain what she perceives
to be the type of beauty a man wants, she portrays her partner as a stereotypical unfaithful
man whom she has ‘doubts’ and ‘jealousy’ about. This stereotype of the male is highlighted
again in ‘Circe’ where the female narrator refers to all men as pigs, “…but all of them/…
with those piggy eyes”20. It is, therefore, apparent that society’s misconceptions surrounding
men and women are damaging. They often lead to untenable expectations for both men and
women, and suspicions or doubts that have the undeniable certainty of harming one’s sense
of self and relationship with others.
Carter takes this assessment of human relationships further in ‘The Tiger’s Bride’, stripping
away society’s gender constraints to return to a state where there is, therefore, equality and no
criticism for either sex. This is particularly seen in ‘The Tiger’s Bride’ where the female
protagonist is given teardrop earrings, an emblem of femininity and possession, from her
suitor, the Beast. The asphyxiating limitations of society’s expectations surrounding gender,
in particular the notion of being objectified as the passive female, are brought to the reader’s
attention when the narrator refers to the earrings as “very heavy”21. At the end of the tale,
however, the protagonist transforms into a tiger, “And each stroke of his tongue ripped off
skin after successive skin, all the skins of a life in the world, and left behind a nascent patina
of shining hairs. My earrings turned back to water and trickled down my shoulders; I
shrugged the drops off my beautiful fur”22. Whereas in ‘The Courtship of Mr Lyon’ Beauty
must accept the Beast in order for him to become a person and live in the human world full of
society’s constraints. Here, in ‘The Tiger’s Bride’ Carter criticises these constraints, the
heroine and the Beast accept the animal nature in themselves and in each other and thus
15
Op. cit., Duffy. P. 5
16
Op. cit., Duffy. P.5
17
Op. cit., Duffy p. 40
18
Op. cit., Duffy, p. 41
19
Op. cit., Duffy, p. 40
20
Op. cit., Duffy. P. 47
21
Op cit., Carter, p.73
22
Op. cit., Carter, p.75

3
Candidate Name: Emily Moggridge Candidate Number: 2425
Centre Number: 64015 Unit Number: F664
Unit Name: Texts in Time
liberate themselves of the human world with its social constructs. Carter’s oxymoronic
language, “… the harsh velvet of his head against my hand, then a tongue, abrasive as
sandpaper”23 suggests that the process of changing people’s perceptions surrounding
conventional gender constructions will likely be difficult to begin with. Therefore, the
oxymoron is symbolic of the idea that though this process may be challenging, it is, however,
an emancipation. Carter thus rejects what society may deem an ‘ideal’ relationship,
suggesting that it may be a good idea for men and women to see each other as they really are
and that a mutual recognition of a shared animal nature is the basis of equality, therefore
happiness within human relationships.
Considering its adverse effect on people’s perceptions of men and women, it is not surprising
that the gender binary fundamentally links to perhaps the most detrimental and extreme way
in which gender stereotyping affects women – objectification. Objectification places women
into the passive and idealised realm of the ‘male gaze’ where expectations surrounding
appearance and sexuality are unlikely to be met. However, rather than always rejecting
conventional gender roles to explore this feminist concern, all three writers accentuate
gender stereotypes notably in Carter’s ‘The Snow Child’, Duffy’s ‘Pygmalion’s Bride’ and
Churchill’s characterisation of Lady Nijo. By conforming, all three writers criticise the way
in which women are often viewed and treated as objects and possessions. Churchill
hyperbolically accentuates gender conventions with her characterisation of Lady Nijo. The
character believes she ‘belonged to him’24 and ‘…enjoyed most… being the Emperor’s
favourite’25. In ‘Pygmalion’s Bride’, Duffy places the female protagonist into an
uncomfortably oppressed position as a result of Pygmalion’s unrealistic expectations: “Cold,
I was, like snow, like ivory” 26. The iambic pentameter here falls on the words ‘snow’ and
‘ivory’, both words that have bleak connotations of emptiness, isolation and death. The
cumulative effect is to particularly highlight the female protagonist’s discomfort and
subjugation as a result of being the literal creation of Pygmalion’s desires. In Carter’s ‘The
Snow Child’, the male antagonist, the Count, wishes for the “child of his desire” 27. Carter
accentuates conventional gender stereotypes when the Count wishes for a girl “…white as
snow”28, “…red as blood”29 …and as black as that bird’s feather” 30. Whilst white is symbolic
of purity, red is the emblem for passion and sexuality and black signifies death. The Count’s
wishes, therefore, demonstrate the paradoxically unobtainable views that men often have of
women. As with ‘Pygmalion’s Bride’, ‘The Snow Child’ can therefore be seen as an analogy
of male idealisation. Not only are this, the Count, Pygmalion and the Emperor are completely
in control of the females identities. All three men literally construct the female, asserting
complete control over her. Yet, although both Duffy and Carter accentuate these gender roles
at the beginning of these tales, the denouement of both see the rejection of these conventions.
For example, the Snow Child "…picks up a rose; pricks her finger on the thorn; bleeds;
screams; falls”31. Cristina Bacchilega argues that the rejection of convention lies within the
23
Op. cit., Carter, p. 75
24
Op. cit., Churchill, p. 3
25
Op. cit., Churchill, p.4
26
Op. cit., Duffy, p. 51
27
Op cit., Carter, p. 105
28
Op. cit., Carter, p. 105
29
Op. cit., Carter, p. 105
30
Op. cit., Carter p.105
31
Op. cit., p. 106

4
Candidate Name: Emily Moggridge Candidate Number: 2425
Centre Number: 64015 Unit Number: F664
Unit Name: Texts in Time
Snow Child’s death itself. The Snow Child’s death can be seen as highly ambiguous. The
girl’s weakness and subsequent death could be because she has served her purpose as a
sexual object. Bacchilega highlights “…when the rose pricks her and she bleeds, symbolizing
menstruation, the Snow Child ‘comes of age’ as a being capable of sexual intercourse. Once
she has fulfilled her purpose of becoming a sexual object, she can die” 32. However, Elaine
Jordan argues that the Snow Child's death is not "a killing of women," 33 but rather a "killing
of masculine representations."34 The Snow Child is not weak because she is a woman; she is
weak because she fits the untenable male view of female perfection. Therefore, similar to
‘The Bloody Chamber’, in ‘The Snow Child’, becoming a reflection of male idealization and
objectification of women is a death sentence.
Taking the form of the texts into consideration, Duffy adds another dimension to the reader’s
interpretation of her poems with her use of dramatic monologue. Dramatic monologue has
been used for centuries by male writers. However, Duffy takes this conventional literary form
and manipulates the entrenchment of the dominative male voice by replacing it with her own,
spoken through multiple female personae. Alan Sinfield associated dramatic monologues as
mechanisms to evoke sympathy: “Many dramatic monologues swing decisively to the pole of
sympathy and aim primarily to involve the reader in the sufferings of another” 35. Here we are
particularly reminded of both ‘Pygmalion’s Bride’ and ‘Mrs Sisyphus.’ Both poems, at least
initially, imply the woman to be a figure of passivity and neglect by their male partners.
Duffy evokes a great amount of sympathy from her readers to draw upon the injustices
suffered by many women. Mrs Sisyphus, for example, is portrayed as a wife who is neglected
by her husband, “But I lie alone in the dark” 36 and further, “My voice reduced to a squawk” 37.
However, a greater degree of sympathy is evoked ‘Pygmalion’s Bride’ where there are strong
connotations of sexual abuse: “I thought He will not touch me,/ But he did” 38 and further, “I
lay still/as though I’d died” 39 . This reference to death could be as if to imply a metaphorical
death of identity; the idea accumulates throughout the poem with the overbearing use of the
personal pronoun ‘he’. The dominance of this pronoun throughout the first five stanzas
suppresses the narrator’s voice and, consequently, her identity. Duffy then partners this with,
“He spoke -/ blunt endearments, what he’d do and how./ His words were terrible” 40.
Therefore not only does Duffy highlight the damaging effect of the male’s predatory nature,
but she then goes further to mock male pride by rejecting the idea that this overtly sexual
behaviour is what the female character wants. To expand, the use of the word “blunt” and
“terrible” embellish this notion. Both words certainly have connotations that oppose the idea
of the female character embracing the male’s dominative sexual behaviour and thus reject the
idea of women wanting to be dominated and essentially respected only for pristine sense of
‘femininity’ and submissiveness. In this sense, Duffy alters the original myth, a myth where
male sexual dominance is celebrated, to criticise the objectification of women.
32
Asnes, Tania. Miller, W.C. ed. "The Bloody Chamber “The Snow Child” Summary and Analysis". 9 September
2007 Web. 5 March 2015.
33
Ibid, Asnes, Miller
34
Ibid, Asnes, Miller
35
Alan Sinfield, Dramatic Monologue, London: Methuen & Co Ltd, 1977
36
Op. Cit., Duffy, p.21
37
Op. Cit., Duffy, p.21
38
Op. Cit., Duffy, p.51
39
Op. Cit., p.51
40
Duffy, p.21

5
Candidate Name: Emily Moggridge Candidate Number: 2425
Centre Number: 64015 Unit Number: F664
Unit Name: Texts in Time
It is, therefore, evident that all three writers assess the limitations of the gender dichotomy,
with the most damaging aspects of this exposed with the objectification of women. Yet, all
three writers, particularly Duffy, explore the idea of a female asserting her own power by
taking control of her sexuality, rejecting the stereotype of a sexually passive woman. To some
extent, this discussion of the assertion of female sexual power can be explained by the texts’
contextual backgrounds. The Bloody Chamber was published in 1979, Top Girls in 1982 and
The World’s Wife in 1999; all three texts were, therefore, written as the feminist sex wars had
either begun, or their impact was beginning to show. As Lisa Duggan accurately comments,
the debates “felt like war”41, polarising feminist beliefs that were either characterised by the
anti-porn feminists or conversely the sex-positive feminists. ‘Pygmalion’s Bride’ epitomises
this argument. At the beginning of the poem the female protagonist is subordinate with
regards to her sexual identity, yet by the end she uses her sexuality as a weapon, “So I
changed tack,/…kissed back,/…began to moan,/got hot, got wild” 42 . However, following the
narrator’s exertion of her sexuality, Pygmalion does not return, “And I haven’t seen him
since./Simple as that”43. Pygmalion’s subsequent absence is, therefore, emblematic of the
male’s fear of female sexuality. Similarly in Top Girls, when Joan recollects her stoning as a
result of being a sexuality active woman disguised as the Pope, the characters feel the full
force of the patriarchal establishment that denied women their sexuality: “They took me by
my feet and dragged me out of town and stoned me to death”44.
To reject the convention of a suffocating male voice that undermines, for example, female
sexual expression, both Carter and Duffy use multiple female protagonists. Thus, they
become ventriloquists, providing the silenced women from myth and history with a voice. As
Carter and Duffy’s tales are also often specifically directed at a female audience, a web is
created that connects each tale to another, reaching out to the female reader to either identify
with them or enlighten them. Duffy’s frequent addressing of outside people by the
protagonists of the poems marks their stories as part of an extensive conversation, particularly
stressing this point. For example, “Girls”45, “Ladies”46, “Do you know”47, “Get this”48,
“Imagine me”49. Although Carter does not directly address her female audience as obviously
or often as Duffy, her tales are predominately, although not exclusively, told from the
perspective of a female protagonist. A notable example from Carter’s The Bloody Chamber is
the ‘Erl-King’. Confronted with conflicting emotions of attraction and danger, the female
protagonist is drawn to the oppressive Erl-King like a moth to a flame, epitomised when the
narrator states, “He is the tender butcher who showed me the price of flesh is love” 50 – the
oxymoron symbolising her paradoxical feelings. It seems, however, that the narrator reaches
out to her reader perhaps implying it to be female, warning them of the potential harmfulness
of tyrannical male figures symbolised by the Erl-King. For example, the narrator frequently

41
Duggan, Lisa, Sex Wars: Sexual Dissent and Political Culture. Routledge, New York, 2006, p.6
42
Duffy, p.52
43
Ibid, p.55
44
Churchill, p. 19
45
Duffy, p.58
46
Duffy, p.55
47
Duffy, p.12
48
Duffy, p.12
49
Duffy, p.58
50
Carter, p.100

6
Candidate Name: Emily Moggridge Candidate Number: 2425
Centre Number: 64015 Unit Number: F664
Unit Name: Texts in Time
uses the second person in her narrative, “Once you are inside you must stay there until it lets
you out”51 and further, “Erl-King will do you grievous harm”52.
Although Churchill uses an all female cast, it is perhaps her use of overlapping dialogue that
has a more uniting effect. Arguably, the playwright’s use of overlapping dialogue in Act One
portrays the women as a sisterhood that speaks with a unified voice to reject patriarchy. For
example, Isabella remarks, “Well I always travelled as a lady and I repudiated strongly any
suggestion in the press that I was other than feminine” 53. Marlene builds on this experience,
stating, “I don’t wear trousers in the office./I could but I don’t” 54. Melody Schneider argues
that the women in the first act are “active listeners” 55 who are “expressing empathy”56. To
support this assessment, Schneider concedes that “…even if at times some of the characters
are self-centred, their revelations build to a therapeutic release. Instead of being chaotic… the
audience understands the main points of the characters’ narratives, creating a continuously
linked narrative”57. Arguing against other critics who view Churchill’s use of overlapping
dialogue as, “…illustrating that the women were not listening to each other” 58, Schneider’s
assessment, similar to both Carter and Duffy’s use of multiple female protagonists and
voices, thus undermines and challenges the male voice. This is a male voice that has
dominated these female characters who are emblematic of the perpetual wave of oppression
women have faced over the centuries.
In conclusion, if there is a technique that is at the core of the feminist concerns explored
within the texts, it would be the deconstruction and reconstruction of the gender binary. By
juxtaposing characters who conform to deeply embedded gender stereotypes with characters
who reject them, all three writers suggest the belief of inherently male and female attributes
to be a ‘dangerous simplification’ 59. As Simone de Beauvoir wrote, "no biological,
psychological or economic fate determines the figure that the human female presents in
society"60. It is therefore evident that manipulating gender characterisation is effective in
liberating one from the constricting standards of ‘femininity’ and ‘masculinity’, encouraging
both the readers and the audience to re-evaluate their beliefs. However, as Churchill and
Carter’s texts were written before third wave feminism 61, they challenge the concept of
heteronormativity neither as comprehensively not as overtly as Duffy. Churchill’s
characterisation of Marlene who breaks the gender dichotomy by rejecting motherhood and
pursuing a career, challenges the audience and draws attention to the scrutiny faced for
people who act outside of their gender role. However Duffy’s more recent text embraces
one’s liberation from ‘femininity’ less apologetically, successfully challenging the crudeness
and subjectivity of these societal norms and mores, a testament to the progress made
regarding women’s civil and social rights since the 1980s.
51
Carter, p.96
52
Carter, p.96
53
Op. Cit., Churchill, p.9
54
Op. Cit., Churchill, p.9
55
Alicia Tycer, Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls, Methuen Drama, London, p. 60
56
Ibid , p.60
57
Ibid, p. 60
58
Ibid, p. 60
59
Dunphy, Richard, Sexual politics: an introduction, Edinburgh University Press, 2000, p. 240
60
de Beauvoir, Simone, The Second Sex. New York: Knopf, 2010
61
Budgeon, Shelley, Third-Wave Feminism and the Politics of Gender in Late Modernity, London, Palgrave
Macmillan, 2011

7
Candidate Name: Emily Moggridge Candidate Number: 2425
Centre Number: 64015 Unit Number: F664
Unit Name: Texts in Time
Word count: 3560
Word count not including titles, footnotes and quotes: 2, 796