1

HL Essay Guiding Question: How does Duffy employ the thematic contrast between strength

and emotion to empower The World’s Wife’s female protagonists?

Empowerment and Emotion: Duffy’s The World’s Wife

In prevailingly patriarchal societies there is a tendency to condemn female sentimentality

and undermine the validity of women’ emotions. In The World’s Wife, Duffy sheds light on

female inferiority by perusing women from classical mythology, examining stories from their

perspective, and providing insight into stereotypically dismissed notions such as female intellect,

emotional turmoil, and resentment. The particular spotlight on female protagonists, who often

occupy a secondary role in literary retellings of myths, aids the realization that Duffy’s

illustration of women’s fragility ultimately indicates their underlying strength. Thus, Duffy’s

poetry collection reveals that the depiction of women’s interiority represents an emancipatory

concept that shifts the stigma around women’s display of emotions. Figures such as Mrs Midas,

who unwillingly faces the repercussions of her husband’s fatal wish of the “golden touch”,

Medusa, who contrasts her prejudiced representation as an insensitive creature, and Mrs

Sisyphus, who expresses melancholy despite intense anger, are exemplary demonstrations of the

coexistence between the opposing emotions that Duffy accentuates to empower women.

Therefore, in yoking bitterness to emotional expression, Duffy delineates the vulnerability of

female figures as a form of empowerment, condemning men’s selfishness and greed.

In the poem “Mrs Midas,” Duffy's repetitive alternation of bitterness and grief reflects

the speaker's contrasting perceptions. Mrs Midas’s dual emotions derive from the resentment due
 2

to her husband’s egoistic choice of transforming objects into gold, and from the nostalgia related

to the loss of serenity. Duffy depicts the speaker’s perceptions that gradually shift over time,

beginning with the collocation in media res of the house’s “relaxed kitchen” (Duffy 2/3) that

anticipates the grave consequences of Mr. Midas's wish. Duffy’s vivid descriptions of the house

continue to highlight the chaos that Midas’ presence generates, rendering the setting part of the

collateral damage for which he is responsible. This negativity also pervades the setting as Mrs

Midas perceives the season “September” (Duffy 1), and the degradation, implicitly associated to

that of nature during autumn, compares to the character’s profound sense of loss and the

imminent aggravation of conflict. The first internal rhyme of “wine” and “unwind” (Duffy 2)

accentuates the protagonist’s temporary serenity, but the verse’s rapid rhythmic pace forecasts

the transition to the resentful recounting that escalates in the second stanza. There, through the

semantic field of nature where the “garden” appears to be “poor,” (Duffy 7) the poet implicitly

directs the blame of the couple’s deterioration towards Mr. Midas, attributing an ominous

“visibility” (Duffy 7) to his entrance. While nature’s hostile depictions mirror Mrs Midas’s

mounting displeasure, the dichotomy between the “dark ground” and the “light of the sky”

(Duffy 8) reifies the distinction between Mrs Midas’s innocence and her husband’s idiosyncratic

actions that are both detrimental to her and unnatural. In the following stanzas, the consistent

shift between Mrs Midas’s responses and her husband’s acts illustrates her attempt to preserve

order despite a “shaking” (Duffy 23) sense of fear, and protect herself from the ongoing chaos.

Considering the progression of her actions, Mrs Midas takes on the role of an “active agent”

(Gracia, 2020) that contrasts the stereotypically understanding wife expected by society, since

her suffering does not preclude her from criticizing her husband’s choices and conclusively

“mov[ing] and driv[ing] (Duffy 52,53) away from the house.. Despite the clear culmination of
 3

her tolerance, Mrs Midas still communicates her bitter affliction in one of the most penetrating

revelations of the poem, stating that her husband’s most upsetting act was a “lack of thought”

that still “gets” her (Duffy 64). Thus, Mrs Midas distinguishes herself as a figure that thoroughly

reveals her inner emotions but does not hesitate to voice her disappointment and criticism.

While through "Mrs Midas" Duffy deconstructs the perception of women's emotions

through a patriarchally accepted figure, that of a merely tolerating wife, she also employs less

accepted female archetypes. The poem “Medusa” is a clear model of this dynamic: while the

homonymous character has been historically crucified as an architect of men's downfall, in

Duffy’s poetry Medusa’s resentment reveals an underlying fragility that contrasts her

stereotypical representation as a monstrous, cruel mythological figure. Similar to “Mrs Midas”

beginning, the first stanza’s third line addresses the rapidness of Medusa’s transformation where

the passive verb “turned” (Duffy 3) defines her as a victim rather than a perpetrator. In fact, a

vital detail is that the opening lines are not an invective, but a depiction of her neglected

emotions. Medusa’s “suspicions” “grew” (Duffy 1) prior to the snakes on her head, but such

negative emotions culminate in a physical distortion where her “thoughts” (Duffy 4) violently

resonate inside of her. The figurative “soured bride,” (Duffy 6) with which Medusa refers to

herself, also serves as an aggravation of her mental state, since the term illustrates her sense of

impurity (Duffy 1,4,6). In elucidating the character’s consuming feelings, Duffy continues to

prioritize degenerative and violent diction to anticipate the prevalent sense of rancor towards her

male oppressors. Specifically, the repetitive adjective “foul” indicates Medusa’s emotional

frustration (Duffy 8), evident in the colors “grey” and “yellow” that connote decay (Duffy 7,9).

This physical deterioration also demonstrates Medusa’s combined anger and suffering, since her

“bullet tears” (Duffy 10) represent the violent nature of her despair. Despite this aggressiveness,
 4

Medusa describes her disappointment by declaring that she “knows” any man will “betray”

(Duffy 15) her, revealing the profundity of her trauma. Medusa’s intense afflictions also emerge

through the semantic field of nature, where she depicts a “ bird..spattered down” (Duffy 21/23)

to illustrate the abuse she faced. Lastly, the detached contemplation of Medusa’s “love [that has]

gone bad” (Duffy 31), and the olfactory imagery in the last rhetorical questions reinforce her

condition’s definiteness, indicating that she becomes a “metaphor for the bitterness of betrayal”

(Prihermawan, 2015). Such conclusive depictions of Medusa’s interiority indicate that Duffy is

perpetually “rais[ing] awareness about the restricting world “ (Gracia 2020) in which patriarchal

structures have confined women, that in the case of Medusa is the false conception of cynicism

and distrust. Thus, in accentuating Medusa’s conflicting emotions rather than her resentment,

Duffy further empowers the figure by altering the prejudiced assumptions of her persona - a

recurring motif in the anthology.

After having employed thematic contrasts for different female figures, voicing both their

grief and rancor, Duffy explores the rapid succession of opposing emotions as another facet in

her empowering depictions. In fact, in “Mrs Sisyphus,” Duffy distinctively sunders the

protagonist’s anger from her melancholy, suggesting that suffering due to men’s erroneous action

reveals women’s intellectual ability to recognize male flaws. King Sisyphus was condemned to

eternally roll a boulder up a hill, and such punishment leads him to unjustly manipulate his wife

and accuse her of negligence. Detecting her husband’s dishonesty, Mrs Sisyphus furiously

condemns his foolish actions for their impact on her. Duffy bases her depiction of Mrs Sisyphus's

intense anger on a structural pattern that includes a cacophonic rhyme at the end of every line in

the poem's first part. Mrs Sisyphus's vivid resentment emerges through the immediate collocation

of the setting “up the hill” (Duffy 1), which implies that Sisyphus already broke the stasis and
 5

equilibrium with his wife. In describing the “stone” (Duffy 2) that Sisyphus carries with an

hyperbolic comparison to a “kirk,” Mrs Sisyphus relates his idiosyncratic actions to a common

object, demonstrating that she has acclimatized to his compulsive behavior. Yet, Mrs Sisyphus’s

familiarity with the situation does not alleviate her hostility as she expresses the desire to do

“something vicious to” (Duffy 5) her husband and cannot reduce her “incensed” feelings (Duffy

4). The character also construes her husband’s absurd obsession with work through derision,

mockingly declaring that he would never “shirk” his beloved job and became a “dork” (Duffy

10) because of it. Subsequently, in describing the perspective of outlookers that “gawk” (Duffy

11) at her husband, Duffy begins to signal Mrs Sisyphus’s shift to emotions other than anger,

revealing her grieving contemplation that emerges once the harsh reprimanding ends. The

essential deviation of Mrs Sisyphus’s perceptions occurs in the second stanza where, through the

detachment from her husband’s punishment, there is particular emphasis on her emotional

suffering. In fact, after the insults directed at her husband, Mrs Sisyphus asserts to be “la[ying]

alone in the dark” (Duffy 25), revealing that beneath her frustration is the consuming feeling of

loneliness due to her husband’s prioritization of work. Through Mrs Sisyphus’s circumstance,

Duffy once again reports the extent of men’s damaging actions, but ultimately places women in

the position of acknowledging the foolishness of male mistakes.

While these three figures demonstrate the ability to overcome grief, live with consuming

suffering, or bear the weight of men’s inimical actions, they each also exemplify the moral power

that distinguishes Duffy’s women as virtuous and resourceful. The fact that this inner strength

may be enervated or obstructed by the gravity of male’s flaws can lead to the underestimation of

women’s abilities. However, Duffy perpetually reinforces the concept that emotional expression

and emancipation can be complementary rather than mutually exclusive. Thus, it is through the
 6

revelation of their neglected fragilities that Duffy condemns men’s faults and finally gives voices

to women whose difficulties were historically undermined or completely ignored. Ultimately,

Duffy’s The World's Wife serves as a reminder of the different facets that female empowerment

can have; different sentiments such as disbelief, grief, and rancor are all valid possibilities to

validate our emotions.

Word Count: 1497

 7

Works Cited

Duffy, C.A. The World's Wife. PICADOR. 2017.

Gracia, S., 2020. Duffy’s The World’s Wife and Plato’s Theory of Forms.E-spacio.uned.es.

Prihermawan, Widyanto. The Jealousy in Carol Ann Duffy’s “Medusa (Journal on English

Language, Culture and Literature), vol. 3, no. 4, 06 Feb. 2015.

 8

Appendix

1. “Mrs Midas,” Carol Ann Duffy

2. “Medusa,” Carol Ann Duffy

3. “Mrs Sisyphus,” Carol Ann Duffy

● Line numbers are included for each poem every five lines.

1. “Mrs Midas”

It was late September. I’d just poured a glass of wine, begun

to unwind, while the vegetables cooked. The kitchen

filled with the smell of itself, relaxed, its steamy breath

gently blanching the windows. So I opened one,

then with my fingers wiped the other’s glass like a brow. (5)

He was standing under the pear tree snapping a twig.

Now the garden was long and the visibility poor, the way

the dark of the ground seems to drink the light of the sky,
 9

but that twig in his hand was gold. And then he plucked

a pear from a branch. – we grew Fondante d’Automne – (10)

and it sat in his palm, like a lightbulb. On.

I thought to myself, Is he putting fairy lights in the tree?

He came into the house. The doorknobs gleamed.

He drew the blinds. You know the mind; I thought of

the Field of the Cloth of Gold and of Miss Macready. (15)

He sat in that chair like a king on a burnished throne.

The look on his face was strange, wild, vain. I said,

What in the name of God is going on? He started to laugh.

I served up the meal. For starters, corn on the cob.

Within seconds he was spitting out the teeth of the rich. (20)

He toyed with his spoon, then mine, then with the knives, the forks.

He asked where was the wine. I poured with a shaking hand,

a fragrant, bone-dry white from Italy, then watched

as he picked up the glass, goblet, golden chalice, drank.

It was then that I started to scream. He sank to his knees. (25)

After we’d both calmed down, I finished the wine

 10

on my own, hearing him out. I made him sit

on the other side of the room and keep his hands to himself.

I locked the cat in the cellar. I moved the phone.

The toilet I didn’t mind. I couldn’t believe my ears: (30)

how he’d had a wish. Look, we all have wishes; granted.

But who has wishes granted? Him. Do you know about gold?

It feeds no one; aurum, soft, untarnishable; slakes

no thirst. He tried to light a cigarette; I gazed, entranced,

as the blue flame played on its luteous stem. At least, (35)

I said, you’ll be able to give up smoking for good.

Separate beds. in fact, I put a chair against my door,

near petrified. He was below, turning the spare room

into the tomb of Tutankhamun. You see, we were passionate then,

in those halcyon days; unwrapping each other, rapidly, (40)

like presents, fast food. But now I feared his honeyed embrace,

the kiss that would turn my lips to a work of art.

And who, when it comes to the crunch, can live

with a heart of gold? That night, I dreamt I bore

 11

his child, its perfect ore limbs, its little tongue (45)

like a precious latch, its amber eyes

holding their pupils like flies. My dream milk

burned in my breasts. I woke to the streaming sun.

So he had to move out. We’d a caravan

in the wilds, in a glade of its own. I drove him up (50)

under the cover of dark. He sat in the back.

And then I came home, the woman who married the fool

who wished for gold. At first, I visited, odd times,

parking the car a good way off, then walking.

You knew you were getting close. Golden trout (55)

on the grass. One day, a hare hung from a larch,

a beautiful lemon mistake. And then his footprints,

glistening next to the river’s path. He was thin,

delirious; hearing, he said, the music of Pan

from the woods. Listen. That was the last straw. (60)

What gets me now is not the idiocy or greed

but lack of thought for me. Pure selfishness. I sold

 12

the contents of the house and came down here.

I think of him in certain lights, dawn, late afternoon,

and once a bowl of apples stopped me dead. I miss most, (65)

even now, his hands, his warm hands on my skin, his touch.
 13

2. “Medusa”

A suspicion, a doubt, a jealousy

grew in my mind,

which turned the hairs on my head to filthy snakes,

as though my thoughts

hissed and spat on my scalp. (5)

My bride’s breath soured, stank

in the grey bags of my lungs.

I’m foul mouthed now, foul tongued,

yellow fanged.

There are bullet tears in my eyes. (10)

Are you terrified?

Be terrified.

It’s you I love,

perfect man, Greek God, my own;

but I know you’ll go, betray me, stray (15)

from home.
 14

So better by far for me if you were stone.

I glanced at a buzzing bee,

a dull grey pebble fell

to the ground. (20)

I glanced at a singing bird,

a handful of dusty gravel

spattered down.

I looked at a ginger cat,

a housebrick (25)

shattered a bowl of milk.

I looked at a snuffling pig,

a boulder rolled

in a heap of shit.

I stared in the mirror. (30)

Love gone bad

showed me a Gorgon.

I stared at a dragon.

Fire spewed
 15

from the mouth of a mountain. (35)

3. “Mrs Sisyphus”

That's him pushing the stone up the hill, the jerk.

I call it a stone - it's nearer the size of a kirk.

When he first started out, it just used to irk,

but now it incenses me, and him, the absolute berk.

I could do something vicious to him with a dirk. (5)

Think of the perks, he says.

What use is a perk, I shriek,

when you haven't time to pop open a cork

or go for so much as a walk in the park?

He's a dork. (10)

Folk flock from miles around just to gawk.

They think it's a quirk,

a bit of a lark.

A load of old bollocks is nearer the mark.

He might as well bark (15)

at the moon -

that's feckin' stone's no sooner up

than it's rolling back

 16

all the way down.

And what does he say? (20)

Mustn't shirk -

keen as a hawk,

lean as a shark

Mustn't shirk!

But I lie alone in the dark, (25)

feeling like Noah's wife did

when he hammered away at the Ark;

like Frau Johann Sebastian Bach.

My voice reduced to a squawk,

my smile to a twisted smirk; (30)

while, up on the deepening murk of the hill,

he is giving one hundred per cent and more to his work.