This is a practise essay question about the themes of belonging and identity in Carol Ann Duffy's 'Feminine Gospels' and more specifically focuses on the poems 'Tall' , 'The Long Queen' and 'Beautiful'.
“The search for a sense of belonging and identity is a key theme in this collection”
Examine this view.
Throughout her collection it is clear Duffy highlights that isolation and oppression often take
the place of ‘belonging’ and ‘identity’ for her female personas in an attempt to expose
patriarchal subjugation of women. However it would be wrong to suggest that Duffy makes
no attempt to empower women and give them a sense of ‘belonging’ and ‘identity’, perhaps
in the hopes that they are empowered to challenge patriarchal conventions. It is clear that
the poems ‘Tall’ and ‘Beautiful’ highlight female isolation and a stripping of female identity
but in the poem ‘The Long Queen’ Duffy emphasises a sense of unity between all women
and subsequently creates a sense of ‘belonging’ for her female readers.
In the poem ‘Tall’ Duffy uses the literal and metaphorical growth of the female persona to
represent male hindrance of female success. Although this poem does convey a sense of
empowerment and advocates for gender equality, the speaker is ultimately isolated and cut
off from society evidenced in the clever homophone ‘Taller was colder, aloner’ where ‘aloner’
could suggest being more alone or perhaps reference the woman being ‘ a loner’ as she is
an isolated individual. Through this homophone Duffy emphasises the isolation and
loneliness that have accompanied the woman’s success/growth. In this line Duffy also
explores the woman’s identity as ‘taller was colder’ implies that ‘taller’ has almost become
her name, suggesting that the persona is stripped of her identity as she is never identified by
name and is only defined by her size. This poem is a great example of where the female
persona is a microcosm of isolated women in the world, displaying the detrimental effects of
a patriarchal society asserting its control over women - in this case the persona is isolated
from that society.
The male personas in this poem refuse to allow the female subject to gain control or
authority, seen in the metaphor ‘men on stilts’ which suggests these men are a symbol of the
patriarchy trying to regain dominance over her and reclaim the power they have lost. Duffy
also portrays female isolation through surrealist imagery, “needed a turret...found one...on
the edge of town” here the persona has grown so tall that she is now forced to live in a
‘turret’ and the fact that this is on the ‘edge of town’ is a metaphor for women being
marginalised by patriarchal society and emphasises how isolated she has become. This
predominant theme of isolation in the poem displays that Duffy does show a search for
belonging in her collection but she suggests that in a patriarchal society, women cannot find
it.
The poem ‘beautiful’ presents four female figures from throughout history, Helen of Troy,
Cleopatra, Marylin Monroe and Princess Diana, who in this poem are used by Duffy to
criticise patriarchal society for suggesting that women are only valued for their physical
beauty. All of these women are stripped of their identity as none of them are identified by
their names, they are only ever referred to using the pronoun ‘she’ creating the feeling that
they could almost all be the one woman. This suggests that Duffy may have intended to
represent all womankind through these four figures and therefore, Duffy gives her female
readers a sense of belonging with each other as women - they are all facing the same
struggle and oppression. Again in this poem there are elements of Duffy using her collection
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