An in-depth analysis of the poems of the World's Wife by Carol Duffy. Includes Little red cap, Delilah, Mrs Rip Van Winkle, Pygmalion's Bride, Mrs Faust, Mrs Quasimodo, Mrs Lazarus, Demeter, Medusa, Mrs Midas. Intended for English literature learners and English IB language literature students in...
Little red cap, delilah, mrs rip van winkle, pygmalion's bride, mrs faust, mrs quasimodo, mrs laz
March 4, 2024
7
2023/2024
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english
carolannduffy
duffy
poetry
theworldswife
ib
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Carol Ann Duffy’s The World’s Wife Collection through a feminist lens
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● Little red cap:
○ THE WOLF:
■ symbolises an older male figure
■ animalistic description, almost predatory- reflects the power imbalance
between little red cap and the wolf
■ ‘wolfy drawl’ ‘paperback in his hairy paw’
■ animal imagery
■ red wine staining his bearded jaw- intoxicated, makes him even more
mature and appear as an act of rebellion, of losing one’s childhood by
drinking alcohol
■ he buys her her first drink, a further act of liberation from childhood
■ thrashing fur, heavy matted paws
■ he eats a white dove
■ has settled down in life, fulfilled, experimented already
■ ‘a greying wolf howls the same old song at the moon, year in, year out,
season after season, same rhyme, same reason’
■ he has the same routine, goes about his life with regularity and
consistency
○ Further animal imagery:
■ ‘white dove’
■ could represent freedom
■ could represent her poetry
■ words alive on the tongue, beating, frantic and winged
■ supports the idea that poetry is a bird, can fly away, represents
liberation
○ SETTING
■ the forest:
■ represents adulthood, the edge of the woods is the metaphorical
line between childhood and adulthood
■ Little red cap going into the woods represents a loss of innocence,
a maturing
■ ‘dark tangled thorny place’- dangerous, difficult to navigate, risky:
representation of maturation into adulthood
■ the wolf’s lair
■ library with walls of books
○ POWER DYNAMICS:
■ little red cap appears as though she is orchestrating the encounter, stating
that she meant for him to notice her
■ little red cap is hurt by the trip through the forest, she is in an extremely
vulnerable position
■ sexual relationship between little red cap and the wolf, representation of
an expression of female sexuality and sexual realisation but also a power
imbalance, a vulnerability and an exploitation
, ■ She goes looking for a ‘white dove,’ he eats it
■ could represent her showing him her poetry and him not
encouraging her, instead him shooting her down
○ AGE+MATURITY
■ little red cap admits she is young and takes time with the wolf to educate
herself
■ she eventually realises that he has the same old routine as he has
already settled down in life
■ Once she realises this, she slices the wolf from scrotum to throat and
sees the glistening, virgin white of her grandmother’s bones
■ intertextuality- reference to the brother’s grim
■ she ‘stitched him up-’ pun of tricking someone as well as stitching the
wound up
○ Summary:
■ the author represents childhood in the first stanza as a town, with houses,
playing fields and a factory. She juxtaposes this childhood town with a
forest, representing adulthood. the end of childhood is the leaving of the
town and entering of the forest.
■ little red cap discovers that the wolf does not care for her poetry nor
intend to help her improve. He is only using her for personal gain,
potentially sexual motives. This causes her to mistrust him and access his
library only as he sleeps.
■ little red cap realises that the wolf is stagnant and unchanging, he doesn’t
grow or evolve, change his actions or his routines.
■ Little red cap must not have killed the wolf unless she truly felt it was the
only escape
■ duffy subverts the fairy tale by retelling the story from the perspective of
little red riding hood and by creating a narrative in which she takes control
of the situation and her destiny, in itself a comment on the sexist
undertones of the previous tale and fairy tales in general.
○ Flower imagery: area of contrast
■ out of the forest i come with my flowers, singing all alone
■ flowers represent her femininity, her realised and reclaimed sexuality, her
youth
○ links to duffy’s own relationships
■ had an affair with another poet 20+ years older than her
● Mrs Rip Van Winkle
○ AGE
■ she experiences a mid-life slump, a period of stagnation and low
motivation in her middle ages
■ she makes up for lost time spent with her husband not pursuing her wants
and passions
○ LIBERATION
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