Throughout the poems of Carol Ann Duffy there is an intense give attention to the female stereotype: Duffy provides various voices for different individuals, reflects on time, change and reduction and embraces all feelings as she contrasts and contradicts the stereotypical concept of the female position. Gaining momentum in the 1960s, the feminist movements made method for a significant change in the way women and the feminine position was comprehended. Duffy reveals individuals that both support and reject the stereotypical representations of women, contrasting the typical portrayal of women as being innocent, naЇve and essentially helpless, with the unpredicted, powerful and prominent female amount.
Duffy's poem Havisham, written in 1993, presents a monologue spoken by the tone of Neglect Havisham, a figure from Charles Dickens' Great Targets. Jilted by a scheming fianc, she is constantly on the wear her wedding dress as she plots revenge on all men. Duffy begins with an oxymoron to present a contrasted view of the fianc, explaining him as a "Beloved sweetheart bastard". This contradiction in term immediately creates a feeling of ambiguity concerning who the narrator is referring to and shows that she may be experiencing conflicting thoughts towards the reason for her troubles. However, Havisham makes her intentions clear as she unveils that "not a day" goes by where she hasn't "wished him dead". Duffy presents this feminine narrator as a very violent and demonic figure as she seems to resist the desire to succumb to stereotypical representations of female characters, who look naЇve and innocent, and instead reveals a physique that is strong minded and vicious.
Suggesting that Havisham would "strangle", "bite" and "stab", Duffy highlights the narrator's murderous want revenge. She opposes the traditional idea of women being inferior to men, reduced status and essentially powerless, and instead stimulates Havisham's anger and hatred towards men, while uncovering a disturbing storyline to use revenge.
Duffy does indeed, however, seem to draw attention to the actual narrator used to be. Contrasting a "white veil", connoting the idea of purity and virginity, with the image of "a red balloon bursting", means that Havisham may have once been the innocent and genuine girl, until she fulfilled her fianc and became the scorned "Spinster". The male shape is provided in a poor light having degraded and exploited Havisham, recommending that he's the only reason why she is now troubled and vows revenge on mankind. The thought of being truly a "Spinster" may possibly also relate with the subject of the poem; Duffy entitles the poem as simply Havisham without title such as 'Pass up' or 'Mrs'. While this might identify her as a spinster, a woman who has remained unmarried beyond the "usual age", it could also suggest that the identity of your person depends on their marital position. The actual fact that the word "Spinster" is a one term sentence, as though to be spat out in distaste, highlights her disgust and dissatisfaction at such a position. Essentially, Duffy shows a female figure and also require once been dependant upon her fianc, and in having Havisham written alone suggests that the narrator is singled out to be unmarried and so has no personal information. The male number could be seen as the distributor of electricity over the narrator as Duffy reveals the familiar cultural and ethnic stereotypes where women were subservient to men, and in the end lost all owed if they were not. However, you could also interpret Duffy's choice to title the poem as simply Havisham to market an identity completely reliant of any male relationship, and thus to promote Havisham's self-employed and liberated figure.
In distinction to Havisham, Anne Hathaway shows Duffy choose the persona of William Shakespeare's widow to reveal the tale of a woman who remembers her partner in a wonderful, loving way with no hint of sorrow. Duffy uses the sonnet form, although does not follow all the conventions of rhyme or metre and so presents a variance on Shakespeare's favoured form. Through the entire poem Duffy exposes Ann Hathaway in an exceedingly womanly yet erotic and intimate way; explaining her body as a "softer rhyme" where their relationship is a "romance and drama enjoyed by touch, by aroma, by taste" the narrator appears very sensual yet amorous, captivated by a lot more delicate and processed senses in a slightly feminine and beautiful way. Duffy includes erotic yet ethereal images of "a spinning world of forests, castles, torchlight, clifftops, seas" to spell it out, with a fairytale quality, her physical and intimate connection with her husband. Maybe Duffy is talking about the relationship between love-making and power, by which the typical portrayal would show male syndication of electricity over a female spouse, perhaps mirroring the distribution of ability between men and women in society all together. However, throughout Anne Hathaway Duffy seems to promote an equal sense of love and electricity between Anne Hathaway and her husband; Duffy will not seem to represent continued interpersonal and social domination of guys where they have emerged as being superior, and subsequently reflects after the passionate and unworldly qualities to their romantic relationship. Concluding the poem with a rhyming couplet, like the way a Shakespearean sonnet would end, Duffy ends the poem with a sense of unity and entirety between Anne Hathaway and her man.
The real tale behind Duffy's poem Salome can be found in the New Testament literature of Mathew where Salome, the daughter or Herodias and Philip, orders the top of John the Baptist, who simultaneously was carried out. The poem unveils Salome as a serial executioner as she claims to own "done it before (and doubtless [she'll] get it done again)", immediately delivering a murderous and gruesome feminine character. Duffy contrasts Salome with the "innocent clatter" of any "maid" as she acts to explore the misogynistic views of the numerous that positioned females at less social status in comparison to males. The mention of a "maid" shows the normal gender tasks and themes that could have surrounded the feminine position, while also the "innocent clatter" encourages the image of a traditional working category, repressed female, which explicitly contrasts with the vibrant and vicious persona of Salome. Duffy persists to provide Salome in a poor light in which she vows to "trim out the booze and the fags and the intimacy. " Salome, as a lady character, is here now presented as having many negative vices; she looks corrupt as Duffy pulls focus on more modern-day ideas, such as smoking and taking in, that in turn challenges the traditional understanding of what women should do.
In the previous stanza, Duffy uncovers the gruesome image of a "at once a platter". As the explanation of Salome tugging again "the sticky red sheets" may at first seem to web page link straight with the execution, it may also be an implicit reference to the idea of female menstruation and perhaps the original ideas of childbearing. However, the color "red" also connotes both risk and interest. Duffy is checking out intricate contradictions that show contrasted notions of interactions and stereotypical representations of women who provide both passion and love, with risk and violence.
Throughout the poems of Carol Ann Duffy, including Havisham, Anne Hathaway and Salome, stereotypical representations and views of women are highlighted and contrasted with the more modern day and extrovert characteristics of the feminine position. Duffy reveals a range of personas that both support and contradict the womanly stereotypes that are associated with the portrayal of women and female people. Duffy emphasises the traditional and broadly repeated views of women as naЇve, innocent and in a few sense unworldly, and contrasts this with the unpredicted information of violent and liberated female characters.
