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Carol Anne Duffy- The World's Wife

Hi I'm doing AS english and i have to do an essay about the poems from Carol Anne Duffy's "The World's Wife" and i am having loaaads of trouble!
Here is the title:
Duffy has said of this collection: "It's meant to be funny, but there's also a darker side". How far do you agree with this assessment of the World's Wife?

Please write back if you can help in any way!! thanks :smile:

Reply 1

dukeofdarkcorners

Hey sezziee :smile:

With question whihc ask "how far do you agree" or "to what extent" you have to balance out the argument a little but describe to what extent you think this statement is true by using evidence from the collection.

I would say the darker elements are brought about in poems concerning women's oppression and how this is reversed. The Kray Sisters is a great example of the darker side. The sisters are replacing two infamous historical figures but under gender-reversal and describe how they are protecting women from men, however they themselves have a dark hold over these women; the local people are in fear of them. Another example is the Devil's wife which portrays the story of Myra Hindley. To me, this was one of the darkest moments in the collection. The one about Medeusa is also quite dark, reflecting the torment she is put through by her husband. A lot of the oppression is delivered in a comical style but there is a darker side to this in many ways; Like when a clown gets killed....best example I can think of. Good luck. Basically, just read through and find some poems which deliver more comedy and then find some which deliver a darker side. Try and conclude on how the two balance out.

Reply 2

sezziee

OP

Thanks very much, you helped a lot :smile:

Reply 3

grammar_king

2

God that coursework.info bot is such a pain in the arse.

In a way you're lucky, I never did coursework for Lit and we did all our exams in May, so I had to do my essay in exam conditions, months after we'd covered it in class. Still got full marks like .

To be perfectly frank it's a bit of a stupid question, but at AS you should breeze straight through it. Is there any additional information given? Like "you should refer to three or four poems in detail, or range more widely through the text"?

The first thing I like to do is choose my poems, fill a whole page with notes about each of them (so have a bubble in each corner of the page with lines coming off each one about features of that poem), then draw lines from each feature to features of the other poems that you can either compare or contrast. Then sequence your answer, then write away to your heart's content.

So for your specific question you can find parts that are funny and parts that aren't, parts that are dark and parts that aren't, and parts that are both funny and dark (which I suspect would be the most important bits). You could say something about perspectives, that what one person might find funny, other people might not (I'm thinking mainly the differences between a male/female audience with regards to poems like Circe, but also you can think of plenty of people who wouldn't find Frau Freud remotely funny, even though it's supposed to be). I'd include more references to specific poems but I don't have a copy with me at uni and my memory of the text is a little hazy after 2 years.

Just from an initial few minutes thinking about it, I think my conclusion would be that although her statement is certainly true of many parts of the collection, it's not for all, and there are certainly much more significant things to be said about the anthology.

Reply 4

MushyPeas

okay i thought i would just bump this up, im doing this essay now. And i dont know if im ding it right, ive chosen one funny poem and one darker poem to compare n im going to say about how some poems can be read as funny and if read differently have a darker side. and then concluding. is it okay to only use two poems if i analyse them a lot, or should i add to the funny poem n darker poem with links to other similar poems? any ideas welcome

Reply 5

molly08

hey, does anybody know how christianity is linked to Duffy's poetry?
thanks <3

Reply 6

inksplodge

17

molly08

hey, does anybody know how christianity is linked to Duffy's poetry?
thanks <3

There are a few of poems related to the bible (Catholic specific, as Duffy is/was Catholic)

They are:
Queen Herod
Pilate's Wife
Delilah (old testament, the only one. all the others are new)
Mrs Lazarus
Salome

:smile:

Reply 7

CescvanRaikkonen

Pope Joan is related to Christianity as well, reckon it satirises the catholocism IMO.

thanks x

Hey, i'm doing an essay 'A critic said that Carol Ann Duffy celebrates strong women in 'the worlds wife'. How far do you agree with this?

AHHHH, i have no idea. Has anyone got any pointers pleaseeee?

Appriciated :smile:

x

Reply 10

headunderwater

15

miaevz123

Hey, i'm doing an essay 'A critic said that Carol Ann Duffy celebrates strong women in 'the worlds wife'. How far do you agree with this?

AHHHH, i have no idea. Has anyone got any pointers pleaseeee?

Appriciated :smile:

x

Isn't the answer a bit obvious? It's not that hard.

For:
- Women dominating men and subverting patriarchy into matriarchy.
- Women rejecting gender roles.
- Celebration of fertility and a "woman's gift".

Against:
- Portrayal of some weaker women.

Look through the poems and pick out a few for each pointer I just dictated.

If you need anymore help or really don't know how to answer the question and would like me to expand then please ask!

Reply 11

miaevz123

Thank you. I have the idea on what to include in the essay. The things I'm slightly suck on is how to structure the poem, and refer to 2/3 poems ;\

Reply 12

BeccaStudent

Hey, i'm doing an essay 'A critic said that Carol Ann Duffy celebrates strong women in 'the worlds wife'. How far do you agree with this?

hey guys. im reaaly stuck on this. i have no idea on how to start it :/ can anyone help :smile:

x

Reply 13

Phillip.

BeccaStudent

Hey, i'm doing an essay 'A critic said that Carol Ann Duffy celebrates strong women in 'the worlds wife'. How far do you agree with this?

hey guys. im reaaly stuck on this. i have no idea on how to start it :/ can anyone help :smile:

x

hi there, the question you've got is easy enough to do if you know how. it's the start of the year, so don't worry too much!

the question is putting forward the view that 'the world's wife' celebrates strong women, and asking you to evaluate that view based on the poems in the anthology. ideally, you'll have some idea of what sort of women are presented in duffy's anth. if you find that 'the world's wife' is a monument of sorts to the strength of women, then you would agree with this view. if however you found that duffy presented a lot of victimised women (which she probably does, knowing her), then you'd say that it is not celebratory of strong women.

the essay has to be balanced. introduce it, then take two poems which support the view. analyse language, form and stucture, and make points which prove that the texts are celebrating strong women.
then, take two other poems which display women in a negative or victimised light (if you cannot find any, which is highly unlikely, then analyse apparently positive poems more carefully, because they'll often present a conflicting view among the admiration) and analyse lang/form/struct. in the same way as before, this time using your analysis to prove or suggest that duffy presents women in this way as well.

if you agree that she presents them as strong, then in your conclusion you need to counterargue the second half of your essay; that is, the half which disagrees with the statement in the question. if you disagree with the statement, then you want to be backing up your disagreeing half and explaining how it is more prominent and relevant to her poetry than the points you made to agree. sum it all up in a final sentence, job done.

if you need any more help, just say! good luck with this!

Reply 14

BeccaStudent

thank you! x

Carol Anne Duffy- The World's Wife

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