What figure of speech is this? When he uttered my name in a womans voice I passed out. .? 4189. The word ;whistling being in a stanza by itself shows that its Monthly cycles and its Why do you think that might be? Zeus felt sorry for Tiresias, but unfortunately one god even Zeus couldnt just cancel out what another god had done, so Tiresias was stuck with his blindness. The poem, however, tells this well-known story from the perspective of Midass wife, using humor and wit to explore the foolish nature of greed, the historical erasure of womens experiences, and the consequences of selfishness within a relationship. And this points up an important fact about the Greek myths, which is that, like Aesops fables which date from a similar time and also have their roots in classical Greek culture, many of these stories evolved as moral fables or tales designed to warn Greek citizens of the dangers of hubris, greed, lust, or some other sin or characteristic. 21He toyed with his spoon, then mine, then with the knives, the forks. She writes poems for important national events. 35as the blue flame played on its luteous stem. But it can be still be understood simply as making . Id usually heard it days before him but I never let on. Some of the sentences below are questions: He sat in the back. https://massolit.io/courses/carol-ann-duffy-the-world-s-wife/from-mrs-tiresias, McRae, Have a specific question about this poem? Mrs Tiresias. happy. Whistling. the mirror may be a reference to the French psychoanalyst, Jaques Lacan and his theory of the mirror stage of development. Juno was a goddess and Jupiter was a god. I sold. What kind of picture do we get of this man? Theres a twist in the tale And this is my lover, I said, the one time we met, at a glittering ball, under the lights, among tinkling glass, and watched the way he stared at her violet eyes at the blaze of her skin, at the slow caress of her hand on the back of my neck; Its all rather clever So Mrs Tiresias, whose husband is now female and has left her, now has a woman as a lover. I drove him up. soft new shape depicts his new figure as delicate and feminine, no longer strong/muscly- this shows how his masculinity has been taken away from him. and saw him picture her bite, her bite at the fruit of my lips, and hear my red wet cry in the night as she shook his hand saying How do you do; and I noticed then his hands, her hands, the clash of their sparkling rings and their painted nails. I put it about that he was a twin and this was his sister came down to live while he himself was working abroad. What might the wrong idea be? It got worse. - short sentence. In this module, we think about the fifth poem in the collection, 'From Mrs Tiresias', focusing in particular on: (i) the figure of Tiresias and the story (from Ovid's Metamorphoses) of how he was transformed from a man into a woman and back again; (ii) the humour of the poem; (iii) the literary and cultural history of menstruation; (iv) the literary and cultural history of being transformed from one gender to another, including Ovid's Metamorphoses and Virginia Woolf's Orlando; (v) the connection between this poem and the previous one ('Mrs Midas'), in which a woman must respond as best she can to an unexpected (and unwanted) change in her husband. Its ironic that he was having a good day/was in a good 43And who, when it comes to the crunch, can live, 44with a heart of gold? He liked to hear the first cuckoo of Spring then write to the Times. So, the titular character in Mrs. 1It was late September. Midas, the titular character enjoys the smells emanating from her kitchen before Mr. Midas arrives and she realises the curse he has been struck with. Important is the idea of the male gaze, a concept discussed by the novelist, critic and painter, John Berger who posits that men look at women on the assumption that the male gender has power and control. happy with her new lover. The poems in the collection are witty, satirical, playful and. (Why are snakes always baddies in literature? ) Duffy also looks at how pop culture creates a stereotype about female desire in Queen Kong. 'slithering is associated with snakes which relates to the story of Caught in this toxic relationship, she is finally compelled to take matters into her own hands: As he slept, one chop, scrotum to throat, and saw, The glistening, virgin white of my grandmothers bones, I filled his old belly with stones. Similarly, Narcissus, in another famous Greek myth, actually shunned other people before he fell in love with his own reflection, and yet we still talk of someone who is obsessed with their own importance and appearance as being narcissistic. In Greek mythology and literature, Tiresias was a seer or soothsayer. While Faust is busy enjoying his new-found power (thanks to his deal with Mephistopheles), Mrs. Faust is happy travelling the world, spending money and finding herself through veganism, yoga and Buddhism. 50in the wilds, in a glade of its own. Mrs Darwin. And as William Empson pointed out about the myth of Oedipus, whatever Oedipus problem was, it wasnt an Oedipus complex in the Freudian sense of that phrase, because the mythical Oedipus was unaware that he had married his own mother (rather than being attracted to her in full knowledge of who she was). It had begun from the seed of lust but later love of Midad triumphs over her passion for gold. Golden trout. Her need for love and her gratefulness at being wanted leads her to place her trust in her husband. Definitions and examples of 136 literary terms and devices. my husbands supper on a tray beneath a cloth. A study guide and analysis of the poem 'From Mrs Tiresias' from Carol Ann Duffy's collection, The World's Wife for A-level and IB students to extend their understanding of the key themes, poetic techniques, form and structure. His flirts smile. But the Hera story is the more commonly told. Shes aware that she must move on with her How is this demonstrated here? This may be making the point that in this case . Tiresias becomes a caricature of themselves as a woman She faints when he speaks. Shes not 4gently blanching the windows. (Hera believed that men enjoyed sex more than women, and Zeus thought women enjoyed sex more.) Tiresias is turned into a female for 7 years lives the life of a women and he is able to then have the perspective of both male and female She misses her husband --> acceptance Women Independence Fill in an appropriate direct object in each blank space. He liked to hear the first cuckoo of Spring then write to the Times. Carol Ann Duffy is our Poet Laureate. in fact, I put a chair against my door, 38near petrified. The doorknobs gleamed. 14He drew the blinds. In anger; yet one glittering foot disturbd The title of this poem suggests it is an extract from a much longer piece of work. This also draws a This poem is not just the repetition of the childhood folktale of caution taught to girls. Oedipus asked Tiresias who had killed Laius, the former King of Thebes, but Tiresias reluctant to tell the truth to his king, since that would involve calling Oedipus a murderer equivocated, but this led Oedipus to suspect that Tiresias had plotted to murder Laius. excepting that 'he is now a 'she. 39into the tomb of Tutankhamun. Why do you think the thunder sneered? The feminist, Andrea Dworkin developed this idea further with her views of male misogyny. Mrs . The poem is as grim as the original tale, but for a different reason. Hera, annoyed that shed lost her wager with her husband, struck Tiresias blind in her anger. the village runt, name-called, stunted, lame, hare-lipped: A recognition like a struck match in my head. You know the mind; I thought of. A Close Commentary on Thetis By Carol Ann Duffy Thetis is a poem written by the British poet Carol Ann Duffy in her collection The World's Wife. 48burned in my breasts. 2. the first cuckoo of Spring. Carol Ann Duffy: The World's Wife - From Mrs Tiresias [Video]. Out the back gate with his stick, the dog; wearing his garden kecks, an open-necked shirt, and a jacket in Harris tweed Id patched at the elbows myself. The messages they impart are therefore timeless and universal, and this helps to explain why, more than two millennia after they were first written down, they remain such an important influence on Western culture. Little Red Cap captures the loss of innocence, while also giving the protagonist the power to experience love, the world and its many problems on her own terms. History is steeped in the greatness of men; the Western literary canon proclaims its male authors work as timeless and science lauds the contributions of male scientists. 3. Tiresias. I made him sit. probably because, ya know, hes the God of Thunder and all that. But most importantly, the poem challenges societys attitudes to physical deformity and its judgement about what is and isnt beautiful. They want to know whether a man or a woman receives the most pleasure from sex. One is the theme of innocence and another is experiencing. (including. "Carol Ann Duffy: The World's Wife From Mrs Tiresias." 7 0 7 p 7 7 \ 7 7 | | Mrs Tiresias All I know is this: he went out for his walk a man and came home female. What has happened to their relationship? Mrs.Tiresias thinks her husband is ridiculously cowardly. Tiresias isnt coping with the change. Instant downloads of all 1699 LitChart PDFs 34no thirst. All she wants, "his hands, his warm hands" on her skin and his human "touch". this is typical of a dramatic monologue. rings shows falsity and embellishment. 5then with my fingers wiped the others glass like a brow. He was the son of the shepherd Everes and the nymph Chariclo. All rights reserved. 64I think of him in certain lights, dawn, late afternoon. actualising, Carol, Celibacy, Duffy, GCSE, Mythology, orientation, Poetry, sexual, Tiresias 12+ Lessons on Homophobia/Gender Stereotypes anticipation. 2. Female perspectives in the mythic and folkloric world are rare because of the universal importance placed on male perspectives. Pingback: Sunday Post 21st February, 2021 #Brainfluffbookblog #SundayPost | Brainfluff. Now lets go back to this myth. She blogs at The Book Caf and shares literary tidbits on her Facebook page, The Kitab Sherni (as she imagines herself not as a book dragon but as a bookish lioness). Her characters and their experiences are relatable to the reader. Read more about the movement to rewrite and reimagine traditional myths, stories, and fairy tales from a feminist perspectivein this article from the World Heritage Encyclopedia. The myth celebrates Pygmalions creation of a flawless marble statue of a woman who he falls in love with and who the Goddess Athena brings to life. Interview with Carol Ann Duffy The whole point is that Tiresias has been turned into a woman by the gods so s/he can find out whether men enjoy sexual intimacy more than women, or the other way around. The most important thing to remember about poetry is that it makes us see things through somebody elses eyes. Read more about Carol Ann Duffys life and work at the Poetry Foundation website. 30The toilet I didnt mind. 4. (read the full definition & explanation with examples). The poems in the collection are witty, satirical, playful and complex. euphemism for sexual activity. his womans voice - oxymoron. Him. the mirror may be a reference to the French psychoanalyst, Jaques Lacan and his theory of the mirror stage of development. It uses a Greek myth to explore ideas about gender and sexual orientation. the curse - repetition, colloquial language and His flirts smile. Feminist Revisionist Mythology And in his 1922 poem The Waste Land, T. S. Eliot has Tiresias speak to us, in the third section of the poem, The Fire Sermon (which we analyse here). Faust gets depicted as a modern, jet-setting wife. it suggests that the reader has joined mrs Tiresias in the middle of a conversation, a technique known as in media res (This phrase is Latin for "in the middle of things." Tiresias warns Odysseus that he will lose all of his companions. What does the metaphor a cling peach slithering out of its tin suggest about the voice? 36I said, youll be able to give up smoking for good. there is also the implication that he has reverted to babyhood, as already suggested by lacans mirror theory. the face is his face but its not him. Get LitCharts A +. More than this, it exposes the double standards of men. She imagines the thoughts of the wives of the men who are considered great for their work, be it in the field of science or literature. The narrator is mocking the apparent inability of man to bear pain, but the letter to the powers -that-be indicates that she feels men have more political and strategic power in our society than women. Structure Because its better, isnt it, to be well formed. She now safely inhabits a hotel in Manhattan and regales her buddies about her midget partner and their unusual sexual escapades. What indications do we have that something magical has taken place? The kitchen, 3filled with the smell of itself, relaxed, its steamy breath. Please create an account or log in to view this lecture. Much of literature through the ages and even today is patriarchal, presenting the world from a male perspective. In The Worlds Wife, Duffy subverts the predominant notion of men and their thoughts as being superior and more valuable. (x) Analysis: there is also an assending structure in these lines- 1,2,34. despite their lack of physical strength, females have a much higher pain threshold. It uses a Greek myth to explore ideas about gender and sexual orientation. personification, metaphor. What might clash between them? Mrs Sisyphus. For some reason, because he wounded the serpents, Tiresias was transformed into a woman. what follows shows how little Tiresias the man has truly changed beyond the physical transformation. The myth of the sculptor Pygmalion and his statue/wife Galatea is celebrated for its depiction of true love. NB In France and the rest of Catholic Europe, Quasimodo Sunday is the first Sunday after Easter. Even though she is passive at the start, hoping he would understand her disinterestedness in being his lover, she finally takes charge of the situation by raising her voice in a strategic manner. This is quite pertinent as it goes against the idea of women being given the responsibility to hold together a relationship, no matter how bad or abusive it might be. I crawled in his wake, My stockings ripped to shreds, scraps of red from my blazer, Snagged on twig and branch, murder clues. The eyes were the same. Teacher Editions with classroom activities for all 1699 titles we cover. to some sources Duffy added the from as a tongue-in-cheek gesture after she was patronisingly told by an academic that there is a lot more to the myth than she has mentioned in the poem. The part of the poem in which Tiresias appears features a typist and an estate agents clerk engaging in joyless sex, presumably a nod to the Hera-Zeus wager referenced above. Mrs Tiresias is a poem from The World's Wife selection written by Carol Ann Duffy and published in 1999. 4. The work on this site may be copied and/or adapted for use in the classroom or for private study. Mrs. Tiresias tries to carry on life normally, as she assist her female transformed husband in daily activities which are definitely new to him. Portrays But to compensate for it, Zeus gave Tiresias the gift of foresight, so Tiresias became a seer, who could see the future. This poem is about what would of happened to the wife of Mr Tiresias when hes cursed with becoming a woman. For reasons perhaps known only to himself, Tiresias took exception to this act of herpetic copulation, and hit the snakes with his staff. two doctors in. The poem alludes to the Greek myth of King Midas, who was granted a wish to have everything he touched turn to gold. Tiresias figures in two of the greatest works of ancient Greek literature: Homers epic poem The Odyssey (which weve analysed here) and Sophocles tragedy, Oedipus Rex (analysed here). In the poem, therefore, Quasimodo no longer sees his wife as a complex woman, but as deformed and therefore unworthy of love. In the poem, there are . Questions: 1. Yes, having intercourse or, if you will, at it. That means that she is the official poet for the nation. Would these be considered typical male behaviours? 58glistening next to the rivers path. But in the shocking V of the shirt were breasts. Hera and Zeus disagreed over who enjoyed sex more: men or women. I tried to be kind - verb connotes failing to do sentence, clich, modal verb 'has. 2. In Tiresias, Tennyson references the alternative origin-myth concerning Tiresias blinding: There in a secret olive-glade I saw The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of. Short lines and loads of line breaks/enjambment could represent Could be comparing periods to the curse of being a werewolf. From what has he been saved? Pilate's Wife. 15the Field of the Cloth of Gold and of Miss Macready. What stereotypes are being played out here? Consequently, an idea has formed over the centuries that male experiences, then, are the norm to define oneself as humans. Mrs Quasimodo is perhaps one of the most important poems in the collection, as it deals with major issues of female identity, male abuse and disfigurement. Genius is the ultimate source of music knowledge, created by scholars like you who share facts and insight about the songs and artists they love. So Collectively, the poem is based on the theme of innocence vs experience. Mrs Quasimodo is therfore rejected because she is Other. She is the first woman . Remaining fixt on mine, till mine grew dark 8. Questions 1. Write each of the following items, using capital letters where they are needed. the face is his face but its not him. Her character comes over as a stoical girl who bears her fate with patience, keeping out of sight when she comes to Paris. Themes. The last stanza, though, with its neat four lines, ends the poem with the rhyming wrist and pissed, to achieve a powerful resolution. This is the course trailer. G | | | | , $ h v T 7 7 7 " 7 7 7 7 R | Carol Ann Duffy comes from an Irish background and grew up in Glasgow. afraid of her sexuality or being with someone new, the noun suggests intimacy. And later a letter to the powers-that-be demanding full-paid menstrual leave twelve weeks a year. Mrs Tiresias, by Carol Ann Duffy Tiresias, according to one legend, hit two copulating snakes with a stick and was turned into a woman by Hera. 2. Two copulating snakes turn Tiresias into a woman. Indeed, Eliots notes to The Waste Land state that what Tiresias sees (or foresees) forms the substance of the whole poem, raising the intriguing possibility that the Unreal City Eliot depicts in that poem is a prophecy of the future as much as it a vision of contemporary (for 1922, anyway) London. Listen to Carol Ann Duffy talk about The Worlds Wife and read MrsMidas aloud at the 2013 Singapore Writers Festival. The curse, he said, the curse Dont kiss me in public, he snapped the next day, I dont want people getting the wrong idea It got worse. Through her poems, Duffy takes the heroines and wives of the past and reshapes them to speak of the inequality theyve faced before and how different versions of the same inequality continue till date. The way the content is organized. Why does she lie about their new situation? In literature, it is used to describe stories that begin in the middle of the action as opposed to including a conventional exposition.) Pygmalion abandons her, and Duffy wittily makes a case for Pygmalions love being merely lust. 63the contents of the house and came down here. I said. John McRae is Special Professor of Language in Literature Studies and Teaching Associate in the School of English at Nottingham University, and holds Visiting Professorships in China, Malaysia, Spain and the USA. Why does she describe her lips as fruit? the face that 'swam' into view implies dizziness or shock. It is only at the end of the poem, while in the depths of sexual pleasure, where she screams out and states that she wants to have a child. 126.13 KB Download 35.5 KB Seven years later he encounters another pair of copulating snakes. He said that of the pleasure derived from sex, nine parts belonged to woman and only one part to men. In the story Zeus curses Questions 1. How does she describe their relationship? Read the original myth of King Midas, part of Ovids Metamorphose. And this is my lover - noun 'lover. How does she feel about her husband now? 52And then I came home, the woman who married the fool. beautiful. That means that she is the official poet for the nation. Meanwhile, her husband, as a female, flirts with men but appears to be celibate, thus denying the gods their answer. 3. The best literary content delivered to your inbox, every Sunday. MASSOLIT, uploaded by MASSOLIT, Mrs. Freud in the poem Frau Freud debunks her husbands penis envy theory by, as Jeanette Winterson states, listing every word she can think of for penis, thus creating a mad lexical delight. "entering glitzy restaurants on the arms of powerful men.". negative. 61What gets me now is not the idiocy or greed, 62but lack of thought for me. Therefore Mrs Quasimodo sees her husbands betrayal as her fault, equating beauty with goodness, so that her fragile self-esteem collapses when faced with competition from the gypsy girl, Esmeralda. In Greek mythology Tiresias is a blind prophet, a priest of Zeus, king of the gods, who undergoes a sex-change. The Worlds Wife is political and bold. nothing of that / going on / if he had his way - In Greek mythology, Tiresias (/ t a r i s i s /; Ancient Greek: , romanized: Teiresas) was a blind prophet of Apollo in Thebes, famous for clairvoyance and for being transformed into a woman for seven years. So we describe somebodys weakness as their Achilles heel, or we talk about the dangers of opening up Pandoras box. He was late getting back. then write to the Times. One day, a hare hung from a larch. 7Now the garden was long and the visibility poor, the way. Find related themes, quotes, symbols, characters, and more. MASSOLIT. There are, in fact, several versions of the Tiresias story, but this is the most famous: one day, the young Tiresias saw two serpents mating. I put it about that he was a twin and this was his sister came down to live while he himself was working abroad. something. The one thing he never got right Was the voice. He is co-author of The Routledge History of Literature in English with Ron Carter, and also wrote The Language of Poetry, Literature with a Small 'l' and the first critical edition of Teleny by Oscar Wilde and others. The novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo was published in 1831, and has been the subject of several film and stage adaptations. https://massolit.io/courses/carol-ann-duffy-the-world-s-wife/from-mrs-tiresias, Get instant access to over 6,500 lectures, https://massolit.io/courses/carol-ann-duffy-the-world-s-wife/from-mrs-tiresias. But Tiresias also features in numerous other classical myths and stories: in the Echo and Narcissus myth, for instance, he revealed Echos fate to her but also foretold the death of Narcissus. 54parking the car a good way off, then walking. Mens hatred of women is based on stereotypes mother of the earth, slut of the universe so that their true identities are masked. Do you think the narrator believes there is a difference between being female and being a woman? . What do you think of her response to the situation: Life has to go on? A cling peach slithering out from its tin. - The curse, he said, the curse Dont kiss me in public, he snapped the next day, I dont want people getting the wrong idea It got worse. "all I know is this : he went out for his walk a man and came home female.". J. PDF downloads of all 1699 LitCharts literature guides, and of every new one we publish. Mrs Tiresias feels sexual desire for her new lover. All Rights Reserved. Casual and easy going. Read more about Carol Ann Duffys life and work at the Poetry Foundation website. How does Tiresias greet the narrators lover? sisterly highlights that there is no romantic connection, just about a sense of affection. Zeus also, in some versions, gave Tiresias long life seven times the normal human lifespan. My dream milk. By cheekily implying that Emma may have given Charles the idea that humans evolved from apes, the poem . Over the centuries, writers and especially poets have been repeatedly drawn to the figure of Tiresias. the face that 'swam' into view implies dizziness or shock. View more University The Chancellor, Masters, and Scholars of the University of Cambridge Module OCR A-Level English Literature (H472) Book titleThe World's Wife AuthorCarol Ann Duffy; Mary Green It hints at how it was the Little Red Cap herself who was taken in by the wolfs raw sexuality, only to eventually realise the damaging consequences of subjecting herself to a violent relationship. Questions 1. Id heard one that morning while he was asleep; just as I heard at about 6 pm, a faint sneer of thunder up in the woods and felt a sudden heat at the back of my knees. Duffy uses the full range of her characteristic techniques; The language is a mix of conversational, colloquial and lyrical, the changes reinforcing the meaning of what she is saying. Why, do you think, he is selfish? Tiresias, she discusses the idea of gender fluidity through the myth of the blind Greek seer, Tiresias, who lived as both a man and a woman. Mrs Faust Lyrics First things first - I married Faust. Tinned fruit instead of fresh could also be seen as She uses lists for humour and emphasis, as in line four of stanza one runt stunted, lame, hare-lipped. She makes reference to Victor Hugos novels by borrowing famous lines. The collection of poems by Carol Ann Duffy entitled The Worlds Wife, was first published in 1999 and presents stories, myths, fairy tales and characters in Western, Type out all lyrics, even repeating song parts like the chorus, Lyrics should be broken down into individual lines. She is a young lady and works till late. 2368268). How might it get worse? Duffy also highlights significant 21st century feminist issues in The Worlds Wife. When he uttered my name in a womans voice I passed out. similarity between them. (x). ambiguous. That was the last straw. 18What in the name of God is going on? Theyre not genuine. He hits them with a stick and is turned back into a man. the sense of sound and presents him as the typical man.