"Duffy is entirely hostile towards men in "The World's Wife". How far do you agree with this view of the ways Duffy presents men in this collection?

Carol Ann Duffy is a strong minded feminist and therefore hostility towards men seems inevitable within her work. There is indeed much evidence of gender struggle and detailed accounts of blatant suppression of women at the hands of men, resulting in literary damnation and dismissal of men in certain poems. However it seems a vast generalisation to assume thet just because Duffy is a feminist she is hostile towards men and I believe that one may find evidence of love within the collections just as easily as hatred.

Arguably the most overtly hostile poem in the collection is "Mrs Beast" which maintains an aggressive tone throughout "I should know, they're bastards when they're princes" and a declaration of female independence/domination, "We were a hard school, tough as fuck". Indeed Duffy shows a growth in confidence from the second poem in the collection "Thetis", "I shrank myself to the size of a bird in the hand of a man". Such hostility in "Mrs Beast" seems to root from resentment and a desire to avenge those who men destroyed i.e. "Thetis" and also directly from the poem "Diana Princess of Wales" and "Juliet" who remain martyres for feminism. "Mrs Beast" addresses women as the audience throughout in a dark and yet conversational tone "I had the language girls" almost as if addressing an army before they go into battle - in this case battling for those lost to the suffocation of the male species. There is furthermore a juxtaposition between the dismissal of men and the idea of success within the poem, "diamonds" and "All of us beautiful and rich" portaying materially how one may be better off emotionally without a man.

Indeed this lesson was foretold in the introductory poem "litle Red Cap" which portrays a young girl - led astray by a man and whom after many years gains knowledge that "a greying wolf howls the same old song at the moon" and again hostility is evident from such resentment, "I took an axe to the wolf as he slept". What differs in this poem however is the autobiographical tone that threads throughout the poem, speaking of Duffy's "ten year" marriage to poet Adrien Henry "He stood in a clearing reading his verse out loud in his wolfy drawl". Indeed the resentment felt at being suppressed to 10 years gives "Little Red Cap" a raw and aggressive emotion that may be described as the spark that ignites the hostility towards men for the entirity of the collection. However one could argue that this autobiographical air gives the poems in "The World's Wife" a distinction between Duffy and a persona Duffy has created to be hostile towards men. What is evident from both "Mrs Beast" and "Little Red Cap" is the idea that hostility towards men is founded upon a history of deep-rooted pain, in the latter "What little girl doesn't dearly love a wolf" and in the former "But behind each player stood a line of ghosts" and "Let the less loving one be me" showing that these aggressive women are born from the ashes of those whom were broken and loves that have been lost.

A poem that also speaks of love being lost is "Anne Hathaway" however Duffy takes a different tact and refrains from hostility, rather showing how love can be true in certain circumstances, "My lovers words were shooting stars" and "My living laughing love". Indeed this poem remains an homage to a great man who Duffy admires, Shakespeare, and in turn Duffy shows she may surpass mere feminine hostility, which she easily could have embraced with the line "my second best bed", to show that Duffy's and indeed the collection's intention is not to show men in a negative light but rather to put a spotlight on women, the illumination of which giving an opportunity to write and speak freely.

An example of how Duffy is not just attempting to demean men is "The Devil's Wife" which portrays outright hostility towards the female child killer Myra Hindley. The subtitles of each section, for example "Dirt" and "Medusa", connote a complete loss of femininity, dead, and unclean "I was the Devil's wife which made me worse". Duffy condemns Myra Hindley along with public opinion "Monster" and "Burn in Hell" and particularly in the final section "Appeal" she portrays Hindley as lost in her own ignorance and lack of remorse for her crimes "But what did I do". In doing so Duffy portrays that women are just as capable of sin and inflicting pain on others as men and therefore are just as deserving of hostility in certain circumstances.

I therefore disagree with the view that Duffy is "entirely" hostile towards men in this collection as although hostility is evident in certain poems, such hostility arises only because of great pain in the foundations of each circumstance. Furthermore only "little Red Cap" maintains both an autobiographical quality and evidence of hostility and so arguably thgouhout the rest of the collection it is not Duffy but merely a persona whom is portraying hostility. There is evidence also for affection being shown towards men and hostility towards women, showing that Duffy is not merely a man-hating feminist but one whom is willing to face the negative consewuences of gender equality along with the positive and furthermore show love towards me when the circumstance is deserving.