Carol Ann Duffy's 1999 collection "The World's Wife" is an expression of female suppression at the hands of men and furthermore almost a declaration of desired independence. Whilst as a feminist Duffy naturally maintains a consistently strong view on such themes, she also threads the idea of a journey, possibly her own or the journey of gender equality and power struggles as a whole. As the conclusion to the collection "Demeter" marks the end of such a journey expressing a mother's love for her daughter.
This may be viewed as an effective conclusion to the collection as it does not mention men throughout and therefore may be seen as the ultimate display of independence. Furthermore, "Demeter", the goddess of fertility, suffers not because of the actions of men but at the loss of her daughter,"I saw her at last, walking, my daughter, my girl". The repetition of "my" in the latter quotation seems to emphasise that her daughter, Persephone, belongs to her solely. Her sorrow and happiness depend on the loss and then gain of Persephone, "My broken heart" and then "I swear the air softened and warmed as she moved" and "Demeter"" as a poem seems to symbolise that women as a unity are no longer defined by men, but rather those things they have created for themselves. This complete dismissal of men therefore deems Demeter an effective conclusion as it continues this theme from the penultimate poen "Mrs Beast".
"Mrs Beast" is also a dismissal of men but Duffy uses female figures from mythology, fairytale and history and utterly distorts them into a modern mindset, using stories such as Romeo and "Juliet", "Snow White" and "Diana the Princess of Wales" describing them as "ghosts", women who have lost everythin in the pursuit of the perfect happy ending with Prince Charming. These women seem martyres for Duffy as "Mrs Beast" maintains a hardened tone, a defence mechanism, "We were a hard school, tough as fuck". Furthermore the dismissal of a Prince Charming in favour of a Beast, "no longer a girl, knowing my own mind" seems to portray the journey of the child-like character in "Little Red Cap", "never been".
As an introduction "Little Red Cap" laid the foundation themes that would be expressed throughout the collection and displays how at the cliff edge of adolescence, awaiting a steep drop into the limbo of sexuality and love "little Red Cap" was misled into "a dark tangled thorny place" and became entrapped for "10 years" without a voice and whose only escape was in the world of literature, "words, words were truly alive on the tongue". In contrast "Demeter" portrays a woman, no longer a child, with experience of love, sex and lust and whom no longer is defined by a man, but rather her daughter. Both "Little Red Cap" and "Demeter" share an autobographical air that threads throughout the poems, Duffy's 10 year marriage to Adrien Henry described in "Little Red Cap" via the image of the "wolf" and Duffy's own daughter as Persephone "My daughter, my girl" in "Demeter". It therefore seems fitting to close with the poets own maturation as a woman as she began with her struggle for personal identity and therefore "Demetor" remains an extremely effective conclusion to "The World's Wife".
One may also argue however that the complete absence of men within "Demeter" seems out of place in a collection revolving around gender struggles. Every other poem in the collection is from a feminine perspecture of a famous male and, though "Demeter" seeks to express love and not pain at the hands of men "Anne Hathaway" maintains the same idea, instead expressing love for William Shakespeare, and could arguably have been a more effective conclusion within the context of the collection rather than the self-centred nature of "Demeter". "Anne Hathway" portrays that not all marriages and love affairs are filled with pain and sorrow, rather Duffy describes "A spinning world", of fantasy and romance. Whilst the quotation that acted as inspiration for the poem "I gyve unto my wief my second best bed" could easily be a platform for Duffy to express feminist ideology and the suppression of women she chose not to - instead using the poem as an homage to Shakespeare and the love she has of literature, "his touch a verb dancing in the centre of a noun". With this love of literature parallel to that displayed in "Little Red Cap" to concludie with this poem would not only mirror this but would indeed provide an ending to the journey the collection described, one of finding true love after gaining such things as identity and sexuality, just as Duffy has gained a voice and an identity as a lesbian.
However, I believe that Duffy intentionally dismissed men from her concluding poem "Demeter" for a particular purpose, to show her freedom and independence from men and describe her own journey's end - revolving around the love of her daughter. I therefore agree whole-heartedly with the view that "Demeter" is an effective conclusion as its distance from men marks the finale of a personal journey for Duffy and acts as a voice to women and a declaration of liberation.
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