Contrast Duffy's Presentation Of Relationships Between Men And Women In 'little Red Cap' And 'anne H

Contrast Duffy's presentation of relationships between men and women in 'Little Red Cap' and 'Anne Hathaway'

Duffy's presentations of heterosexual relationships in Little Red Cap and Anne Hathaway are very different. This is due to Anne Hathaway being written in the form of a traditional love poem, a Shakespearean sonnet. Whereas Little Red Cap has relevance to poetry through her losing her virginity to the wolf, an older established poet and the poem charts the relationship from enchantment, through disaffection, to violent rejection.

In the collection The World's Wife Duffy's main stylistic link between the poems that comment upon heterosexual relationships is the titles used as a descri ption of a woman bound unwillingly in a heterosexual relationship; Duffy uses the word "Mrs" or "Pygmalion's Bride" implying the woman is an object or possession. Whereas Anne Hathaway is a poem commenting upon the joys of their relationship and that even in death they continue to share life through her memories in which lives on in.

However the poem Anne Hathaway refers to Shakespeare's wife. The fact that Duffy does not describe Anne Hathaway as Mrs. Shakespeare due to her respect for Shakespeare as a fellow poet; as it is the only poem that truly celebrates heterosexual love. The quote "Item I gyve unto my wife my second best bed..." at face value this quote could be misconstrued as though Shakespeare had cheated his wife out of wealth in death. On the other hand with further analysis it is clear that even though the item is the "second best bed" the sentiment of the love both physically and emotionally that they both shared in this their marital bed deepens Duffy's poetic style as it is evidence to contrast her previous feminist work.

Also in Little Red Cap with it being the first poem in the collection it sets the scene mood for the rest of the collection. Within Little Red Cap, Duffy experiments with literary techniques underpinned by her feminist views. For example "How nice breakfast in bed, he said", this not only shows her potential mentor devoured her poetic voice, but "breakfast in bed" implies that she has already been coerced into the female domestic role and where she once went to seek excitement and independence in the world of poetry, she now finds herself powerless where her only sustenance is the "warm, beating, frantic, winged" words she finds in the wolf's books. These words used to describe the words she reads portray life and movement implying a freedom she once proclaimed; in contrast to her new found possession.

Whereas unlike the other poems in this collection that describe the women's attempts to escape their misery; the poem Anne Hathaway is a sonnet describing her and her husband's loving relationship. His creative imagination becomes part of her own thoughts, and he lives on in her memory. Duffy's choice of title immediately contrasts this poem with the other poems based on marriages which empowers Anne and suggests their marriage in a non-feminist view to be an equal partnership. However Duffy's descri ption of Anne and Shakespeare's relationship contrasts with Little Red Cap's experience with the wolf when she had sex with him she was immediately his possession.

Furthermore, the presentation of relationships between men and women by Duffy is obviously from her point of view; a woman's, feminist point of view which therefore sees women claiming superiority. This is a contrast to many fables and supernatural tales heard around the world in which the protagonist or hero character is almost always a man. Duffy's poems, specifically the collection The World's Wife, address this stereotype, however, when stating that she addresses the stereotype we must be mindful that her poems are twisted versions or fairytales, myths and fables. This means that, when using a woman as the dominant character or writing that woman's escape from her domestic role of 'the wife', Duffy tends to highlight the stereotype rather than alter an age old tradition through her feminist poetry.

Moreover with Duffy's point of view being feminist this is an example of 'inter-group variation' (Jennifer Coates-"Women, men and language", 1993); this stylistic form draws upon noting the differences between men and women rather than as a combined group. Duffy's language is an example of this stylistic point-making technique as it shows men to be without a voice due to no direct speech "he said" which is his speech relayed by a woman, from her point of view so it comes across how she says it rather than how he said it.

Also Little Red Cap is evidence that Duffy uses her feminist nature as the basis of her work. Such as her descri ption of the wolf consuming and in turn destroying Little Red Cap's poetic voice; and the extreme feminist view point being that men are threatened by a woman's freedom to express her opinion; as their voice is a weapon against male domination. Duffy's expressionism draws attention to a man's expression of dominance through speech whereas a woman can utilise her ability to both speak and to listen equally (Deborah Cameron-"Feminism and Linguistic Theory", 1992) while Duffy's expressionism reverses this male stereotype to fit to a female. Duffy's opinion which emphasises the controlling nature of these dominant male figures she has chosen to represent in her poems is echoed in feminist texts such as Kate Millet's Sexual Politics; which focuses feminist efforts on the anti-objectification of women.

In conclusion, although both poems being written by the same poet and both being grouped in the same collection each poem can be analysed and evaluated separately. Furthermore Duffy's connection with feminism also interlinks with both her writing style and the specific narration of the stories on which her twisted tales are based. So for to contrast Duffy's presentation of heterosexual relationships in Little Red Cap and Anne Hathaway is straightforward as Duffy's style makes possible comparisons between these two specific poems clear. They are clear due to the poem's chronological placing with Little Red Cap being the first poem, situated to set the scene for what was to come and Anne Hathaway being a take on the will of the real life marriage of William Shakespeare, as a fellow poet it is clear why Duffy's poem is based on their true love and that she is mindful of its place in history choosing to write in a form he is famous for rather than peeling back the outer layers of their relationship to reveal the 'truth' of the story from her feminist point of view.