Thursday, 26 February 2009

HOMEWORK due on Monday 2nd March

Do you agree with the following statements? Explain why in your comment, referring as closely as possible to the poems concerned.

1: "In "Mrs Quasimodo", Duffy doesn't do women any favours. She portrays them as bitter, shallow and complying with the way they are mistreated by men."

2: "Duffy is wrong to have written from the viewpoint of a notorious murder in "The Devil's Wife."

I have left you an example of the sort of level of detail that you should aim for. You need to have the poems in front of you while you answer, ideally.

5 comments:

MsW said...

Duffy creates sympathy for womankind in a lot of the poem, but in the lines that stand out, she undoes all that. Take for instance, "more fool me." This just suggests that Mrs Q was somehow at fault not to realise that she would be mistreated by the man she loved, that she ought to have know better when really we could question that. Similarly, "Get this" suggests she is proud of her disgusting behaviour at the end of the poem and leaves us with the final and most memorable image of her as a woman lowering herself and completely losing all dignity.

MsW said...

Remember, you need to write about BOTH poems in your comment. Mine is just to inspire you to get started.

Anonymous said...

I agree with the first statement, Duffy creates the impression that your partner could only be with you purely to fit in rather than to "love" you.
And to be fair, women are bitter anyway, so being mistreated by men only adds to the inequality.

I do actually believe that Duffy was wrong to write from the viewpoint of Myra Hindley.
To put yourself in the mind frame of a murderer is a bit extreme?
It's one thing talking about sex and the opression of women but a child killer?

teya x

Anonymous said...

In "Mrs Quasimodo", Duffy doesn't do women any favours. She portrays them as bitter, shallow and complying with the way they are mistreated by men. We can tell when in this poem she describes her appearance as ugly and as detest as possible; “an ugly cliché”, “my lumpy shadow” and “my small black eyes” in contrast to her lover when she makes him look as positive person. However knows that he is ugly. “Struck match in my head”, “horse mouth, tetrahedron nose, squint left eye “She show that she likes the flaws in his ugliness and is not ashamed to tell us (the reader)

Duffy is wrong to have written from the viewpoint of a notorious murder in "The Devil's Wife”.
I believe that Duffy is right to have written from the viewpoint of the murder in “The Devil’s Wife” because in the poem she builds an irregular beat which makes the poem creates an uncomfortable tone which contrasts with the everyday seeming content of the lines. We can tell from the quote “Different. Fancied himself. Looked at the girls in the office as though they were dirt”. The form of the verse puts us on edge here, just as the content in the following lines will.

Harry

Anonymous said...

I don't agree with the first statement, as i think that Duffy, on some level lets the audience sympathise with her, and relate to her. Her emotions are displayed heavily throughout, and i think that everyone can relate to feeling elated, only to be let down by someone. I feel it may be targeted at women mainly.


I can't see the point to why Duffy has written the poem from a murderers point of veiw, unless, her only reason for the poem was to talk about Myra Hindely, but i think her involvement was confusing, and i didn't understand it. Again, i don't like the poem as most of it (like the rest of her poems) is based on assumptions.

Encyclopedia Mythologica

A good reference tool for lots ot Duffy's poems:

http://www.pantheon.org/areas/mythology/europe/greek/

A great revision tool

http://www.southdartmoor.devon.sch.uk/english/duffypowerpoint.ppt

Take your time, think and use it to help you with several key exam skills.


FIND A SAMPLE EXAM PAPER HERE:
http://www.aqa.org.uk/qual/gce/eng_lit_a_trb_new.php

Use the drop down menu on the top right hand side and select "Unit 1". Scroll through to find the Struggle for Identity in Modern Literature options at the end.