Carol Ann Duffy - Mrs Midas Flashcards
“It was late September I’d just poured a glass of wine, begun to unwind, while the vegetables cooked.
- Autumn things fade and die
- Ordinary and everyday scene
- Enjambment , “to unwind” isolated has negative connotations, emotionally about to fall apart.
“The kitchen filled with the steam of itself”
-Setting of a kitchen, symbolic of a “good wife” in old fashioned way. does not deserve poor treatment
“like a brow”
-Highlights stress and anxiety
“He was standing under the pear tree snapping a twig”
-Word choice of snapping = childish
“Now the garden was long and the visibility poor”
-Conversational she is just an ordinary woman
"”The dark of the ground seems to drink the light of the sky”
-Opposites = the complex nature of relationships
“but that twig in his hand was gold”
-Bizarre image
“-We grew Fondante d’Automne-“
- Parenthesis, extra info for comedic affect
- Gold = high quality
- Mrs Midas = likeable
“like a lightbulb”
-Lightbulb = bright idea but not thought through
“I thought to myself, is he putting fairy lights in the tree”
-Humorous tone = the ridiculous nature of Mr Midas’ gift.
“The doorknobs gleamed”
-Word choice = influence of gold indoors
“He sat in that chair like a king on a burnished throne”
-Negative , he might think its great but it is actually the opposite
“The look on his face was strange, wild, vain”
-Highlights his craziness and selfishness
“He started to laugh”
-Selfishness
“I served up the meal”
-Old fashioned view of a wife, he is ungrateful
“he was spitting out teeth of the rich”
-Sarcasm, rich but unable to eat
“I poured with a shaking hand”
- She is afraid of him
- Shaking = terror
“a fragrant, bone-dry white from Italy, then watched as he picked up the glass, goblet, golden chalice, drank”
- Sarcastic/Humorous Tone
- Gentle Mockery of husband
“I started to scream”
-Shift in tone = horror
“He sank to his knees”
-Pathetic image
“I finished the wine on my own”
-Enjambment, highlights isolation which is the consequence of his wish
“I made him sit on the other side of the room and keep his hands to himself”
-Physical and metaphorical distance In the relationship
“I locked the cat in the cellar”
-Dark humour to highlight gold = death
“;aurum, soft, untarnishable; slakes no thirst”
-List after semi-colon, all the uselessness of Gold
“You’ll be able to give up smoking for good”
- Tragic line.
- Should be funny but its not, masks the fact that certain death awaits down the road
“Separate beds”
-Isolation
“Unwrapping each other”
-Love making no longer possible”
“can live with a heart of gold”
-Play on words = Death
“That night, I dreamt I bore his child”
-Tragic idea as physical contact no longer possible
“My dream milk burned in my breasts”
-Robbed of being a mother by his selfish actions
“I woke to the streaming sun”
-Cold light of day
“So he had to move out”
-Further Distance
“And then I came home”
-Alone
“the woman who married the fool who wished for gold “
-Mrs Midas now defined by her husbands greed
“At first, I visited, odd times, parking the car a good way off, then walking”
- Commas = trepidation
- Emphasis on ever growing distance
“You knew you were getting close……That was the last straw”
-This stanza focuses on the idea of gold symbolising his isolation and impending death. for Mrs Midas gold is now upsetting to see
“What gets me now is not the idiocy or greed but lack of thought for me”
-Central concern, she did not matter to him
“Pure Selfishness”
-Short Sentence = Anger
“I sold the contents of the house”
-Word choice of sold = she lost everything so much gold but not even close to rich
“I miss most, even now, his hands, his warm hands on my skin, his touch”
-Heart-breaking final line lists all the things she misses.
None are material, all examples of love and passion, his greed and selfishness robbed her of it.
