Medusa Flashcards
Subject of Medusa by Carol Ann Duffy
Medusa is one of the Gorgons, three sisters from Greek mythology who had snakes for hair and whose terrifying gaze turned those who looked at them to stone. Medusa was slain by the hero Perseus, who chopped off her head. To avoid looking at her directly he used a highly polished shield as a mirror.
The first person narrator, Medusa, is a woman who has been transformed into a Gorgon because of her jealousy. She suspects her husband is cheating on her. Everything she looks on is destroyed, turned to stone, because of jealousy.
Although she has been wronged and is suffering deeply, there is an element of threat throughout the poem, culminating in the final line “Look at me now”, which can be read both as a cry of despair and as a threat - if you did look at a Gorgon, you would die.
Structure of Medusa by Carol Ann Duffy
The poem is in free verse, structured around the woman’s transformation, and the escalating scale of the living things she turns to stone.
She starts with a bee and her victims increase in size until she changes a dragon into a volcano. Finally she turns her attention to the man who broke her heart.
Despite the free verse formation, the poem is divided into stanzas of mostly equal length. The final line, which is a stanza on its own, is an exception; this underlines it and creates a sense of menace.
Language, sound and imagery of Medusa by Carol Ann Duffy
Sound:
- The poem is rich in alliteration and rhyme, helping to unify the lines and create a sense of rhythm even in free verse. E.g. in the third stanza, the two lines “but I know you’ll go, betray me, stray/from home” have two sets of internal rhyme (know/go and betray/stray), and half rhyme between the final word and the first set of rhyme.
- The third to sixth stanzas all have some end rhyme, which always includes the final line of the verse, creating a sense of finality associated with the death of her victims.
- Sibilance is used at the end of the first stanza to suggest the hissing of snakes: “hissed and spat on my scalp”.
- Duffy uses groups of threes as a means to build up rhythm from the very first line: “a suspicion, a doubt, a jealousy”.
Imagery:
- The danger posed by upsetting Medusa is emphasised by the metaphor of “bullet tears”. The metaphor is paradoxical, since tears are commonly seen as weak, but bullets are violent.
- The whole poem is an extended metaphor for a jealous woman who turns against her partner. Although jealousy makes Medusa dangerous, she also loses a lot: her hair turns to “filthy snakes” and her breath “soured, stank”.
- She is aware of the change in herself: by the end of the poem the rhetorical questions “Wasn’t I beautiful?/Wasn’t I fragrant and young?” show her bitterness at being betrayed and sadness at that change.
- The extended metaphor is further developed in her description of her man who was a “Greek God” (a clichéd description of a handsome man but wittily appropriate in context).
- His heart is metaphorically a “shield”, suggesting that he was unable to open up and love her properly.
Attitudes and ideas of Medusa by Carol Ann Duffy
The narrator is presented as foul and frightening. She tells us that we should be terrified by her however, there is also a strong sense of sadness in the poem.
Medusa has resorted to these actions because of possible mistreatment by a man, although it’s not clear cut - “suspicion” has motivated her - which makes the poem tragic.
Medusa is blackly humorous. Does the contrast between humour and sadness make the poem even more powerful or less so?
Example comparisons to Medusa by Carol Ann Duffy
The Clown Punk:
- The eponymous characters of both poems are frightening as well as tragic.
- Both poems rely on strong visual imagery to engage the reader.
- Like Medusa, the Clown Punk is a character we wouldn’t normally observe so closely: both poems ask us to take a second look at someone we might try to avoid.
Singh Song!:
- Both poems use distinctive imagery to create the character of a strong woman.
- Alliteration and rhyme are powerfully used in both poems, but neither follows a regular rhyme scheme.
- Although both poems are about marriages, love leads to happiness in Singh Song!, unlike the love described in Medusa.
How does the poet create the reader’s reaction to Medusa’s character in Medusa by Carol Ann Duffy?
The use of direct address to the reader, with rhetorical questions and commands, brings the reader into immediate contact with Medusa.
We are given a real sense of the snakes on Medusa’s head with the use of sibilance, creating a shiver down the spine.
Carol Ann Duffy deliberately creates a sense of horror with the disturbing physical description of Medusa.
The horror is balanced with wit: different animals are turned into different types of stone.
The final stanza describes Medusa’s armoured man and his “girls”, directing us into feeling pity for the narrator.
Context of Medusa by Carol Ann Duffy
Carol Ann Duffy is the first female Poet Laureate (2009), and probably the best known female poet working in Britain today.
Duffy is well known for poems that give a voice to the dispossessed (people excluded from society); she encourages the reader to put themselves in the shoes of people they might normally dismiss.
Her collection represents women from history, literature and fairytale, particularly those whose stories tend to be defined by men, or who have only a cameo appearance in a male-dominated scenario.
Her poetry often engages with the grittier and more disturbing side of life, using black humour like a weapon to make social and political points.
