Mrs Sisyphus - notes and quotes Flashcards
Duffy and intertextuality (A03)
-The relationship between texts
-reimagining male-privileged narrative from a female experience
-‘The world’s wife 1999
‘Queen Kong’ and “Mrs Lazarus’
Key term: Hypophora
figure of speech in which the writer poses a question - then they answers it immediately.
-often a rhetorical question.
Key term: Volta
-device in Petrarchan sonnet -
a rhetorical shift that marks the change of a thought or argument in a poem
signals some conclusion to the problem explored.
In Mrs. Sisyphus the volta occurs in the last stanza, when the speaker’s emotions turn from a comedic anger and frustration, to a melancholy resigned tone.
Italian meaning = to turn
Key term: Anachronism
-actions or events that do not correspond with the historical context of a text.
- the action of attributing something to a period to which it does not belong. E.g juxtaposing modern colloquialisms and scottish slang with the historical context of the poem’s topic.
The myth of Sisyphus (A03)
-Punished for cheating death, tells his wife to leave him naked in public square - persuades Persephone that his wife been disloyal in denying him a proper burial -she lets him come back to ensure his burial rites - then he refuses to return to the underworld.
-Hermes drags him back my force - he is then forced to eternally push a rock up a hill by Zeus.
Rhyme scheme and metre
-masculine rhymes in combination of short and long lines
-creates variable metrical pattern - convey Sisyphus pushing boulder up hill.
Form: visually, the lines get shorter and shorter throughout the second stanza before stretching out at the start of the third. This subtly mirrors the repetitive nature of Sisyphus’s task: the poem’s movement from long lines to short lines and back to long lines evokes the way he pushes his stone up the hill only for it to roll back down.
-All rhyme with work - and build up to the final line ‘to his work’ - to empahsise his working is the root of all her problems. Creates insistent, inescapable feel, reflecting Sisyphus’ relentlessly repetitive task.
- free rhyme scheme, distinct contemporary feel, reflecting fact that Duffy is using an ancient myth to comment on modern work and relationships.
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Structure and form
-Futility and never ending nature of the task - conveyed through equal length of 1st and last line.
-juxtapositions 3rd and 2nd stanza used to contrast Sisyphus’s view of his work with his wife’s isolation caused by his work-aholicism.
-Dramatic dialogue - not from the perspective of the writer.
Title
-indicates feminist perspective.
-Speaker only identified as wife of Sisyphus - has no identity beyond this.
-complements feeling of isolation.
-however, man’s own perspective only voiced through his wife - she has power within the poem.
‘jirk/… kirk/… irk/… berk/… dirk/’
-colloquial language.
-establishes confrontational, comical tone.
-convey stupidity of task.
-Comical use of rhyming insults
-plosive consonants - effect of heightening the anger in speaker voice.
-comic tone more strident - words - lines of 1st stanza - same end rhyme.
-emphasises repititious monotony of manual task - also in stanza 2 - emphasises insistent nature of wife’s complaints.
‘What use is a perk, I shriek,/
When you haven’t got time to pop open a cork/
or go for so much as a walk in the park?’
-superior logic of the wife’s argument is foregrounded.
-rhymes and half rhymes - emphasise monotony.
‘And what does he say? /
Mustn’t shirk -/
keen as a hawk,
lean as a shark
Mustn’t shirk!’
-repetition and parallelism.
-sense of Sisyphus being trapped in his routine - and as a result so is Mrs Sisyphus.
-use of caesura in dash after ‘Mustn’t shirk-‘ immitate natural flow of conversation - adds sense speaker is mocking her husband.
-Voice of society perhaps - encouraging capitalist business ambitions - futile alienation from product of his work - renders it pointless.
-Hypophona - poses rhetorical question - answers immediately - used to mock/patronise him.
‘Noah’s wife did/
when he hammered away at the Ark;/
like Frau Jhonhann Sebastian Bach. /
My voice reduced to a squark…’
-analogy to other wives - ironic overstatement that creates pathos.
-two biblical and musical figures realised momentous achievements - little time for their wives.
-analogy with Bach’s wife - adds additional dose of fatalism - Bach’s reputation only established after death - Mrs Sisyphus Sisyphus’s complaint - unheard while she lives.
-her existence is thus as futile as her husbands.
-nameless wives Reminds us of the lack of choices women have had throughout history, they are merely the wife of an accomplished man, no freedom to create their own lifestyle
My voice reduced to a squawk - animal imagery - emphasises how women have been dehumanised, granted so little autonomy or opportunities. Alludes to characateur / comedic stock character of nagging wife in literature, and subverts this stereotype, giving the nagging wife an opinion and logical argument.
‘But I lie alone in the dark, /
Feeling like’Noah’s wife did/
when he hammered away at the Ark;’
-hint of possible resolution - due to the fact that the lines mimic the volta - sonnets of Petrarch - traditionally signaled sense of resolution.
-However - device is employed ironically as final stanza is notable for it’s lack of resolution.
Theme of gender
-Mrs Sisyphus able to articulate her dissatisfaction at the state of her marriage - yet unable to change situation.
-Socially isolated due to her position as a housewife - disregarded in a society that only value capital labour.
Capitalist exploitation
-exploitation of Mr Sisyphus labour.
-his task comparable to a freak show ‘a quirk / a bit of a lark’.
-exploitation and humiliation.
-Sisyphus clearly loyal to mantra that drives him ‘mustn’t shirk!’.
-postmodern in its appropriation of classical myth as a framework and critique of contemporary capitalism.
encouragement of capitalist business ambitions - futile alienation from product of his work - renders it pointless.
