Pygmalions Bride (Duffy)

Question 1

Context

Pygmalions bride

Answer 1

Based on the myth of Pygmalion, a sculptor who falls in love with his own statue, and begs with the Goddess of Love, Aphrodite, to animate the statue and make her his loving bride. This poem reimagines the statue as a woman who refuses to be controlled by Pygmalion. Through this, Duffy explores female resistance, male entitlement, and the rejection of objectification

Question 2

Comparison and Contrast with Porphyrias lover

Pygmalions bride

Answer 2

Both women are treated as objects, with both men wanting a woman who conforms to his ideals of sexual purity.
Porphyrias lover, porphyria is completely silenced (killed), while Galaeta evokes agency against Pygmalion, escaping

Question 3

Comparison and Contrast with My Last Dutchess

Pygmalions bride

Answer 3

Posession and Objectification
- both male protagonists try to impose their ideals and perceptions upon the woman, challenging the reader to see how the desire for control over beauty and legacy can strip away personal agency, mirroring the artistic arrogance seen in the pygmalion myth

Both critique male characters and the patriarchy, but in very different ways (contrasting techniques)

Question 4

Comparison and contrast with A tocatta of gallupis

Answer 4

• each explore the theme of artistic creation as an act of control
• through the use of art (statue/ discipline of music), both explore how the drive for perfection can diminish humanity and expression

Question 5

Key quotes

Pygmalions bride

Answer 5

“Cold I was, like snow, like ivory”
“My heart was ice, was glass”
“He looked for marks,/ for purple hearts,/ for inky stars, for smudgy clues”
“So I changed tack, grew warm, like candle wax”
“And I haven’t seen him since,/ simple as that”

Question 6

“cold I was, like show, like ivory” and “my heart was ice, was glass”

Answer 6

metaphor/ similie, likenign herself to ice, glass, snow and ivory (continued use throughout the poem), reflects her indifference to pygmalion, but also her seuxal purity, vulnerability and cold resistance

can compare with:
- porphyrias lover (she becomes frozen through violecne)
- AToG- cold/pale imagery to comment on the hollowness of idealised beauty and ephermeral nature of art and perfection

Question 7

“He looked for marks,/ for purple hearts,/ for inky stars, for smudgy clues”

Answer 7

Almost euphamistic metaphor for bruises, signs of resistance, looking for evidence of his power over her on her body (parrallel to euphamism in MLD- dutchess is turned into art, shaped through violent acts)
- there is an astheticisaiton of signs of violence, making them seem poetic; how male power can romanticise female pain

Question 8

“So I changed tack, grew warm, like candle wax”

Answer 8

Physical transformation from cold passivity, but also signals a conscious decision -> shift in tone, she is seizing control over the situation by awakening this raw erotic passion and sexual desire

Question 9

“And I haven’t seen him since./ Simple as that

Answer 9

Use of caesura emphasised by a two line final stanza, to emphasise the finality of this quote, and how she is finally free.
As soon as Galatea appears to enjoy the advances of Pygmalion, he loses interest; shows how pygmalion was never interested in a real relationship, and only wanted autonomy over her. When she is a pure sexless statue, she is desirable, but when she expresses erotic desire, she is cast aside.
Mimetic of porphrias lover, only interested in purity of women