Examine the view that Duff y presents women as dangerous and
destructi ve in the collecti on ‘Feminine Gospels’. 25/25
Duffy’s collection ‘Feminine Gospels’ is a feminist revelation in its ability to depict women outside of
the prescribed patriarchal image. Exploring the roles of women as mothers, shoppers, workers, and
sexual beings, she presents the previously unwritten feminine gospel that exudes an equally
celebratory and critical perspective of women and society. Departing from the norm, her women are
arguably presented as dangerous and destructive: whilst she does recognise the femme fatale figure
in her Cleopatra of ‘Beautiful’, she is most representative of reality in her images of women as
dangerous and destructive to the environment as polluters and exploiters, and to themselves. Yet in
her efforts to portray the female experience, she defines the fate of the feminine to be one of
suffering, exhaustion, and isolation.
A pun on the reproductive abilities of women and mass production of capitalism, ‘Work’ is Duffy’s
criticism of the dangerous and destructive consumption and production of society. Ominously
breeding billions, Duffy’s universal representation of all mothers (a deity-like figure that alludes to
the mythological ‘Mother Earth’) is outlined as directly responsible for the overwhelming pollution
that mankind has caused. A hyperbolic interpretation of paean lore, the mother’s exploitative
actions are revealed through dynamic verbs in the past tense, to explicitly identify her wilful
contribution to the polluting industry of capitalism: a semantic field of the hypernym ‘worked’,
consisting of the hyponyms ‘took’, ‘threshed’, ‘scythed’, ‘grafted’, ‘toiled’, ‘sweated’, ‘built’, might
first begin positively to show the ambition and ability of the mother, but soon turns violent –
‘flogged’, ‘ripped’, ‘burned’, ‘slogged’, ‘trawled’, ‘hoovered’, ‘felled’ – to emphasise the damage she
inflicts on the planet. Enjambment (‘To feed more, more, / she dug underground’), asyndetic lists
(‘light, oil. metal, noise, machines’) and internal rhymes (‘flogged’ and ‘slogged’) increase in
frequency as the poem progresses, creating a rapid pace that is representative of the unrelenting
labour of the mother and her initial sense of alacrity (‘she was game, able’), that soon turns sour.
Whilst the mother of ‘Work’ is undoubtedly responsible for the ecological strain that the Earth
suffers at the expense of her ‘swelling’ offspring, there is discrepancy between Duffy’s portrayal of a
destructive entity and the archetypal image of the nurturing mother – we are also given the image of
the women as obliged to serve her children – thus paradoxically absolving her of fault.
, ‘Work’ may provide some excuse for the mother’s destructive behaviour (as she is servile to her
maternal role), but ‘The Woman Who Shopped’ identifies the shopper as without a motive beyond
her own addiction, an agent of capitalism who perpetuates the class divide in society. Dangerous
and destructive, women’s roles in consumerism is represented as not only ecologically disastrous (as
complemented by the subject of the following poem ‘Work’) but also detrimental to societal
levelling and equality. An image of desperation as she becomes homeless (‘curled in the doorway, six
shopping bags at her feet’), flees to the streets and ‘pressed her face to the pane of the biggest and
best’, she assumes a role in the hierarchical nature of society, a damaging concept where the
superlatives ‘biggest and best’ are unattainable aspirations. Therefore, one might argue that ‘The
Woman Who Shopped’ is a poetic critique of the vapid and hysterical nature of mass consumerism, a
practice of unparalleled greed and lack of restraint. Employing a similar technique to ‘Work’, the
absurdity of shopping sprees and addictive quality of mindless consumerism is demonstrated
through asyndetic lists (‘cutlery, crockery, dishwashers, bed linen…swimming pools, caravans,
saunas’), internal rhymes (‘brim’, ‘him’), and extended enjambment – the first half of the poem is
entirely one sentence. The danger that ‘The Woman Who Shopped’ poses, however, is a stark
contrast to the alternative degree of danger and destruction that ‘The Laughter of the Stafford Girl’s
High’ (‘Laughter’) depicts. Using the laughter of British school girls as a conceit for freedom of
speech, ‘Laughter’ details a feminist rebellion against an education system that aims to suppress
individuality and ambition. An extended metaphor of the uncontainable reality of the human spirit,
the laughter is a keen threat to the oppression of a patriarchal society. Duffy does not condemn
these women for their destructive agenda, instead celebrating their autonomy and courage
stylistically through the ballad-ic and epic form – which is reminiscent historical poetry that
commemorated the glory and bravery of battle – and a lexis of war (‘gunfire, crackled and spat…
boomed’). Despite the criminality of the laughter, ‘the laughter was out, was at large’, it is
honourably presented as a force of justice combatting a tyrannical patriarchy, as embodied by the
school. The girls of ‘Stafford Girl’s High’ transform into feminist icons when they exchange societal
expectations (‘how they could hope to grow to be the finest of England’s daughters and mothers and
wives’) for bold and brash behaviour (‘belched’, ‘howled’, ‘stabbed’, ‘hooted’). ‘Birds in a cage’ now
empowered and ‘passed into legend’, their names ‘written in gold’, their actions are far more
favourable than that of ‘The Woman Who Shopped’.
A regressive image of hysteria and materialism, the frenzied female creature is portrayed to be
dangerous and destructive to herself in ‘The Woman Who Shopped’. Although the poem opens
joyfully, conveying the small and seemingly harmless spending of a singular ‘silver shilling’, using
destructi ve in the collecti on ‘Feminine Gospels’. 25/25
Duffy’s collection ‘Feminine Gospels’ is a feminist revelation in its ability to depict women outside of
the prescribed patriarchal image. Exploring the roles of women as mothers, shoppers, workers, and
sexual beings, she presents the previously unwritten feminine gospel that exudes an equally
celebratory and critical perspective of women and society. Departing from the norm, her women are
arguably presented as dangerous and destructive: whilst she does recognise the femme fatale figure
in her Cleopatra of ‘Beautiful’, she is most representative of reality in her images of women as
dangerous and destructive to the environment as polluters and exploiters, and to themselves. Yet in
her efforts to portray the female experience, she defines the fate of the feminine to be one of
suffering, exhaustion, and isolation.
A pun on the reproductive abilities of women and mass production of capitalism, ‘Work’ is Duffy’s
criticism of the dangerous and destructive consumption and production of society. Ominously
breeding billions, Duffy’s universal representation of all mothers (a deity-like figure that alludes to
the mythological ‘Mother Earth’) is outlined as directly responsible for the overwhelming pollution
that mankind has caused. A hyperbolic interpretation of paean lore, the mother’s exploitative
actions are revealed through dynamic verbs in the past tense, to explicitly identify her wilful
contribution to the polluting industry of capitalism: a semantic field of the hypernym ‘worked’,
consisting of the hyponyms ‘took’, ‘threshed’, ‘scythed’, ‘grafted’, ‘toiled’, ‘sweated’, ‘built’, might
first begin positively to show the ambition and ability of the mother, but soon turns violent –
‘flogged’, ‘ripped’, ‘burned’, ‘slogged’, ‘trawled’, ‘hoovered’, ‘felled’ – to emphasise the damage she
inflicts on the planet. Enjambment (‘To feed more, more, / she dug underground’), asyndetic lists
(‘light, oil. metal, noise, machines’) and internal rhymes (‘flogged’ and ‘slogged’) increase in
frequency as the poem progresses, creating a rapid pace that is representative of the unrelenting
labour of the mother and her initial sense of alacrity (‘she was game, able’), that soon turns sour.
Whilst the mother of ‘Work’ is undoubtedly responsible for the ecological strain that the Earth
suffers at the expense of her ‘swelling’ offspring, there is discrepancy between Duffy’s portrayal of a
destructive entity and the archetypal image of the nurturing mother – we are also given the image of
the women as obliged to serve her children – thus paradoxically absolving her of fault.
, ‘Work’ may provide some excuse for the mother’s destructive behaviour (as she is servile to her
maternal role), but ‘The Woman Who Shopped’ identifies the shopper as without a motive beyond
her own addiction, an agent of capitalism who perpetuates the class divide in society. Dangerous
and destructive, women’s roles in consumerism is represented as not only ecologically disastrous (as
complemented by the subject of the following poem ‘Work’) but also detrimental to societal
levelling and equality. An image of desperation as she becomes homeless (‘curled in the doorway, six
shopping bags at her feet’), flees to the streets and ‘pressed her face to the pane of the biggest and
best’, she assumes a role in the hierarchical nature of society, a damaging concept where the
superlatives ‘biggest and best’ are unattainable aspirations. Therefore, one might argue that ‘The
Woman Who Shopped’ is a poetic critique of the vapid and hysterical nature of mass consumerism, a
practice of unparalleled greed and lack of restraint. Employing a similar technique to ‘Work’, the
absurdity of shopping sprees and addictive quality of mindless consumerism is demonstrated
through asyndetic lists (‘cutlery, crockery, dishwashers, bed linen…swimming pools, caravans,
saunas’), internal rhymes (‘brim’, ‘him’), and extended enjambment – the first half of the poem is
entirely one sentence. The danger that ‘The Woman Who Shopped’ poses, however, is a stark
contrast to the alternative degree of danger and destruction that ‘The Laughter of the Stafford Girl’s
High’ (‘Laughter’) depicts. Using the laughter of British school girls as a conceit for freedom of
speech, ‘Laughter’ details a feminist rebellion against an education system that aims to suppress
individuality and ambition. An extended metaphor of the uncontainable reality of the human spirit,
the laughter is a keen threat to the oppression of a patriarchal society. Duffy does not condemn
these women for their destructive agenda, instead celebrating their autonomy and courage
stylistically through the ballad-ic and epic form – which is reminiscent historical poetry that
commemorated the glory and bravery of battle – and a lexis of war (‘gunfire, crackled and spat…
boomed’). Despite the criminality of the laughter, ‘the laughter was out, was at large’, it is
honourably presented as a force of justice combatting a tyrannical patriarchy, as embodied by the
school. The girls of ‘Stafford Girl’s High’ transform into feminist icons when they exchange societal
expectations (‘how they could hope to grow to be the finest of England’s daughters and mothers and
wives’) for bold and brash behaviour (‘belched’, ‘howled’, ‘stabbed’, ‘hooted’). ‘Birds in a cage’ now
empowered and ‘passed into legend’, their names ‘written in gold’, their actions are far more
favourable than that of ‘The Woman Who Shopped’.
A regressive image of hysteria and materialism, the frenzied female creature is portrayed to be
dangerous and destructive to herself in ‘The Woman Who Shopped’. Although the poem opens
joyfully, conveying the small and seemingly harmless spending of a singular ‘silver shilling’, using
