With close reference to ‘Little Red Cap’ and some other poems in the collection, consider how Carol Ann Duffy explores relationships in her anthology?
The anthology ‘The World’s Wife’ is a collection of poems written by Carol Ann Duffy in which the writer takes on the persona of a range of characters; these being real, fictional, mythical and biblical. The wives in the collection may be of long suffering, but they are not victims. Duffy tackles controversial issues and her women are by no means victorious, but she shows the women as they are; not the stereotypical feministic view but angry, sardonic, impatient women. Duffy seeks to highlight the ways in which women were best ignored and silenced throughout the ages; simply an adjunct of the male in the relationship.
Duffy opens the poem by describing the end of her childhood and her want to venture off in to the adult world. Within the first two lines of the first stanza an idealistic childhood environment is depicted; ‘At childhood’s end, the houses petered out, / into playing fields, the factory, the allotments’. As the stanza progresses the reader is plunged in to the aspect of dominant relationships, this in contrast to the original story of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ were the wolf is depicted as the character in control. But in ‘Little Red Cap’ Duffy cleverly reverses the power towards the female character. Duffy continues to create a power shift when she describes the allotments to be ‘kept like mistresses, by kneeling married men’. The idea of mistresses was a very common thing in the past and though was considered bad, was not unusual. The way in which Duffy describes the mistresses to be kept by married men illustrates the traditions of a patriarchal society, were the men are of dominance, but by adding that the men are ‘kneeling’ shows the woman to be asserting themselves as the dominant force in the relationship and that the men are inferior.
In the second stanza of the poem Duffy describes the deceptive tactics and manipulation some relationships may involve. In the poem ‘Little Red Cap’ Duffy manipulates the wolf by describing herself as ‘sweet
Duffy opens the poem by describing the end of her childhood and her want to venture off in to the adult world. Within the first two lines of the first stanza an idealistic childhood environment is depicted; ‘At childhood’s end, the houses petered out, / into playing fields, the factory, the allotments’. As the stanza progresses the reader is plunged in to the aspect of dominant relationships, this in contrast to the original story of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ were the wolf is depicted as the character in control. But in ‘Little Red Cap’ Duffy cleverly reverses the power towards the female character. Duffy continues to create a power shift when she describes the allotments to be ‘kept like mistresses, by kneeling married men’. The idea of mistresses was a very common thing in the past and though was considered bad, was not unusual. The way in which Duffy describes the mistresses to be kept by married men illustrates the traditions of a patriarchal society, were the men are of dominance, but by adding that the men are ‘kneeling’ shows the woman to be asserting themselves as the dominant force in the relationship and that the men are inferior.
In the second stanza of the poem Duffy describes the deceptive tactics and manipulation some relationships may involve. In the poem ‘Little Red Cap’ Duffy manipulates the wolf by describing herself as ‘sweet