Duffy’s use of dramatic monologue effectively presents women’s personal states of mind. Discuss, referring close to two or three poems in your answer.
- Valentine
- Warming Her Pearls
Duffy uses “Valentine” and “Warming Her Pearls” to present the women’s personal states of mind through the use of dramatic monologues. In both poems, readers are able to relate better to the women because of their first hand recounts of the events that unfold and this leads on to show their personal states of mind. Due to the use of dramatic monologue in both poems, we also gain an insight to the women’s character and temperament which is a parallel to their states of mind.
In the two poems as mentioned above, readers can relate better to the women because they are retelling the events based on their own experiences. In “Valentine”, the woman wants to subvert from the traditional gifts that lovers will give to their partners as she acknowledges that fact by using the word “not” to emphasize on the uncommon nature of her gift. The woman uses a metaphysical conceit “onion” to describe the love between her and her partner. This reflects her feeling of how love is actually just like any other feeling – like how the onion is just another mundane food item in the kitchen but it is the way that each individual interprets that makes it different – to her the onion is a representative of what love can give in a relationship or marriage. In her point of view, love is as simple as the symbol “moon” which is commonly associated with notions of love, and the fact that it is “wrapped in brown paper” signifies that there is no need for a fanciful appearance because love is beautiful in its simplest form. Similarly in “Warming Her Pearls”, the woman’s take on love is to entertain her persistent thoughts of infatuation with her mistress, “all day I think of her”, this reflects how she perceives love to be. We can tell that the woman knows her position in...