Medusa 2 6p6g3j

GCSE Anthology- Character and voice. AQA Syllabus

Medusa- By Carol Ann Duffy Method- FLIRTS (Form, language, imagery, rhythm, tone and subject)

F- Dramatic Monologue, which is in the view of a jealous wife. In this poem, Medusa expresses her bitter feelings about becoming old and unwanted. The poem is being directed at her husband. It is divided in to irregular stanzas, except the last line which is emphasised because it is isolated- her anger builds up to the last line. The poem uses simple structure and vocab because her feelings are not complicated; she is clear on how she feels towards her husband. Lines are short and emphatic to represent simple thoughts.

L- The language of seeing connects the narrator to Medusa- Language of vision and what is seen. Vision in this poem can be interpreted at ambiguous because it can be either loving or dangerous. E.g. ‘’look at me now’’, perhaps she wants him to look at her rather than the girls, or she wants to turn him to stone. Looking could be either caring or fatal. Repetition- line 36: ‘’Your girls, your girls’’, representing jealously and their youthfulness (for emphasis). Line 8: ‘’I’m foul mouthed now, foul tounged’’- her hateful thoughts and words have led to physical decay. Line 40 and 41: ‘’Wasn’t I beautiful? Wasn’t I fragrant and young?’’, questions indicate her vulnerability which makes her seem suddenly human again.

I- Violent Imagery is used, the narrator seems to take pleasure in imagining violence in the poem. This highlights her anger and seems shocking because it is expressed in such an extreme, destructive way. Metaphor- line 10: ‘’There are bullet tears’’, her emotions are dangerous. Onomatopoeia- line 22: ‘’A handful of dusty gravel spattered down’’, emphasises her violent actions. The whole poem is an extended metaphor for a jealous woman who turns against her partner. Although jealousy makes Medusa dangerous, she also loses a lot: her hair turns to ‘’filthy snakes’’ and her breath ‘’soured stank’’. She is aware of the

GCSE Anthology- Character and voice. AQA Syllabus

change in herself: by the end of the poem the rhetorical questions ‘’Wasn’t I beautiful? Wasn’t I fragrant and young?’’ show her bitterness at being betrayed and sadness at that change. The extended metaphor is further developed in her description of her man who was a ‘’Greek God’’ (a clichéd description of a handsome man but wittily appropriate in context). His heart is metaphorically a ‘’shield’’, suggesting that he was unable to open up and love her properly.

R- The poem is rich in alliteration and rhyme, helping to unify the lines and create a sense of rhythm even in free verse. For example in the third stanza, the two lines: ‘’but I know you’ll go, betray, stray from home’’ have two sets of internal rhyme (know/go and betray/stray) and half rhyme between the final word and the first set of rhyme. The third to sixth stanzas all have some end rhyme, which always includes the final line of the verse, creating a sense of finality associated with the death of her victims. Sibilance is used at the end of the first stanza to suggest the hissing of the snakes: ‘’hissed and spat on my scalp’’. Duffy uses groups of threes as a means to build up rhythm from the very first line: ‘’a suspicion, a doubt, a jealousy’’.

T- The narrator is presented as foul and frightening. Indeed, she tells us that we should be terrified by her. However, there is also a strong sense of sadness in the poem. Medusa has resorted to these actions because of possible mistreatment by a man, although it’s not clear cut: ‘’suspicion’’ has motivated her which makes the poem tragic. Anger, bitterness, jealousy- insecurity.

S- Medusa is one of the Gorgons, three sisters from Greek mythology who had snakes for hair and whose terrifying gaze turned those who looked at them to stone. Medusa was a slain by the hero Perseus, who chopped off her head. To avoid looking at her directly he used a highly polished shield as a mirror. The first person narrator, Medusa, is a woman who has transformed into a Gorgon because of her jealousy. She suspects her husband is cheating on her.

GCSE Anthology- Character and voice. AQA Syllabus

Everything she looks on is destroyed, turned in to stone, because of jealousy. Although she has been wronged and is suffering deeply, there is an element of threat throughout the poem, culminating in the final line ‘’Look at me now’’, which can be read as a cry of despair and as a threat- if you did look at a Gorgon you would die. A woman feels betrayed by her husband. She is full of destructive emotions of a jealous woman. Changes have taken place in her. In the end she feels insecure about herself.