Literary Analysis Of Mrs Midas By Carol Ann Duffy
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While on first glance, the poem, “Mrs Midas” seems fairly typical of many of the other poems in “The World’s Wife” anthology, it is in fact a superlative example of Carol Ann Duffy at her very best. “Mrs Midas” is written from the quirkily unusual perspective of the wife of King Midas, a mythical character in Ovid’s “Metamorphoses”. This is due to Duffy’s use of devices such as caesura, verbal humour, and colloquialisms in the poem. Like many of the other poems in the anthology. Also in common with many of her poems, “Mrs Midas” is written retrospectively and is part of a tradition of the feminist revisionist writing of mythology and fairy tales. Duffy brilliantly trivialises the myth by transplanting it to a modern, middle class, suburban setting.
The form and structure of “Mrs Midas” embodies the best features of Carol Ann Duffy’s poetry. “Mrs Midas” is a dramatic monologue, the fact that it is a dramatic monologue helps to make the poem more theatrical and histrionic. The poem is also written in free verse, this shows that the poem is not restricted by masculine ideas of order and structure, therefore emphasising the feminist revisionist element of the poem. Furthermore, each stanza in the poem consists of exactly six lines. This is significant as even though the poem does not conform to any rhyming scheme or set metre it still gives it a subtle sense of order which is prevalent throughout the poem.
Duffy uses irony to powerful effect in “Mrs Midas” as well as other