Summary of each poem in the World’s Wife

On By bfIn A World's Wife, English Literature, Uncategorized
  1. “Little Red Cap
    1. How Little Red Riding Hood ends her relationship with the wolf
    2. A reflective piece which details the coming of age of a young girl
    3. Successful female character amidst exploitation of powerful men

  2. “Thetis”
    1. A woman describes her attempt to escape from a controlling figure of a man
    2. She fails in the end and has to change herself, ends up birthing a child she does not want

  3. “Queen Herod”
    1. Story of a queen who kills all the newborn males in her kingdom in order to protect her daughter from being hurt
    2. A spin-off from the story of King Herod, shows the rise of power of the queen against the background of a male-dominated story

  4. “Mrs Midas”
    1. A dramatic monologue of a wife whose husband turns everything into gold
    2. She realises her place in the relationship and moves away from her husband for fear of her own life, but still misses him dearly

  5. “from Mrs Tiresias”
    1. Story of Tiresias’ superficial transformation into a woman
    2. How Tiresias is still a man beneath his physical transformation – self-pitying, lacking self-awareness and self-absorbed.
    3. No matter how physically strong men are or how difficult their lives are, they cannot compare themselves with women
  6. “Pilate’s Wife”
    1. Story of the crucifixion from a female perspective
    2. She had a physical, emotional and sexual connection with Jesus, which she contrasted with her disappointment with Pilate
    3. Pilate is a corrupt leader, it is ironic that he ordered the killing of Jesus
  7. “Mrs Aesop”
    1. A wife who is in agony over her husband’s moral reflections, who stands up for herself in a violent manner.
    2. Mrs Aesop’s words are honest, harsh, and somewhat abusive

  8. “Mrs Darwin”
    1. The wife of Darwin ambiguously addresses Darwin or God in a comedic/ridiculing tone.

  9. “Mrs Sisyphus
    1. A wife’s growing dissatisfaction with her husband’s obsession with work, as he ignores her and puts more effort into useless jobs
    2. Shows the self-absorbed male egocentricity and its ability to utterly ignore the needs of women.
  10. “Mrs Faust”
    1. Mr Faust is greedy and has sold himself to the devil – showing the inevitable dangers of greed in one’s life
    2. The female inherits the wealth, power, and lives a life of peace and luxury at the expense of her husband
  11. “Delilah”
    1. A woman’s genuine, well-intentioned response to her wounded lover’s desperate request to learn how to love.
    2. Delilah is written as a dominant female character, because Samson is the one who keeps asking her to help, even though he is the strong one. She cuts his hair so that he learns to love.
  12. “Anne Hathaway”
    1. A wife’s love and devotion for her husband, Shakespeare

  13. “Queen Kong”
    1. Queen Kong – a powerful and frightening character who shows human traits such as loneliness
    2. Queen Kong challenges the stereotypical male role, demonstrating the clear independence and power of women rather than men.

  14. “Mrs Quasimodo”
    1. A woman who makes great sacrifices for her husband, only to be cheated on
    2. She takes revenge to ruin his life and ends up with the traits of a vulgar man

  15. “Medusa”
    1. A woman is too concerned and worried about being betrayed, cheated on
    2. Society causes women to be irrationally anxious and care too much about their appearance
    3. In the end, she undergoes a gruesome transformation, becoming extremely fierce but lonely in the process
  16. “The Devil’s Wife”
    1. Anti World’s Wife poem – female is evil, bad side of women. She is at fault.
    2. Myra’s story – based on a real life example of two serial killers, detailing their stories of ruthlessly killing children
  17. “Circe”
    1. How a woman treats a man, in parallel to how she cooks a pig
    2. Derogatory, emasculative and bullying tone towards men
  18. “Mrs Lazarus”
    1. Mrs Lazarus describes her life without her husband
    2. When he is resurrected, she doesn’t love him anymore
    3. Shows the loss of love and the inevitable temporary nature of a relationship = the female can move on
  19. “Pygmalion’s Bride”
    1. A statue who tries to push away her lover (the sculptor), to no avail until she begs for his child
    2. Shows the superficiality of men and the triumph, cleverness of females

  20. “Mrs Rip Van Winkle”
    1. A woman who outlines her journey of liberation until her husband requests for sex.
    2. Men are superficial and will never experience liberation.
  21. “Mrs Icarus”
    1. Contempt of a wife who’s husband is a fool
    2. Men become over ambitious and greedy
  22. “Frau Freud”
    1. Being a man is overrated
    2. It is a critique on men’s arrogance and obsession with sex
    3. Having a penis is unpleasant and ugly
  23. “Salome”
    1. Male is being used as a sexual toy
    2. Woman showing uncontrollable, inescapable bad habits, like hostility and violence to her sexual partners (one after another)
  24. “Eurydice”
    1. A woman’s clever, sinister and successful journey to freedom from her husband
    2. After suffering and being complacent for too long
  25. “The Kray Sisters”
    1. Life journey of a suffragette
    2. Similar to the mafias
    3. Successful, ultra-feminist women
  26. “Elvis’s Twin Sister”
    1. Shows another presley life – a nun unusually sexually provocative, who embodies her brother’s short life  
  27. “Pope Joan”
    1. female who reigns and leads the Church, loses faith in God
    2. However, she sensed that she was the closest to God when she gave birth to her child due to the corruption of men in the church
  28. “Penelope”
    1. This is about the loss of love for a person over time and the growth of self-confidence and self-acceptance
    2. Story of Penelope in Homer’s Odyssey when he leaves on adventures without her, he left for three years, she remained faithful.
  29. “Mrs Beast”
    1. Beauty of women, sacrificing of women to society’s standards,
    2. Female characters taking control of their sexuality in an aggressive manner
    3. Taking control of their destinies
    4. A culmination attempt – towards the end, a big epic poem (self referential)
  30. “Demeter”
    1. The positive changes a daughter has to her hopeless father
    2. She inspires the re-awakening of life.
    3. Admired by mother nature and by all men

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