Medusa by Carol Ann Duffy

The poem 'Medusa' by Carol Ann Duffy explores a series of important themes: jealousy, power, loss and betrayal. The speaker compares frustration, anger and loneliness with the story of Medusa in Greek mythology where her actions subsequently affected her physical features. In the case of the poem, her thoughts and bitterness affected her looks.

The first stanza starts with the speaker describing her emotions, ' a suspicion, a doubt, a jealousy'. This sets up the theme of jealousy and loss in the poem. Using triplet words to convey her feelings amplifies the negative context all the words possess, emphasizing the extent of her unhappiness. She states that these three emotions are 'growing in her mind'; portraying that they are going to build up as the poem develops. These feelings then change her physical features, 'which turned the hairs on my head to filthy snakes'. This is a direct connection to Medusa in Greek mythology; her beauty was taken away from her as a consequence of her actions. The speaker uses metaphors to emphasize the transformation, 'my thoughts hissed and spat on my scalp', the sibilance mimics the sounds the snakes would be making, allowing the line to become more fluid.

The speaker describes her transformation further in the next paragraph, suggesting that she is starting to rot. She goes into detailed descriptions of her smells that are present in the transformation, 'soured, foul, stank'. All these words suggest a rancid unpleasant smell, conveying great discomfort and disgust. The speaker uses imagery to convey the extent of the decaying, 'I'm foul mouthed now, foul tonged yellow fanged', literally referring to her mouth being dirty and decomposing. Her strong imagery and metaphors connote immense pain, 'there a bullet tears in my eyes'. The word 'bullet' suggests coldness and contrast like Medusa's stone eyes.

The third stanza differs to the two previous ones. The speaker starts it with a statement; a response to the question asked in the previous paragraph, 'Be terrified.' We can see this as almost a threat to her husband. It also suggests the amount of power she has - commanding him to fear her. In the following line, 'it's you I love', the 'you' makes this stanza more personal than the rest, as it is directed straight at a specific man. The speaker compares her husband to ' the perfect man, Greek God, my own'. The word 'my' suggests possession; almost to state the fact that she owns him. The positive words she uses to describe her husband show us the extent of her admiration to him, making the tone more cheerful. In contrast, the next line, 'I know you'll go, betray me, stray from home' relates the idea that she is insecure, is suspicious of her husband being unfaithful and her jealousy earlier

mentioned in the first stanza is further developed here. ' I know' suggests a great deal of confidence; as she already has convinced herself that the accusation is true.

Medusa had the power to turn everything she looked at to stone. The speaker here makes another comparison of herself and Medusa, 'so better by far for me if you were

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