How Does Pugh Explore The Relationship Between Men And Women

Compare the way Duffy and Pugh explore relationships between men and women.

In their work, Duffy uses her poetry to give a voice to what she believes are the under-appreciated sex as she slanders men for their anti-feminist ways whereas Pugh crafts her poems with a sense of equality between both genders, somewhat stating that men and woman can be hard done by by the society they are a part of. In the Haggard and the Falconer Pugh presents a falconer, a symbol for men, who is depicted to be attempting to tame a Haggard. In the works of Shakespeare Haggards were presented as women who were unable to be tamed and attained by a man, Pugh uses this endless inability to tame to show how male and female relationships work- the man asserts his position

in order for a female to uphold hers. Whereas in Duffy’s work she is consistently pointing out the flaws in men and giving her female personas a voice, for example in Mrs. Aesop in which she uses his fables as a method of attack and Mrs. Midas who is shown to suffer for her husbands greed. All of the three poems discuss the imbalance of power and how women require a sense of independence and in wanting to achieve that sometimes take revenge on their men.

The poem of ‘Mrs.

Aesop’ depicts a marriage in which the female feels trapped, this is evident in the opening line, ‘By Christ, he could bore for purgatory.’ The use of words selected by Duffy highlights the entrapment felt by the persona, furthermore suggesting the male was dominant in the relationship and the use of modern idioms suggest how long this has been going on as Mr. Aesop told fables many centuries ago. Through the use of internal rhyme, ‘didn’t prepossess…to impress’, we get the sense that there is a lot of resentment within the marriage as some may interpret this line to be a shaming in regards to his sexual ability- this is previously hinted at previously as it is stated ‘He was small’, a reference to his love making skills and his need to over-compensate for not being well endowed. The poem continues with the persona of Mrs. Aesop contorting Mr. Aesop’s famous fables and using them as a weapon of battle, ‘the bird in his hand shat on his sleeve’ moreover highlights her absolute bitterness towards

him.

In a similar way Pugh explores how a male attempting to enforce dominance in the world affects the women, presenting the idea that the hawk and the Haggard may be a representation of the different women in society. Unlike the Haggard who refuses to be tamed, “a haggard is a hawk that takes no partner”, there are hawks in the world who will succumb to a man’s power by submitting to them, “she’ll fly for him // for her own pleasure”. Pugh challenges the reader with a very powerful question, are Haggards in the wrong for denying a man control over them or are they in truth right in their actions as the man is simply trying to force them into their place- asserting his power over them. This is only confirmed in Mrs. Midas as due to his selfish choices, the woman has had to suffer an endless and slow life- “And then I came home – the woman who married the fool.” She is trapped in this lifestyle by no mistake of her own but simply because she fell for a man who was not happy with the power he already had and therefore demanded more.

In addition to this the use of the persona’s metaphors and similes further iterates her distress when describing the events of their ‘appalling evening stroll’ she describes a creeping tortoise as moving ‘slow like marriage’.

These depict a sense of not only entrapment but also just how tainted the marriage has become, going out with your other half is supposed to be joyous but for her ‘going out was worse’ and this shows how the entrapment and dismay with the marriage is continuous. Pugh portrays a failing marriage in a similar way as even the most enjoyable parts of marriage, sex, the persona’s wife attempts to escape by ‘lay[ing] unmoved, watching him// under her eyelids.’ The persona’s wife, the Haggard, has resorted to deceiving her husband so that she may, ‘when he has gone…ecstasies’. This constant deception on her behalf signifies the breakdown of their marriage, the sexual imagery articulating how selfish the ‘Haggard’ has become as she only wants to keep the pleasure to

herself.

Duffy uses the mythological story of King Midas and recrafts it into a dark satirical poem which gives a voice to women who are affected due to the greed of men and how their greed affects the relationship between men and woman. The poem starts by establishing Autumn time through the personification of the kitchen, ‘relaxed in itself- steamy breathe.” Through the personification of the kitchen we get a sense of a domestic marriage where the woman remains in the kitchen, the poem starting off in an Autumn setting is significant as it is symbolic of the change that is coming, ‘snapping the twig’. The snapping of the twig is Duffy using pathetic fallacy to portray the cusp of winter, in other words, the coming of change. At first Duffy presents the persona as seeing the beauty in things, ‘glass, goblet, golden chalice’, all of which were enhanced by alliteration to show how quickly and powerful the change was. Upon realisation of what was happening the persona’s view subverts almost instantly, ‘I poured with shaking hands//…I started to scream’. This is when the reader becomes aware that there is a rift forming, she begins to fear him as she realises just what he’s done, this then impacts him as due to her fearing him he falls into despair, he knows the consequence of his actions; ‘he sank to his knees’. This highlights the love that was once present in the relationship, and will still be present later on in the poem but how the hardships are causing them to stir. Although Duffy supports pro-woman ideas, in this poem there is the suggestions that not all marriages are corrupt as this one has a true representation of love throughout it, as even in the end, she would still ‘long for his touch’- she craves what will kill her, despite their love, there is no happy ending.

Duffy continues showing the sudden changes the persona and her husband have to undertake, ‘locked the cat in the cellar. Moved the phone’ all of which suggest he is beginning to lose everything he once had due to his greed. This relationship is then put on the rocks as she reflects on his actions: ‘That was the last straw. What gets me now is not the idiocy or greed//but lack of thought for me.” The use of enjambment suggests that the persona was fixated upon greed for a very long time but then finally realised that wasn’t what bothered her, but instead it was his lack of compassion. An alternative reading to this poem could have the reader believing that the “wish for gold” is a symbol of cheating because he had gold but he wanted more. His greed, his longing for another woman may have led him to lose his wife and his home- forcing him to move out of their home. In a similar way Pugh also presents a man who is greedy in his ways as even though he has a wife, the Haggard, he is still out attempting to tame other hawks and entertains them when he should be entertaining his wife, ‘they’re a team”, “save//her meat for him”. This could be interpreted as another woman is saving herself for this falconer and his disregard for his wife has caused her to become selfish, ‘a Haggard// is a hawk that takes no partner//and shares nothing.” The line ‘and shares nothing’ could be a way of saying the wife doesn’t like sharing her husband with other men, and so has resorted to torturing him just as he ‘sits up and starves’ other women to tame and force them into submission.

In conclusion both Duffy and Pugh present woman after marriage as trapped and repressed. They enter marriage in love and happiness but due to the actions of the man a breakdown begins to occur, leading them to be untamed and repressed- causing them to hit out at their spouses just like Mrs. Aesop and the Haggard did. They both also depict that there are different types of women, as Mrs. Aesop is bored out of her mind with her husband whereas Mrs. Midas is still in love with her husband, however resents him- just as Pugh presented different women, the ones who can’t be tamed and the others who submit and aim to please the male.