Carol Ann Duffy's "Mrs Beast"

Carol Ann Duffy’s “Mrs Beast”

Context

Duffy’s poem “Mrs Beast” challenges the old story of Beauty and the Beast. In the classic version by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, titled La Belle et La Bête, Belle is a simple country girl who must stay with the Beast because her father had promised that she would visit after he was caught stealing the Beast’s roses. The young girl, like in the Disney movie, comes to learn that the Beast is a gentle, kind-hearted prince and falls for him. In this story, Belle is transferred from her father to a new husband with very little agency. Duffy flips this story on its head by presenting Belle as an older, more experienced woman who arrives at the house of the Beast and finds he will do anything for her. She thinks of other famous women who have suffered in a male-world and suggests that women find themselves a beast rather than a man.

The poem is a dramatic monologue, like many of the poem’s in Duffy’s collection which does not follow any strict form, meter, or rhyme.

These myths going round, these legends, fairytales,

I’ll put them straight; so when you stare

Into my face – Helen’s face, Cleopatra’s,

Queen of Sheba’s, Juliet’s – then, deeper,

Gaze into my eyes – Nefertiti’s, Mona Lisa’s,

Garbo’s eyes - think again. The Little Mermaid slit

Her shining, silver tail in two, rubbed salt

Into that stinking wound, got up and walked,

In agony, in fishnet tights, stood up and smiled, waltzed,

All for a Prince, a pretty boy, a charming one

Who’d dump her in the end, chuck her, throw her overboard.

I could have told her – look, love, I should know,

They’re bastards when they’re Princes.

What you want to do is find yourself a beast. The sex

Intertextuality: All the women mentioned in the first verse are renowned for their beauty. The Queen of Sheba was the ruler of the Shebans famed for her beauty who married and bore a child with King Solomon in the Bible; Cleopatra was the last Egyptian pharaoh whilst Nerfititi was the wife of a pharaoh; the beautiful Helen of Troy was the subject of dispute causing the Trojan War; Juliet is the feminine protagonist from Shakespeare’s play; Greta Garbo was a famous Hollywood actress; and the Mona Lisa was the subject of DaVinci’s painting. Duffy immediately refers to the women of “legends, fairytales,” and myths. However, Mrs Beast says “[she]’ll put [the stories] straight”, exposing the stereotypical figures of these stories and setting the tone for the poem. All of these women are patriarchal constructs and the objects of male desire, but the strong Mrs Beast, indicated through her imperative “think again,” refuses to be one of these women.

In Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid, she wants to be a human to be with a prince; after making a deal with a witch, she is granted this wish but every time she takes a step, she must endure great pain. In the end, the prince marries another woman and the little mermaid turns into sea foam. Mrs Beast alludes to this original story.

What is the effect of the imagery when describing the Little Mermaid’s tale before she turned into a human for a man?

What is the effect of the sibilance in this context?

What could “stinking wound” be a metaphor for?

This is obviously a play on words, given that she was a mermaid, like a fish woman, but what connotations might “fishnet tights” have? Why is this significant?

Do the plosive /b/ and /p/ sounds have any particular effect here?

How do these metaphors add to the content?

Duffy alludes to the fairy tale idea of Prince Charming, but provides the central message to the poem after.

Is better. Myself, I came to the House of the Beast

No longer a girl, knowing my own mind,

My own gold stashed in the bank,

My own black horse at the gates

Ready to carry me off at one wrong word,

One false move, one dirty look.

But the Beast fell to his knees at the door

To kiss my glove with his mongrel lips – good –

Showed by the tears in his bloodshot eyes

That he knew he was blessed – better –

Didn’t try to conceal his erection,

Size of a mules – best. And the Beast

Watched me open, decant and quaff

A bottle of Château Margaux ’54,

The year of my birth, before he lifted a paw.

What is the impact of the enjambment and open stanzas? Why might challenging the rigid structures and opening up aid in subverting classical feminine performances?

How does Duffy subvert the traditional story of Beauty and the Beast? Think about the language as well as the structure.

What effect does the anaphora (repeating words or phrases at the beginning of sentences/clauses) have here? How does Mrs Beast subvert classical ideas of feminine performance?

Try saying that five times fast! Is there any effect from these sounds?

Mrs Beast implies that her horse is ready to take her, or she is ready to leave, if Mr Beast makes one mistake. How does this characterise her? How does she differ to other women in this collection of poems? Additionally, does parallelism have any particular effect within its context?

How is the Beast characterized by his actions?

What tone does Mrs Beast’s description of his lips achieve?

How do the growing adjectives, from simple adjective to comparative to superlative, add to the characterization of Mrs Beast?

How does the Beast’s physical prowess and power juxtapose his behaviour? Is his performance more (classically) masculine or feminine? Conversely, is Mrs Beast’s behaviour more masculine or feminine?

Is there any effect of the alliteration of the plosive /b/?

I’ll tell you more. Stripped of his muslin shirt

And his corduroys, he steamed in his pelt,

Ugly as sin. He had the grunts, the groans, the yelps,

The breath of a goat. I had the language, girls.

The lady says Do this. Harder. The lady says

Do that. Faster. The lady says That’s not where I meant.

At last it all made sense. The pig in my bed

Was invited. And if his snout and trotters fouled

My damask sheets, why, then, he’d wash them. Twice.

Meantime, here was his horrid leather tongue

To scour between my toes. Here

Were his hooked and yellowy claws to pick my nose,

If I wanted that. Or to scratch my back

Till it bled. Here was his bullock’s head

To sing off-key all night where I couldn’t hear.

Here was a bit of him like a horse, a ram,

An ape, a wolf, a dog, a donkey, dragon, dinosaur.

The use of rhyme indicates Mrs Beast is not done and must continue.

What is the impact of this beastial imagery?

To what extent does the consonance of the hard /g/ sound add to this section? What is the effect?

What is the effect of the use of juxtaposition here? How does it impact the poem as a whole?

This addresses a feminine audience directly.

How does Mrs Beast contrast other feminine characters from Duffy’s collection? How does she subvert classical roles and feminine performance? What examples can you see in this section?

To what extent is the Beast’s physicality masculine but his subservient performance classically feminine? What examples can you find?

Notice the use of asyndeton to list animals (fictional and real) to describe the beast. Here, the conjunctions have been removed, making the language more uncivilised. How is this in harmony with the content?

Need I say more? On my poker nights, the Beast

Kept out of sight. We were a hard school, tough as fuck,

All of us beautiful and rich – the Woman

Who Married a Minotaur, Goldilocks, the Bride

Of the Bearded Lesbian, Frau Yellow Dwarf, et Moi.

I watched those wonderful women shuffle and deal –

Five and Seven Card Stud, Sidewinder, Hold ‘Em, Draw –

How does the speaker’s use of hypophora help to characterise her?

Again, look for ways Mrs Beast subverts classical gender performances. Traditionally, “poker nights” would be seen as something masculine.

Conversely, once again, look for how the Beast subverts classical masculine performance.

These allusions to other fairy tale characters, in some way, subvert traditional feminine storylines. The Minotaur in Greek mythology was a half human, half bull beast, and so to marry it would not be becoming of a traditional, feminine lady. Goldilocks broke into people’s houses and stole their stuff! Frau the Yellow Dwarf killed princesses! The “Bride of the Bearded Lesbian” subverts heteronormative sexuality. This band of female subversives are depicted as being a bit like gangsters, “tough as fuck” and “hard school,” whilst still remaining “beautiful.”

Does this alliteration of the /w/ sound have any particular effect within this context?

I watched them bet and raise and call. One night,

A head-to-head between Frau Yellow Dwarf and Bearded’s Bride

Was over the biggest pot I’d seen in my puff.

The Frau had the Queen of Clubs on the baize

And Bearded the Queen of Spades. Final card. Queen each.

Frau Yellow raised. Bearded raised. Goldilocks’ eyes

Were glued to the pot as though porridge bubbled there.

The Minotaur’s wife lit a stinking cheroot. Me,

I noticed the Frau’s hand shook as she placed her chips.

Bearded raised her final time, then stared,

Stared so hard you felt your dress would melt

If she blinked. I held my breath. Frau Yellow

Swallowed hard, then called. Sure enough, Bearded flipped

Her Aces over; diamonds, hearts, the pubic Ace of Spades.

And that was a lesson learnt by all of us –

The drop-dead gorgeous Bride of the Bearded Lesbian didn’t bluff.

Does Mrs Beast’s use of polysyndeton have a specific effect in this context when describing the women’s poker game?

The cards all the women play are Queens instead of Kings, emphasising feminine power. The Ace of Spades might also be read as a signifier for female genitalia.

The cigar is a phallic symbol which can signify masculinity. It is just one more way that the women subvert classical feminine performance.

Mrs Beast’s use of hyperbole similarly evokes masculinity, as men might boast or overemphasise.

There is definitely a sexual subtext to this poker game.

Does any of the alliteration in the final line of this stanza have any particular effect within the context?

Significantly, the Bride of the Bearded Lesbian wins, underscoring the rejection of the traditional heterosexual relationships in the poem.

But behind each player stood a line of ghosts

Unable to win. Eve, Ashputtel. Marilyn Monroe.

Rapunzel slashing wildly at her hair.

Bessie Smith unloved and down and out.

Bluebeard’s wives, Henry VIII’s, Snow White

Cursing the day she left the seven dwarfs, Diana,

Princess of Wales. The sheepish Beast came in

With a tray of schnapps at the end of the game

And we stood for the toast – Fay Wray –

Then tossed our fiery drinks to the back of our crimson throats.

Bad girls. Serious ladies. Mourning our dead.

What is the implied meaning in the metaphor “ghosts / unable to win” referring to the women which follow, which are respectfully acknowledged by the poker players?

More allusions: Eve refers to the Biblical Eve, as in Adam and Eve, who is blamed for original sin; Ashputtel is from another of the Grimm Tales, similar to Cinderella; Marilyn Monroe is a famous 60s Hollywood icon who was fetishsized by men and died early; Rapunzel is another fairytale icon as is Snow White; Bluebeard the pirate and Henry VIII’s wives all met deaths as a result of their husband, and Princess Diana was apparently treated pretty poorly by her husband and also died early.

How might “sheepish Beast” be read as an oxymoron and what effect does this have?

Vina Fay Wray was an actress best remembered for starring as Ann Darrow in the 1933 film King Kong. However, she was really limited as an actress in this movie to simply screaming as a damsel in distress

What is the impact of this imagery? Why is it significant?

Think about this… What might be important about the phrase “bad girls” and “serious ladies”? How does Duffy take these phrases, which might be misogynistic, and repurpose them?

So I was hard on the Beast, win or lose,

When I got upstairs, those tragic girls in my head,

Turfing him out of bed; standing alone

On the balcony, the night so cold I could taste the stars

On the tip of my tongue. And I made a prayer –

Thumbing my pearls, the tears of Mary, one by one,

Like a rosary – words for the lost, the captive beautiful,

The wives, those less fortunate than we.

The moon was a hand-mirror breathed on by a Queen.

My breath was a chiffon scarf for an elegant ghost.

I turned to go back inside. Bring me the Beast for the night.

Bring me the wine-cellar key. Let the less-loving one be me.

Could this be a double entendre?

Mrs Beast thinks about all of those women who are mistreated or abused in relationships; in performing a masculine role, her actions where she “[is] hard on the Beast” and “turfing him out of bed” might even reflect the ways men treat women when they are upset.

This cold reflects Mrs Beast’s own feelings towards the Beast.

Does the alliterative /t/ sound add anything to the section?

This has a sexual subtext which may imply masturbation, emphasizing Mrs Beast’s independance, but also with homosexual undertones.

One of the central subjects of this poem.

Feminine imagery to conclude the poem, juxtaposing earlier masculine references and emphasising Mrs Beast’s femininity despite masculine performances.

Through the anaphora of “bring me” the Beast is associated with a bottle of wine and thus just an object.

The last few words are also an iconic reference to a line in the W.H. Auden poem “The More Loving One.” Duffy reverses the sentiment, replacing ‘more” with “less”, emphasizing Mrs Beast’s female dominance.