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Analysis Of The Book ' Little Red Cap '

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Introduction In the World’s Wife Carol Ann Duffy gives a voice to the imagined wives - some fiction, others real - history long forgot or never gave a thought too. Duffy surgically dissects the quintessential homogeneous relationship of husband and wife. A recurring motif of marriage being exposed for all it’s foibles and weaknesses is expressed throughout the collection. It would be a misconception to suggest Duffy’s focus is the not hetrosexual relationship, though other forms are explored. These include: God, mother and daughter, female friends and lovers, her relationship with the self as well as her first love: literature. Relationships tend to come in three modes: the good (Anne Hathaway), the bad (Little Red Cap) and the downright ugly (Mrs Beast). This essay will explore the themes and motifs duffy exploits and question impression left by the collection. Little Red Cap In Little Red Cap the protagonist embarks on her personal journey from an impressionable innocent child to an independant accomplished woman. Endeavoring to escape the expectations of a predictable life at ‘the factory’ (Duffy, 2015, p2-3) and ‘allotments’ Red Cap ventures - perhaps naively - into a hetrosexual relationship with a wolf. The wolf plays the villain of the revisionist fairy tale and is an allegory to the alpha male trope. Duffy states “it’s based on my own first love, first relationship” (Brown, 2005) therefore this is an autobiographical view of her own experience. We soon learn

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