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How William Shakespeare And Carol Ann Duffy's Subverting The Gender Roles Of Gender And Feminism

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Olivia Daly 12HG
T.S Eliot Prize Essay
14 October 2017

How do William Shakespeare and Carol Ann Duffy subvert traditional roles of gender and sexuality in “From Mrs Tiresias” and “Sonnet 20”?

Both Carol Ann Duffy in “From Mrs Tiresias” and William Shakespeare in “Sonnet 20” subvert male gender roles by presenting the male protagonists with physical female traits. Both poets differ in their presentation of traditional gender roles and sexuality.

In “From Mrs Tiresias”, Carol Ann Duffy subverts the gender role of men as strong masculine men, playing on the modern stereotype that men are unable to cope with the monthly trials and tribulations of being a woman. She tells us that he had to have “One week in bed. Two doctors in. Three …show more content…

Shakespeare has a highly misogynistic view of women, saying that their hearts are “acquainted With shifting change”, their eyes are “false in rolling” and he also talks about women being “false” implying deceit and an artificial façade. At the culmination of the rhyming couplet, Shakespeare comically tops his damning excoriation of women by telling us that “thy love’s use their treasure”, insinuating that women just want ‘one little thing’ rather than a soul to love endlessly. This is not subverting the traditional Elizabethan stereotype of women. By contrast, Duffy subverts these gender roles of women by highlighting that men can also act up to Shakespeare’s Elizabethan stereotype, just like Mr Tiresias is seen doing in “From Mrs Tiresias”. He is metaphorically prostituting himself; he is seen “entering glitzy restaurants on the arms of [multiple] powerful men” and while we are “sure” this is not for sexual advances, Duffy highlights the superficial nature of Mr Tiresias’ quest for notoriety. We have a complete juxtaposition between each poet and the reinforcement of gender stereotypes of the gender opposite their own; Shakespeare is renouncing women and thus highlighting the loyalty and dependability of men by using the pitfalls of women to celebrate the qualities of the Fair Youth - i.e the man he is revering- by contrast, whereas Duffy is repudiating men and accentuating the patience, kindness and supportiveness of women (Mrs Tiresias is “holding his new soft

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