Mrs Midas Flashcards
I’d just poured a glass of wine, begun to unwind’
The internal rhyme and the enjambment echo her relaxation.
‘relaxed its steamy breath gently blanching the windows’
The personification of the kitchen shows how at ease it is.
‘So…Now…And then’
These all sound like she’s telling us a story, conversational.
‘the dark of the ground seems to drink the light of the sky’
this is foreshadowing - her own life is about to lose its light and happiness
‘He sat in the chair like a king on a burnished throne’
Mr Midas is acting superior to her
‘I served up the meal’
She is trying to carry on the routines as nornal but she is expected to be like a servant now
‘he picked up the glass, golden chalice, drank’
This is the actual change taking place, from ordinary object to turned to gold. The alliteration emphasises the stages of the change.
‘He’ and ‘Him.’
The detached third person and the accusing ‘Him’ show her anger towards her husband
‘It feeds no one… slakes no thirst’
This underlines how Mr Midas will die as a result of his wish
‘Separate beds. In fact I put a chair against my door, near petrified’
This shows her detachment and how frightened she is of him now. ‘Petrified’ means turned to stone, just like he is turning everything to gold.
‘turning the spare room into the tomb of Tutankamun’
Mrs Midas keeps a sense of humour, shown by the internal rhyme. Tutankhamun was a very wealthy Egyptian king who was mummified and his death mask (sarcophagus) was solid gold.
‘its perfect ore limbs’
Mrs Midas longs to care for a child but just as ore is not pure gold, so too will she never be a real mother but can only dream of being one
‘the woman who married the fool who wished for gold’
the third person point of view here makes it sound like people are gossiping about her cruelly.
‘Pure selfishness’
This sums up her anger about him
‘I miss most, even now, his hands, his warm hands on my skin, his touch’
The repetition adds in another thing that she missed -the heat- of him being close to her. Her last word is ‘touch’ showing how much she longs for their intimacy again.
