Mrs Midas (Duffy) Flashcards
(10 cards)
Context
Mrs Midas
In the original Greek myth, King Midas is granted the power to turn everything he touches into gold. In Mrs Midas, this fantastical idea is reimagined in a modern, realistic setting: Mrs Midas’ husband gains the same ability, but rather than bringing wealth or happiness, it leads to the breakdown of their marriage. Fearing for her safety, Mrs Midas is forced to exile him to the forest. As with many poems in The World’s Wife, Duffy subverts traditional narratives by focusing solely on the inner life of the woman. She also challenges conventional portrayals of female sexuality, openly acknowledging that women have physical desires too.
Comparison and contrast with my last duchess
Mrs Midas
Both male characters destroy relationships through obsession (Midas with wealth, and the duke with control)
Critiques of materialism and the value placed on possessions (duchess is part of his collection, midas ruins relationship with his curse (which materialises everything))
Contrasting use of setting, in Mrs Midas, the use of a domestic setting is distorted by myth, in MLD formal setting to reflect control and power
Comparison and contrast with Porphyrias lover
Mrs Midas
Both explore character transformations through desire, male hubris and destruction; choices which destroy intimacy
Contrasting voice and control; Mrs midas speaks out and leaves, Porphyria is silenced and erased
A tocatta of gallupis
In A Toccata of Galuppi’s, Robert Browning presents a dramatic monologue from the perspective of a Victorian speaker reflecting on an 18th-century Venetian toccata by composer Baldassare Galuppi. As the speaker listens to the music, he imagines the lives of the Venetians who once danced to it—superficially vibrant yet spiritually hollow. Though initially detached and slightly condescending, the speaker gradually becomes introspective, meditating on mortality, the fleeting nature of pleasure, and the inevitability of death. Browning contrasts the enduring power of art with the transience of human life, using musical structure, historical imagination, and irony to explore deeper existential anxieties beneath the ornate surface of both the toccata and 18th-century society.
Key quotes
Mrs Midas
“he plucked/ a pear from a branch. – we grew Fondante d’Automne –/and it sat in his palm, like a lightbulb. On.”
“He sat in the chair like a king on a burnished throne”
“we were passionate then,/ in those halcyon days, unwrapping each other rapidly/ like presents, fast food”
“and who, when it comes to crunch, can live with a heart of gold”
“we all have wishes; granted/ but who has wishes granted”
“ I miss most,
even now, his hands, his warm hands on my skin, his touch”
“He sat in the chair, like a king on a burnished throne”
Regal simile, to portray his enjoyment of his power, but also highlights his detachment from reality and his foolishness, he sits on the throne as though he isa king, showing how the materialism has tranformed him,and is the male hubris which leads to the corruption of love
(comparison with my last duchess)
“we were passionate then,/ in those halcyon days, unwrapping each other rapidly/ like presents, fast food”
laments the time lost when their marriage had a sexual spark, comparison and similie to ‘fast food’ implies satisfaction and disposal, critique of how love has been corrupted by greed.
Similarly in ‘A tocatta of gallupis’ it also laments transience, both mediate on mortality and the ephemeral nature of pleasure
“we all have wishes; granted/ but who has wishes granted”
Repetition used to emphasise disappointment and disbelief with her situation, and the fact that her husband both wished for this curse, and that it was granted. she is trying to come to terms with this impossible situation. Once again displaying the destructive nature of patriarchal society.
Similar use of repetition in Porphyrias lover to achieve the same effect
“No pain felt she,/ I am quite sure she felt no pain”
“and who, when it comes to crunch, can live with a heart of gold”
Rhetorical question encapsulates the poems central theme, subverting the normal meaning of heart of gold, humanity becomes lifeless in the pursuit of wealth, criticising the disjointed nature of the patriarchy, how the men are so busy chasing dreams of wealth that they are neglecting humanity, punishing their wives in the process. (similar message to mrs sisyphus)
“I miss most,
even now, his hands, his warm hands on my skin, his touch.”
Use of asyndetic listing to show MrsMidas remembering their once full relationship and
mourns the loss of the
physical intimacy they once shared. Repetition of
“hands” emphasises that his
touch and their intimacy is
now lost to her - unlike
human contact, gold is cold
and hard. Again, compares nicely to the themes in mrs sisyphus
