Compare and contrast Anne Hathaway and Frau Freud in Duffy’s

Compare and contrast Anne Hathaway and Frau Freud in Duffy’s

collection The World’s Wife

There are both similarities and contrasts between ‘Anne Hathaway’ and

‘Frau Freud ‘One of the mail similarities between the two poems are

the sexual references in both poems , the structure of the poems and

that they are both written in a women’s voice.

One of the main similarities between the poems is that they are both

written by wives of two very famous men, William Shakespeare and

Sigmund Freud.

There are also similarities in the fact that there are sexual

references in both of the poems. In ‘Anne Hathaway’ she uses these

sexual connotations as a way of explaining why Shakespeare did leave

her the second best bed.

“The bed we loved in was a spinning world/of forests, castles,

torchlight, clifftops, seas/where he would dive for peals.”

In ‘Frau Freud’ the poem contains a list of euphemism for penises that

men use. Duffy or Frau Freud uses these synonyms to completely debunk

Freud theories with this list that brings the readers attention to

Freud’s theories of the male obsession with the penis.

The women in the two poems both enjoy sex, Anne Hathaway comments on

how she and her husband shared their love with their actions and

words. In ‘Frau Freud’ she also says that she enjoys sex “I’m as au

fait with hunt-the-salami/as Ms M. Lewinsky"

Another similarity between the two poems is that they are both written

in sonnet form. They both contain fourteen lines and are written as a

sonnet for two specific reasons. ‘Anne Hathaway’ is written in sonnet

form because it was Shakespeare’s most famous and memorable form of

expression. Duffy also used as a way of keeping Anne Hathaway’s love

for her husband alive ...

... middle of paper ...

...igraph to the

poem is an extract from Shakespeare’s will which supposedly insults

Anne Hathaway, but Anne explains in her sonnet to the people outside

of their marriage that she would not want their best bed because this

was not the bed they loved each others in. “as he held me upon that

next best bed”

Overall the similarities that can be seen between the two poems are

mostly superficial comparisons and are not really relevant to the main

themes of the poems. Even the similarities have contrasts within them,

for example they are both about relations with their husbands and

their sexual relationships. But Anne Hathaway looks upon Shakespeare

with love and compassion, Frau Freud sees Freud as obsessive and has

no emotions towards him and sees sex as a merely physical activity. So

I must conclude that the poems contrast more than they are able to

compare.