The character being focused on is Eve from the biblical story of Adam and Eve. The poem will be written as a dramatic monologue from Eve's perspective to give her a voice and allow her to share her side of the story. It will subvert the traditional portrayal of Eve by suggesting Adam was equally or more so at fault for their actions. The poem aims to challenge the reader's perceptions and sympathize with Eve rather than blame her entirely as she has been in the biblical story. It references other myths and poems of Carol Ann Duffy to emulate her style through themes, symbols, and techniques used.

1. RECREATIVE COURSEWORK PLAN<br />Character: The character I’ve chosen to focus on is Eve from the biblical story of Adam and Eve because she is a woman who has been completely obscured by her partner Adam, and has had no true voice – so this poem was written with the intention of giving her that voice. The biblical story’s main focus was always on Adam, his deeds and actions whereas Eve was only paid attention to because of her function of childbearing. This poem digs in a little deeper and explores her side of the story and what she may have thought of it all.<br />Form: It will be written in a dramatic monologue, in the first person because all of the poems in Duffy’s collection The World’s Wife are written in this manner. This makes it feel more personal to the reader, direct and targeting them so they are forced to sit up and pay attention to the words; and rather than speaking to one person, her intended audience appears to be the whole of humanity – at least, if they care to listen.<br />Subverting the gender role and traditional depiction of character: Eve’s typical portrayal is that of a subdued woman. Created from Adam’s rib, she was made for the original purpose of ensuring that he would not be lonely and then repaid her creator, instead of gratitude, by rebelling and eating from the tree of knowledge and enticing Adam to join in her in sin in doing so which is why ever after she has been credited with ‘original sin’. It was her fault. She is the reason humans were expelled from Paradise, were cursed and she is said to be the cause of women suffering the inconveniences and pains of menstruation and childbirth as punishment. <br />This is being subverted as you shall see her for the first time speaking out about her side of the story and being given the chance to tell what really happened, or at least what she says happened. Previously it was believed that it was Eve who gave in to temptation first. In this poem we see that this is not the case – Adam was fully aware of what she was doing, he helped her climb up the tree and put all the blame on her afterwards. <br />This engages the audience because it is challenging their traditional perception of her as she and they find out that in fact, the joke was on her. So not only does the fault seem to lie more equally with the both of them, it’s almost entirely shifted over to Adam. She feels victimised, targeted and this helps the audience to sympathise with her much easier than they might have based merely on the biblical version of events. The ending also challenges the reader’s perception because the majority of the audience will if believing in the biblical story take it as a given that Eve gave birth to children because that was her role to further the human race and that was what God created her for – but according to her, it was a complete accident after becoming intoxicated for the first time. It completely belittles the meaningfulness of human life and creates a feeling of unease and unsettlement with the reader as well as shock at the unexpected revelation that in the end it was all just a drunken mistake.<br />The themes in the poem will be of religion, childbirth, science, class; these themes are also present in her other poems of Mrs Darwin, Queen Herod, There’s a reference to science and evolution theory disguised as an insult as she calls him a ‘chimp’ who took her for a monkey. There’s a double meaning in her words, referring to both evolutionary theory as well as insulting him and showing that she is aware of how he manipulated his version of events to favour him. Similarities to other Duffy poems: the poem will be imitating the style of Duffy. ‘Sunday’s best’ in Eve is in reference to middle class church goers on Sundays who reserve their best and most formal wear – she lost that too, her outer symbol of her religion when she lost her house and was expelled from Paradise. Her inner soul being cursed and expelled was reflected on the outside by the removal of her clothes, her house being repossessed and so on. Her insulting and dismissive way of regarding Adam is a consistent theme throughout the collection: Mrs Icarus, Mrs Darwin, Frau Freud, Eurydice etc. A house becoming repossessed indicates that you had to be rich enough to be paying a good mortgage on it – again, middle class with links to Mrs Midas, Mrs Faust and Mrs Tiresias.<br />References to other historical/biblical/religious/mythological figures: Helen of Troy, who was also used as a poster girl an excuse for grown men to go to war (the Trojan war) in which many lives were lost – all over a woman, mentioned to highlight the stupidity of men and male pride. A quote from Shakespeare, The Tempest: ‘Hell is empty, and all the devils are here’ to show the despair of having to live on earth after life in heaven, that they might as well have been sent to hell. A mention of Gabriel, a last reminder of their old heavenly life. Greek mythological figures: the titan Prometheus is mentioned as having stolen fire and teaching them both, presumably practical affairs to do with fire as how to start it and how to cook (although Adam still expects her to do that job). Dionysus is featured briefly as the one who gives Eve her first taste of intoxication, being the god of wine, the grape harvest, madness and ecstasy. <br />Common Duffy techniques used in these poems: <br />I will be using clichés such as: men not asking for directions due to their pride, ‘stand by your man’ no matter what with the idea of the female being subservient and eternally loyal to him without reason due to her irrational love. <br />Symbolism: The serpent from the biblical story is included as well as the apple as symbols of temptation. But they have been subverted – now not just temptation but representing sustenance, Eve tells that she only ate them out of hunger (though it is up to the audience how much of her story they believe). Eve’s despair and slow surrender to sin is represented by how she finds that on earth she is surrounded by the strong visual imagery ‘a thousand snakes’ let alone just the one in the beginning which led to hers and Adams’ fall.<br />Ambiguities: The ending of the poem is left open to interpretation. Eve reveals that her pregnancy was an accident as a result of intoxication caused by Dionysus, and it is unclear although implied whether or not the children are also his, or belong to Adam – again challenging audience’s expectations. In another line it says that chance and fate conspired; appearing to be an oxymoronic sentence, it means that the influence and results of free will as well as the divine plan of fate both ended up putting her on her path of staying with Adam, so it looks like she was doomed from the start because of him, and not the other way around.<br />Colloquial Language: ‘Stick that’ when she is told ‘stand by your man’ – like good advice ‘one of the girls’ might give you. It sounds youthful, a more contemporary and therefore relatable voice as it seems modern rather than one speaking in stiff stifled prose in the character of someone who would now be billions of years old.<br />Language: Alliteration in ‘Goodbye Gabriel’, adding to the musicality of the poem which is in the style of Duffy. The majority of the rhyming words end in either ‘i’ or ‘e’ vowel sounds, which are soft and drawn out sounding quite feminine; after all, Eve was the first woman and therefore she is the first to define femininity. Abstract ideas such as fate and chance are personified as they are said to have ‘conspired’. There is an end focus on the end of lines where Eve sounds particularly outraged, to add to the sense of her anger in the poem.<br />Structure: The rhymes are quite simplistic and help keep the rhythm at a fast pace. Internal rhymes are used in places, such as ‘stand by your man’ and due to repetitive words such as ‘blamed me, blamed him’ which gives the sound of assonance, adding to the musicality of the poetry. Enjambment is used frequently throughout the poem to help keep a similar number of syllables in each line, pace it more regularly and once again helps give a more musical voice to the poem. <br />