My Rival's House (Carol Ann Duffy) - Poetry Analysis

My Rival's House - Carol Ann Duffy

is peopled with many surfaces.

Ormolu and gilt, slipper satin,

lush velvet couches,

cushions so stiff you can't sink in.

Tables polished clear enough to see distortions in.

We take our shoes off at her door,

shuffle stocking-soled, tiptoe – the parquet floor

is beautiful and its surface must

be protected. Dust-

cover, drawn shade,

won’t let the surface colour fade.

Silver sugar-tongs and silver salver,

my rival serves us tea.

She glosses over him and me.

I am all edges, a surface, a shell

and yet my rival thinks she means me well.

But what squirms beneath her surface I can tell.

Soon, my rival

capped tooth, polished nail

will fight, fight foul for her survival.

Deferential, daughterly, I sip

and thank her nicely for each bitter cup.

And I have much to thank her for.

This son she bore –

first blood to her –

never, never can escape scot free

the sour potluck of family.

And oh how close

this family that furnishes my rival’s place.

Lady of the house.

Queen bee.

She is far more unconscious,

far more dangerous than me.

Listen, I was always my own worst enemy.

She has taken even this from me.

She dishes up her dreams for breakfast.

Dinner, and her salt tears pepper our soup.

She won’t

give up.

Context

-Written by Liz Lochhead

-Post-modern poem, which is ambiguous in its meanings and its social context.

-The rival: assumedly the speaker’s mother in law.

Form

-No obvious rhyme pattern, and no obvious meter. The stanzas follow no set pattern.

-Caesura is a common feature throughout the poem.

-Draws on stereotypical, domineering mother in law, but instead of using it as a humorous device, she creates a more malevolent tone.

Analysis

-Caesura on the first line is unusual, and gives the poem more individual identity and character.

-Personification of surfaces:

                -‘is peopled with many surfaces’

                 -The rival is lonely, and her life is merely caring for and protecting these surfaces –
 perhaps

                in the same way she used to do to her son, and still tries to do.

                -The rival treats her family like objects – they are surfaces to be protected. This shows that

                the mother in law is trying to present a family image.

                -‘Glosses’ links to magazine ideals

                -‘Tables polished clear enough to see distortions in’ – links to trying to project a family

                image, however the fact that it is false means that it is distorted. This may also link

                to the mother in law and the speaker having distorted views of one another.

-The rival protects her son:

                -‘shuffle stocking-soled, tiptoe – the parquet floor/is beautiful and its surface must/be

                protected. Dust/cover, drawn shade,/won’t let the surface colour fade.’

                -Sibilance here, and elsewhere in the poem (esp. in the 1st stanza) add to the sense of

                opulence.

                -This again links to the rival personifying surfaces and objects to represent the son.

                Note that it is only the surface that is being protected – It does not matter that its true

                beauty does not show

                beauty does not show, or that it is getting any use; it is being protected, and this is all that

                matters to the rival.

                -The Mother in law is trying to protect these surfaces from ageing, so perhaps she is doing

                the same to the son. This plays on the stereotype of mothers who still dote on their children

                even in adulthood, showing that the rival possibly still thinks of her son as her little boy.

-The Rival is lonely:

                -At the end of the 3rd stanza, Lochhead writes ‘this family that furnishes my rival’s place’.

                However, the reader will suddenly realise that the rival has no family – there is no mention

                of her own partner, or other children, so it could be assumed that the son is the only family

                member she has left.

                -Instead, her furniture is personified into her family.

                -It becomes sad to think about the rival’s only family member being taken away by the

                speaker.

-The speaker is delicate in comparison to the rival, and their subtle fighting:

                -‘I am all edges, a surface, a shell’ – ‘Edges’ gives the idea that she is trying is trying to

                protect herself from the rival – ironic, seeing as all the rival does herself is try to protect

                others. The use of the word ‘surface’ is interesting, as other ‘surfaces’ in the poem are often

                referred to as the rivals possessions. This indicates that the speaker really does belong to

                the family that the rival heads, despite her feeling like an outsider. A ‘shell’ again indicates

                beauty on the outside, but emptiness on the inside – she is brittle, and if pressured, she

                will break.

                -‘Yet my rival thinks she means me well’ – this makes it all the worse, as the rival thinks she

                is doing what is best.

                -‘But what squirms beneath her surface I can tell’ – Squirms gives the impression of

                something evil, perhaps a snake (stereotypically known for their cunning and lies in popular

                culture). The ‘I can tell’ gives the idea that the speaker thinks she knows what is best, but is

                potentially too suspicious.

                -Use of fricatives (s, ch, sh) links to this soft, serpent sound.

                -‘Soon, my rival/capped tooth, polished nail/will fight, fight foul for her survival’ – the talk

                of teeth and nails hints at animalistic fighting, though the fact the teeth are ‘capped’ and the

                nails are ‘polished’ creates irony. The juxtaposition of the animalistic to the refined also

                creates bathos. Epizeuxis is used to emphasise the word ‘fight’.

                -‘This son she bore/first blood to her’ – this has an almost timeless sense to it, perhaps

                showing that the problems the speaker faces are ones of human nature.

                -‘never, never can escape scot free/the sour potluck of family’ – this could either be a

                reference of the rival’s frustration of the son picking a woman who was not her choice,

                or the speaker’s frustration that her partner can’t choose his mother.

-The Rival’s power:

                -Formal tea makes the speaker awkward – ‘silver sugar tongs and silver salver’.

                -‘Lady of the house’, ‘Queen bee’ – pretty self-explanatory.

                -‘She dishes up her dreams for breakfast./Dinner, and her salt tears pepper our soup’ -

                This again links back to the ideal of the perfect family, to which meals together are a must.

                She has fed her son a lifetime of meals – meals representative of ideals or ‘dreams’.

                However, to bring the speaker into the equation, the rivals dreams are now being destroyed,

                or devoured.

-The speakers power:

                -‘deferential, daughterly’ – the speaker is playing at the same game as the rival. She

                is giving a false impression of her feelings toward the rival.

                -‘thank her nicely for each bitter cup’ -  either the rival is giving each cup grudgingly, or

                the fact that the speaker is bitter towards the mother’s power.

-Themes on class:

                -The rival projects an image of superiority, something which is thoroughly middle class.

                -The image she projects is a one of a traditional, perfect family, when in actuality there are

                cracks underneath – the rival is duplicitous.

                -The decadence is false as the rival is obsessed