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by anel

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7,089 1,141 35 4 min 33 sec 8 min 46 sec
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79 62 62
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4 Clarity
4 Wordy sentences

Unique Words 38%

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Rare Words 43%

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Word Length 5.1

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Sentence Length 32.6

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Untitled
To what extent does Duffy’s ‘Delilah’ succeed in challenging both male and
female stereotypes?
Carol Ann Duffy’s Delilah applies the biblical tale of Samson and Delilah to
portray the complex relationship between a young man and a woman. It could
be suggested that the author depicts how society’s establishment of
sociocultural gender norms and values affects the intimate relationship
between the two. We could presume that Duffy’s adaptation of this classic tale
attempts to provoke society's restraints on both genders, its marginalization of
women, as well as its repression of female voices in literature.
We’ll begin by analyzing the male protagonist’s masculine drive to dominate.
We’re introduced to the poem by Samson’s character admiring his lover’s
compassion towards him to the extent that he momentarily seeks to restore
that tender love to Delilah. However, he soon leans away from her to fetch his
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beer which could suggest that he is uncomfortable due to the fact that he is
socially and culturally conditioned to behave apathetically towards acts of
romance and therefore avoids committing to his prior yearning to express
affection. It could be argued that the use of anaphora in the second stanza
translates to Samson’s need to reject being affiliated with conventional female
traits and therefore ends up glorifying himself by describing the numerous
battles that defined his legacy which ultimately established his worth as a
man, according to society’s standards. The verse ‘Until he was sore’ could force
us to predict that Duffy is emphasizing how inequitable the power dynamic
between the two characters is by highlighting how little the relationship is
beneficial to her since the sex act was mainly manifested through the male

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protagonist’s needs. We could propose the idea that Delilah’s passive tone
demonstrates how she is subjugated by Samson due to the fact she accepts his
domination and thus lacks boundaries which could correlate to the feminine
archetype of the mother which opposes the biblical view of Delilah who acts as
the seductress.
Moreover, in the Bible, Delilah is identified as the femme fatale who beguiles
Samson and subsequently betrays him. This female archetype is connotated
with various negative presuppositions and is recognized as being deceitful,
deviant, self-seeking, dishonest, etc. Nevertheless, it could be suggested that
Duffy’s modernized narrative enables us to understand Delilah’s point of view
as well as to acknowledge and critique various inexplicit female stereotypes
that we come across in literature. Perhaps we could suggest that Delilah acts
as a maternal figure, the female trope that’s heavily associated with being self-
sacrificing and unconditionally loving, since she’s concerned with Samson’s
issues and seeks to resolve them (with or without his help), this mother and
child like association could be illustrated with the verse ‘head on my lap’ which
demonstrates how intimate and confiding their relationship is. However, we
could also predict that Delilah, who cares deeply for Samson, is simultaneously
asserting female dominance by having her deconstruct masculine power and
consequently transgress conventional gender roles. This idea could be
illustrated with ‘Tell me more’ which connotates that she seeks to understand
Samson's intentions as well as the usage of ‘my warrior’ which could be
correlated with a possessive tone and reinforces this idea of female
domination.
Furthermore, in stanzas five and seven Delilah asserts how she was
responsible for cutting Samson’s power. We could suggest that she is the
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dominant voice in this story and acts as the role of the hero due to the fact that

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it was Delilah who saved Samson by committing an act that he was incapable
of even expressing without feeling resentment. We could suggest that Samson
only plays the role of the masculine epic hero to sustain the image that he was
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constrained to by society, in order to maintain social order. However, it could
interpreted that this same armor that defies his essence inflicts in him
divisions between his relationship to others as well as himself. Since Delilah
was the only one knowing of Samson’s secret, it was she alone who could
liberate him. This idea could be illustrated through the final verse’s usage of the
term ‘lock’ implying that she is releasing Samson by cutting his hair which
enables him to relinquish his power and thus his conventional masculine
identity. At the end of the poem, we can observe that Delilah is certain about
committing her action, yet she simultaneously feels passionate and immense
emotions when liberating her lover, which opposes Samson's character who
systematically only experiences praise from the public’s eye. We could suggest
that Delilah’s passions are far more complex and derive from her yearning to
help liberate her lover whilst Samson’s acts of heroism, which consist of
battling against his enemies, are rooted in a force of habitude that he was
accustomed to. However, in both the bible and Duffy’s contemporary narrative,
Delilah snips bits of Samson’s hair as soon as he becomes trusting and
vulnerable with her which in the poem correlates to when Samson becomes
weaker in his sleep. The verse ‘Darkening hour’ could imply that Samson is
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transitioning out of his harmful masculine identity and is in the midst of being
reincarnated. Additionally, Delilah narrates her story and throughout the poem,
we follow her inner monologue, yet Samson is simultaneously given a voice. The
poem’s foundation is based on Samson’s inner struggles with the role he was
conditioned to play as well as how isolated and repressed he feels from it. We
could presume that the employment of the term ‘cure’ implies that Samson’s

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role as the masculine figure is unhealthy. However, even though this is Delilah’s
story, she chooses to let the reader acknowledge Samson’s intentions and
fears, she does not want to disregard Samson’s character and perceive him
simply as an extension of herself, unlike the majority of classic romance fiction
as well as various other forms of media where the female supporting character
symbolizing a certain archetype is often overlooked as well as silenced and
merely serves to reflect the protagonist’ power and status.
As for my conclusion, I believe that Delilah is heroic. Her actions were brave
and selfless, her motives were complex and behind this act of bravery stood a
great deal of not just love but passion towards Samson who depended on
Delilah to liberate her. Although I’ve vaguely established that Delilah acts the
maternal trope, I believe that Duffy intended to form Delilah as a human who
does not fit a particular trope since we can observe that we get glimpses of her
heroic side as well as her motherly side. Humans are complex and do not fit a
singular stereotype, they exist in us various identities. The poem is intimate not
only because we get to perceive the private relationship between the couple
but also because Delilah as well as Samson are realistic and define what it is to
be human.

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1. due to the fact that → because, since Wordy sentences Clarity

2. due to the fact that → because, since Wordy sentences Clarity

3. in order to → to Wordy sentences Clarity

4. in the midst of Wordy sentences Clarity

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