"Mrs Faust" appears in Carol Ann Duffy's collection The World's Wife (1999), which features monologues from the perspective of overlooked or invented female figures in myth, history, and literature. In this poem, Duffy imagines that Faust—a character from German folklore who makes a pact with the Devil—has a wife who's as clever and greedy as he is. Mrs. Faust's monologue charts the history of their cynical marriage, from their meeting as ambitious students through their "lifestyle" as a modern power couple. Though she's excluded from Faust's infamous deal—which grants him infinite wealth, knowledge, and pleasure in exchange for his soul—she gets the best of their partnership in the end. A modern satire of a famous medieval legend, Duffy's poem illustrates how savvy women in a patriarchal world often outplay men at their own ruthless games.
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The Full Text of “Mrs Faust”
The Full Text of “Mrs Faust”
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“Mrs Faust” Summary
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“Mrs Faust” Themes
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Materialism, Greed, and Desire
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-135
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Marriage, Gender, and Power
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-135
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Mrs Faust”
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Lines 1-5
First things first— ...
... up, hitched up, -
Lines 6-9
got a mortgage ...
... bathrobes. Hers. His. -
Lines 10-18
We worked. We ...
... was as bad. -
Lines 19-22
I grew to ...
... not the wife. -
Lines 23-27
He went to ...
... therapy, colonic irrigation. -
Lines 28-36
And Faust would ...
... meet panthers, feast. -
Lines 37-45
He wanted more. ...
... laugh aloud. -
Lines 46-54
Next thing, the ...
... Chairman. Owner. Lord. -
Lines 55-63
Enough? ...
... on the Sun. -
Lines 64-72
Then backed a ...
... like-minded Bo Peep. -
Lines 73-81
As for me, ...
... returned, enlightened. -
Lines 82-90
Turned 40, celibate, ...
... went home. -
Lines 91-99
Faust was in. ...
... the Devil's boy. -
Lines 100-108
He's on his ...
... sold my soul. -
Lines 109-117
At this, I ...
... down to Hell. -
Lines 118-126
Oh, well. ...
... to me. -
Lines 127-132
C'est la vie. ...
... I got well. -
Lines 133-135
I keep Faust’s ...
... soul to sell.
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“Mrs Faust” Symbols
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Cigars
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Lines 42-43: “I smelled cigar smoke, / hellish, oddly sexy, not allowed.”
- Line 63: “lit a fat Havana on the Sun.”
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“Mrs Faust” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Allusion
Where allusion appears in the poem:- Line 2: “I married Faust.”
- Lines 69-72: “Bought farms, / cloned sheep. / Faust surfed the Internet / for like-minded Bo Peep.”
- Lines 75-76: “saw Rome in a day, / spun gold from hay,”
- Lines 92-95: “I spent the night being pleasured / by a virtual Helen of Troy. / Face that launched a thousand ships. / I kissed its lips.”
- Lines 96-99: “Thing is— / I’ve made a pact / with Mephistopheles, / the Devil's boy.”
- Lines 100-117: “He's on his way / to take away / what's owed, / reap what I sowed. / For all these years of / gagging for it, / going for it, / rolling in it, / I've sold my soul. / At this, I heard / a serpent's hiss, / tasted evil, knew its smell, / as scaly devil hands / poked up / right through the terracotta Tuscan tiles / at Faust's bare feet / and dragged him, oddly smirking, there and then / straight down to Hell.”
- Lines 133-135: “I keep Faust’s secret still— / the clever, cunning, callous bastard / didn't have a soul to sell.”
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Irony
Where irony appears in the poem:- Lines 24-27: “I felt, not jealousy, / but chronic irritation. / I went to yoga, t'ai chi, / Feng Shui, therapy, colonic irrigation.”
- Lines 42-43: “I smelled cigar smoke, / hellish, oddly sexy, not allowed.”
- Lines 75-76: “saw Rome in a day, / spun gold from hay,”
- Lines 80-81: “went to China, Thailand, Africa, / returned, enlightened.”
- Lines 116-117: “and dragged him, oddly smirking, there and then / straight down to Hell.”
- Lines 118-135: “Oh, well. / Faust's will / left everything— / the yacht, / the several homes, / the Lear jet, the helipad, / the loot, et cet, et cet, / the lot— / to me. / C'est la vie. / When I got ill / it hurt like hell. / I bought a kidney / with my credit card, / then I got well. / I keep Faust’s secret still— / the clever, cunning, callous bastard / didn't have a soul to sell.”
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Repetition
Where repetition appears in the poem:- Line 1: “First,” “first”
- Line 4: “up,” “up”
- Line 5: “up,” “up”
- Line 10: “We,” “We”
- Line 11: “We”
- Line 12: “A”
- Line 13: “A”
- Line 18: “I”
- Line 19: “I,” “grew to love the”
- Line 20: “not the”
- Line 21: “He,” “grew to love the”
- Line 22: “not the”
- Line 23: “He”
- Line 24: “I”
- Line 26: “I”
- Line 30: “of”
- Line 31: “of”
- Line 33: “to”
- Line 34: “to,” “the”
- Line 35: “to,” “the”
- Line 42: “I”
- Line 44: “I”
- Line 67: “Faust”
- Line 68: “Faust,” “got,” “got”
- Line 77: “had”
- Line 78: “had,” “my”
- Line 79: “my”
- Line 85: “Went”
- Line 87: “went”
- Line 89: “went”
- Line 90: “went”
- Line 105: “for it”
- Line 106: “for it”
- Line 107: “it”
- Line 121: “the”
- Line 122: “the”
- Line 123: “the,” “the”
- Line 124: “the,” “et cet, et cet,”
- Line 125: “the”
- Line 130: “I”
- Line 133: “I”
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Asyndeton
Where asyndeton appears in the poem:- Lines 3-8: “We met as students, / shacked up, split up, / made up, hitched up, / got a mortgage on a house, / flourished academically, / BA. MA. Ph.D.”
- Lines 10-11: “We worked. We saved. / We moved again.”
- Lines 14-15: “The latest toys—computers, / mobile phones.”
- Lines 16-17: “Faust's face / was clever, greedy, slightly mad.”
- Lines 26-27: “I went to yoga, t'ai chi, / Feng Shui, therapy, colonic irrigation.”
- Lines 32-36: “Then take his lust / to Soho in a cab, / to say the least, / to lay the ghost, / get lost, meet panthers, feast.”
- Lines 42-43: “I smelled cigar smoke, / hellish, oddly sexy, not allowed.”
- Lines 56-63: “Faust was Cardinal, Pope, / knew more than God; / flew faster than the speed of sound / around the globe, / lunched; / walked on the moon, / golfed, holed in one; / lit a fat Havana on the Sun.”
- Lines 68-70: “Faust got in deep, got out. / Bought farms, / cloned sheep.”
- Lines 74-81: “I went my own sweet way, / saw Rome in a day, / spun gold from hay, / had a facelift, / had my breasts enlarged, / my buttocks tightened; / went to China, Thailand, Africa, / returned, enlightened.”
- Lines 82-84: “Turned 40, celibate, / teetotal, vegan, / Buddhist, 41.”
- Lines 85-90: “Went blonde, / redhead, brunette, / went native, ape, / berserk, bananas; / went on the run, alone; / went home.”
- Lines 101-103: “to take away / what's owed, / reap what I sowed.”
- Lines 105-107: “gagging for it, / going for it, / rolling in it,”
- Lines 109-111: “At this, I heard / a serpent's hiss, / tasted evil, knew its smell,”
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Idiom
Where idiom appears in the poem:- Line 1: “First things first—”
- Lines 4-5: “shacked up, split up, / made up, hitched up,”
- Line 34: “to say the least,”
- Line 35: “to lay the ghost,”
- Line 57: “knew more than God;”
- Line 68: “got in deep”
- Line 75: “Rome in a day”
- Lines 87-88: “went native, ape, / berserk, bananas;”
- Line 103: “reap what I sowed.”
- Line 105: “gagging for it,”
- Line 106: “going for it,”
- Line 107: “rolling in it,”
- Line 127: “C'est la vie.”
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“Mrs Faust” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Faust
- Shacked up
- Hitched up
- Mortgage
- BA. MA. Ph.D.
- Toweled bathrobes
- Prospered
- Mad
- Kudos
- Chronic
- Yoga, t'ai chi, Feng Shui, therapy, colonic irrigation
- Out East
- To lay the ghost
- To say the least
- Soho
- Panthers
- Study
- The Other
- Safe seat, MP
