The Full Text of “Thetis”
The Full Text of “Thetis”
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“Thetis” Introduction
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Carol Ann Duffy published "Thetis" in The World's Wife, her 1999 collection of dramatic monologues that retell famous stories and myths from the perspectives of female characters. In Greek mythology, Thetis was a sea nymph who was forced to marry the mortal Peleus, with whom she had a son (Achilles, the great hero of the Trojan War). In Duffy's poem, Thetis describes her attempts to evade Peleus's persistent advances by transforming herself into a series of animals and natural elements. Yet whatever form Thetis takes, Peleus finds a way to capture her. Through Thetis's transformations and Peleus's relentless pursuit, the poem illustrates women's adaptability as well as the pervasive nature of patriarchal oppression.
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“Thetis” Summary
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I made myself as small as a bird perched in a man's hand. I sang softly and sweetly until he squeezed me in his fist.
Then I took on the form of an albatross, or a large seabird, and flew upwards in the sky in order to follow a boat. But then he shot me with a crossbow and I could no longer fly.
So I looked for a new, more acceptable form. A women's size 8. I became a snake, but that was a huge error. While I was curled up in the lap of my snake charmer, he began to strangle my neck.
Then I became a roaring, heavy-pawed, carnivorous jungle cat with a zebra's carcass in my mouth. But with my golden eye, I spotted the man hiding in the grass with his twelve-gauge shotgun.
I sank down through the ground to swim in the ocean. I became a mermaid, a sea nymph (which is in fact what I am), a fish, an eel, a dolphin, and even a whale, the opera singer of the sea. Then the fisherman crossed the water to catch me with his hook, line, and sinker.
I tried a new tactic, transforming into small mammals like a raccoon, skunk, stoat, weasel, ferret, bat, mink, and rat. But then the taxidermist, or the man who stuffs and mounts dead animals, sharpened his knives and I could smell the foul odor of his embalming fluid, so forget that.
I became wind, gas, and hot air. The clouds became my hair. I scribbled my name in the sky using a hurricane, but then a military plane sped through out of nowhere.
Then my tongue became fire and my kisses burned, but the man I was supposed to marry wore asbestos, a toxic, flame-resistant material. So I transformed and adapted again, turning myself inside out—or at least, that's how it felt when I gave birth.
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“Thetis” Themes
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Women's Adaptability vs. Patriarchy's Persistence
The title of Carol Ann Duffy's poem refers to a sea nymph from Greek mythology who is forced to marry a mortal man, Peleus, against her will. In the poem, Thetis describes her attempts to escape Peleus's grasp by transforming herself into a series of animals and natural elements. She can never remain free for long, however, and whether she makes herself sweet and docile or fierce and ferocious, nothing she does can shake Peleus off. In reimagining Thetis's tale from the nymph's own, modernized perspective, the poem illustrates the ways in which women may adapt to survive in a patriarchal society, as well as the extent of men's violent desire for dominance.
Thetis makes herself submissive like a songbird, deadly like a lion, slippery like a snake, quick like a fish, and even "Size 8"—a reference to women’s clothing sizes and, thereby, the pressure to fit societal beauty standards. The sheer variety of Thetis's forms suggests women's adaptability: these forms are her attempts to, alternately, placate, frighten, outrun, and outwit the man who pursues her. At the same time, however, the fact that she must shuffle through so many forms in the first place reflects the overarching power of patriarchy and male oppression. Her transformations echo the ways in which women may contort themselves to carve out some power and independence within a society that seeks to control them.
Notably, the poem never refers to Peleus by name. Instead, he appears as generic male figures: the snake charmer, the hunter, the fisherman, and so forth. Peleus's persistence in pursuing Thetis thus seems to represent the broader way in which a male-dominated society consistently limits women's freedom. What's more, even as Thetis changes, Peleus develops new tactics to pursue her: he attempts to strangle the snake, to shoot the lion, to catch the fish, and so forth. In this way, the poem illustrates that patriarchy is itself slippery and adaptable, changing along with women to assert its power in new ways.
The poem ends with one final metamorphosis: Thetis becomes a mother. On one hand, this conclusion might represent yet another way in which women are trapped by patriarchy. After resisting Peleus, Thetis ultimately bears his child. On the other hand, Thetis represents childbirth as an act of transformation and adaptation—"I changed, I learned"—and therefore suggests that perhaps maternal creation in fact allows her to break free of patriarchy's hold. In other words, perhaps having a child increases Thetis’s independence because it allows her an outlet for creativity, feminine power, and love.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-48
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Motherhood
In Duffy's poem, the Greek sea nymph Thetis describes her attempts to avoid marriage to the mortal Peleus by transforming herself into a series of animals and natural elements. Over the course of the poem, Thetis takes the form of a bird, a snake, a lion, a storm, and so forth. In the poem's final stanza, Thetis transforms into a mother: "So I changed, I learned, / turned inside out—or that's / how it felt when the child burst out." This conclusion offers an ambiguous picture of motherhood. On one hand, becoming a mother seems like a violent, painful experience that forever links Thetis to Peleus and her son, the Trojan War hero Achilles. At the same time, however, the poem presents motherhood as an immensely transformative experience through which Thetis perhaps finds a sense of feminine power and fulfillment.
In a sense, ending the poem with childbirth implies that motherhood is yet another way in which a patriarchal society traps and oppresses women. Throughout the poem, Peleus finds a way to capture each of Thetis’s forms. For example, when she becomes an albatross, he clips her wings; when she becomes a lion, he aims a gun at her. Thetis’s becoming a mother suggests that despite her many attempts at evasion, Peleus ultimately gets his way one last time by marrying her and impregnating her with his child. Thus, Thetis's becoming a mother might represent how women are forced to conform to systems of patriarchy, as mothering is a traditionally feminine responsibility which requires devotion to a child—in this case, a male child—and, thereby, a loss of independence and individuality.
Yet Thetis herself describes childbirth as another act of transformation. "I changed, I learned," she says at the poem's end, hinting that becoming a mother is in fact another act of patriarchal resistance. In this way, the poem seems to resist the notion that motherhood is merely a duty women undertake to fulfill their expected role in society. Instead, "Thetis" suggests that motherhood can be a radically creative and transformative act, one which offers women a source of passion, freedom, and love. Again, it's worth remembering that Thetis gives birth to Achilles, the demigod and Trojan war hero. Achilles's heroism and strength bring glory not just to himself but also to his mother. His supernatural power, after all, stems from Thetis's divinity, rather than Peleus’s mortality.
Thus, "Thetis" recognizes how motherhood both limits and expands women's identities. On one hand, motherhood adheres to patriarchal expectations of feminine service and devotion, while on the other, it offers women great creative power and a chance at love and personal fulfillment.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 46-48
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Humankind's Destruction of the Environment
Carol Ann Duffy's "Thetis" is titled after its speaker, the sea nymph who in Greek mythology is forced to marry the mortal Peleus. In the poem, Thetis describes a series of self-transformations through which she attempts to escape Peleus's advances. Notably, Thetis transforms herself into animals and other elements of nature—a bird, a snake, a lion, a fish, a storm, and so forth—while Peleus remains human. In this way, the relationship between Thetis and Peleus might mirror the relationship between the environment and humankind.
Even as Thetis continually shape-shifts to escape Peleus, he finds new methods to trap and possess her, using a crossbow, a gun, a fishing hook, "formaldehyde," and even "a fighter plane." Peleus's methods of catching Thetis grow increasingly modern and sinister, and it seems impossible that she can adapt quickly enough to escape him. In this way, the poem might be commenting not just on gender dynamics and patriarchal oppression but also on the threat human technological advancement poses to the environment. (Indeed, literature often compares humankind's mistreatment of the natural world to masculine violence against women.) For example, when Thetis becomes a lion, she fears the hunter's gun; when she becomes fire, she fears "asbestos," a heat-resistant construction material that is toxic to human and environmental health.
At the end of the poem, Thetis gives birth to the future Trojan War hero Achilles, thus implying Peleus's success in his sexual pursuit of her. Reading the poem as an environmental allegory, this conclusion implies that the natural world is incapable of resisting humankind's destruction. And indeed, Thetis presents childbirth as destructive: "the child burst out," she claims.
However, Achilles's birth may also represent the continual cycle of reproduction and renewal that keeps the earth alive. That is, despite destructive human activity, the poem perhaps suggests, Mother Earth continues to create life. Thetis presents childbirth as one final act of adaptation: "I changed, I learned, / turned inside out," she claims. The birth of Achilles in the poem’s conclusion may allude to the fact that one way or another, the environment will continue to thrive even after humanity has made use of it.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 2-3
- Line 6
- Lines 7-8
- Lines 11-12
- Line 14
- Lines 16-18
- Line 19
- Lines 23-24
- Lines 25-26
- Lines 29-30
- Lines 31-33
- Lines 34-35
- Lines 37-38
- Lines 40-42
- Lines 43-44
- Lines 44-45
- Lines 46-48
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Thetis”
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Lines 1-6
I shrank myself ...
... of his fist.Duffy's poem reimagines the story of the ancient Greek myth of Thetis: a sea nymph/water goddess with the power of metamorphosis (that is, she can change form at will). After learning of a prophecy that Thetis's son will be more powerful than his father, Zeus (the king of the gods) and Poseidon (Zeus's brother and god of the sea) decide to marry Thetis off to a mortal man named Peleus (i.e., to limit her son's potential). Peleus binds Thetis in her sleep in an attempt to prevent her from shape-shifting and subdue her into consent.
The poem retells this tale from Thetis's perspective, beginning in the middle of Peleus's pursuit. First, Thetis describes becoming a little bird singing a "Sweet, sweet" song. She's not violently, explicitly fighting back here, but rather trying a subtler tactic: presenting herself as innocent and docile, likely in order to placate her suitor/captor.
The phrase "the size of bird in the hand" also alludes to the proverbial saying "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush," which means that it's better to hold onto something you already possess than to risk losing it by trying for something better. Here, the idiom concludes with "of a man," highlighting how Peleus arrogantly assumes that Thetis belongs to him.
The enjambment of lines 2-3 also seems to enact the shrinking Thetis describes, as line 3 is much shorter than line 2:
to the size of bird in the hand
of a man.And by describing her own size in terms relative to the size of a man's hand (presumably that of Peleus), Thetis emphasizes the gender dynamics at play in this scene: Thetis has made herself physically vulnerable to a man.
Perhaps that's why she takes such care to display docile, pleasant behavior. The sibilant alliteration of lines 4-5 mirrors the softness and gentleness of Thetis's song, which is perhaps intended to entertain and soothe the man who holds her:
Sweet, sweet, was the small song
that I sang,However, Thetis's submissive behavior fails to protect her from Peleus's power: "I felt the squeeze of his fist," she claims. Symbolically, this scene reflects the unequal power dynamic between women and men in a patriarchal society: being agreeable and "sweet" is one way in which women may try to protect themselves from men's anger and control, but it doesn't work for Thetis here.
The sounds of this stanza create an almost light-hearted music that contrasts the poem's dark content. For example, "hand" rhymes with "man," and. Just as Thetis takes on various forms to subtly escape Peleus's control, the poem itself takes on the form of a chipper song to subtly critique patriarchal violence.
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Lines 7-12
Then I did ...
... a crossbow's eye. -
Lines 13-18
So I shopped ...
... at my nape. -
Lines 19-24
Next I was ...
... the gun. Twelve-bore. -
Lines 25-30
I sank through ...
... and his sinker. -
Lines 31-36
I changed my ...
... Stuff that. -
Lines 37-42
I was wind, ...
... a fighter plane. -
Lines 43-48
Then my tongue ...
... child burst out.
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“Thetis” Symbols
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Thetis
This poem's speaker, the mythological sea nymph Thetis, may symbolize women's general experiences living in a patriarchy.
In the poem, Thetis flees the pursuits of the mortal Peleus. Each time he comes close to capturing her, she uses her powers of metamorphosis to take on a new form, becoming an albatross, a lion, a fish, a storm, and so forth. In this way, Thetis represents women's adaptability and will to survive independently, free from male domination. Her literal shape-shifting echoes the way women are forced to reshape themselves in order to evade the grasp, or at least soften the blow, of a world that seeks to control them at every turn.
In turn, the specific creatures into which Thetis transforms become symbolic as well. Each evokes various tactics women may use to get by in a patriarchal world:
- For example, the little songbird suggests being meek and submissive as a means to disarm men, while the albatross suggests being friendly and helpful.
- The snake, perhaps, suggests trying to be sly or clever—to outwit or fool men.
- The lion evokes fighting men through sheer ferocity and strength.
- The sea creatures might represent evading men's grasp through slipperiness (or, in the case of the mermaid, seduction).
- The little mammals bring to mind sneakiness and stealth, perhaps evading men by avoiding detection.
Because Thetis transforms into animals and elements of nature while Peleus remains human, she might also be read as a symbol for the environment. In this reading of the poem, her domination by Peleus reflects the way that the earth is harmed by human activity and technological advancement.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Lines 1-2: “I shrank myself / to the size of a bird”
- Lines 7-8: “Then I did this: / shouldered the cross of an albatross”
- Lines 13-14: “So I shopped for a suitable shape / Size 8. Snake.”
- Lines 19-22: “Next I was roar, claw, 50 lb paw, / jungle-floored, meateater, raw, / a zebra's gore / in my lower jaw.”
- Lines 25-28: “I sank through the floor of the earth / to swim in the sea. / Mermaid, me, big fish, eel, dolphin, / whale, the ocean's opera singer.”
- Lines 31-33: “I changed my tune / to racoon, skunk, stoat, / to weasel, ferret, bat, mink, rat.”
- Lines 37-39: “I was wind, I was gas, / I was all hot air, trailed / clouds for hair.”
- Lines 43-44: “Then my tongue was flame / and my kisses burned,”
- Lines 46-48: “So I changed, I learned, / turned inside out—or that's / how it felt when the child burst out.”
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Peleus
If Thetis symbolizes women in general, then her male pursuer symbolizes the persistence and power of patriarchy. It's worth noting that within the poem, Thetis never calls Peleus by name. Instead, he appears as a hunter, a fisherman, a pilot, and so forth. This anonymity allows him to act as a general representation of men's violent desire to possess and control women under patriarchy.
Additionally, Peleus remains human throughout the poem. While Thetis changes form, he simply changes tactics, innovating new ways of capturing and controlling her: a crossbow, a gun, a "fighter plane." Thus, reading the poem allegorically, Peleus also perhaps comes to symbolize all of humankind. The harm he causes Thetis mirrors the harm human activity and technological advancement cause the environment.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Lines 4-6: “Sweet, sweet, was the small song / that I sang, / till I felt the squeeze of his fist.”
- Lines 11-12: “But I felt my wings / clipped by the squint of a crossbow's eye.”
- Lines 16-18: “Coiled in my charmer's lap, / I felt the grasp of his strangler's clasp / at my nape.”
- Lines 23-24: “But my gold eye saw / the guy in the grass with the gun. Twelve-bore.”
- Lines 29-30: “Over the waves the fisherman came / with his hook and his line and his sinker.”
- Lines 34-35: “The taxidermist sharpened his knives. / I smelled the stink of formaldehyde.”
- Lines 40-42: “I scrawled my name with a hurricane, / when out of the blue / roared a fighter plane.”
- Line 45: “but the groom wore asbestos.”
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“Thetis” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Alliteration
"Thetis" bursts with alliteration, which, alongside assonance and consonance, fills the poem with rich music that brings its story to life. For example, in stanza 1, the alliterative sibilance mimics the gentle, soft quality of Thetis's song:
Sweet, sweet, was the small song
that I sang,There's more sibilance in lines 13 and 14, though here the device produces a somewhat different effect:
So I shopped for a suitable shape
Size 8. Snake.Alliterative /s/ and /sh/ sounds cast a sinister hush over the poem and evoke the hiss of a snake—not coincidentally, the form that Thetis takes here. Similarly, the /s/ alliteration of lines 25-26 mirrors the fluidity of a fish moving through water:
I sank through the floor of the earth
to swim in the sea.Elsewhere in the poem, harsher consonant sounds create a more violent tone. This type of alliteration typically appears in sections describing Peleus's actions. Take, for example, line 12, in which Thetis's wings are "clipped by the squint of a crossbow's eye." Here, the repetition of a sharp /c/ mimics the bite of an arrow. Similarly, lines 23-24 contain repeated hard /g/ sounds:
But my gold eye saw
the guy in the grass with the gun. Twelve bore.This harsh, guttural repetition pierces the sound of the poem much like a gunshot pierces the air.
Where alliteration appears in the poem:- Line 4: “Sweet,” “sweet,” “small,” “song”
- Line 5: “sang”
- Line 6: “squeeze”
- Line 12: “clipped,” “crossbow's”
- Line 13: “So,” “shopped,” “suitable,” “shape”
- Line 14: “Size,” “Snake”
- Line 23: “gold”
- Line 24: “guy,” “grass,” “gun”
- Line 25: “sank”
- Line 26: “swim,” “sea”
- Line 28: “ocean's”
- Line 29: “Over”
- Line 30: “his,” “hook,” “his,” “his”
- Line 32: “skunk,” “stoat”
- Line 35: “smelled,” “stink”
- Line 36: “Stuff”
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Allusion
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Idiom
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Enjambment
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Asyndeton
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Assonance
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"Thetis" 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.
- Albatross
- Shouldered the cross
- Size 8
- Nape
- Twelve-bore
- Stoat
- Taxidermist
- Formaldehyde
- Stuff that
- Asbestos
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(Location in poem: Line 8: “shouldered the cross of an albatross”)
A large seabird. Here, "albatross" alludes to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, in which a sailor brings a curse upon his ship and crew by killing an albatross using a crossbow. The sailor is forced to wear the dead bird around his neck as a reminder of his guilt. The phrase "to have an albatross around your neck" stems from Coleridge's poem and means to bear a heavy burden. In this case, Thetis bears the burden of being the object of Peleus's pursuit (and, more broadly of being a woman in a patriarchal world).
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Thetis”
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Form
"Thetis" is divided into eight six-line stanzas, or sestets. In each sestet, Thetis shape-shifts into a new type of animal or element of nature; in the first, she becomes a songbird, in the second, an albatross, in the third, a snake, and so forth. In this way, the poem formally mimics Thetis's transformations, with each new stanza representing a new physical form.
Each sestet also follows a similar pattern in terms of the content it relays. The first half of each stanza describes Thetis's most recent metamorphosis, while the second describes Peleus's newest method of capturing her. This formulaic structure emphasizes the predictable nature of Thetis and Peleus's relationship. No matter what, Thetis continues to change and adapt and Peleus continues to pursue her.
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Meter
"Thetis" is written in free verse, meaning it doesn't follow a consistent meter. Instead, the poem's pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables shifts throughout, much like Thetis's physical form. In this way, the unpredictability of the poem's meter mimics the unpredictability of its speaker.
However, it's worth noting that in several instances throughout the poem, Thetis speaks in anapests: poetic feet arranged in an unstressed-unstressed-stressed pattern. Take, for example, the poem's opening lines:
I shrank | myself
to the size | of a bird | in the hand
of a man.
[...]
that I sang,
till I felt | the squeeze | of his fist.While line 1 is made up of two iambs (unstressed-stressed), lines 2 and 3 are made up entirely of anapests. Line 4 is very irregular, but line 5 contains a single anapest, and line 6 contains two anapests surrounding an iamb. Overall, there's a clear, galloping backbone to the speaker's tale, one that perhaps mirrors Thetis's rapid transformation from one form into another.
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Rhyme Scheme
"Thetis" is filled with rhyme but it does not have a regular rhyme scheme. Instead, the poem uses an unpredictable mixture of end, cross, and internal rhymes. Take stanza 2 for example:
Then I did this:
shouldered the cross of an albatross
up the hill of the sky.
Why? to follow a ship.
But I felt my wings
clipped by the squint of a crossbow's eye.This stanza contains an exact end rhyme between "sky" and "eye," which also rhyme internally with "why." Meanwhile, "this" and "ship" make up a slant rhyme as well as an internal rhyme with "clipped." Another internal rhyme occurs between "cross" and "albatross." Finally, there's simple assonance here as well, as in "wings / clipped by the squint."
Each stanza in the poem features a similarly complex mixture of rhyme. The only consistency is the fact that, that in each stanza apart from the first and the last, the final line contains an end rhyme with an earlier line ("sky" and "eye" in stanza 2, for example). This creates a sense of closure at the end of each stanza, signaling Thetis's abandonment of her current form.
Otherwise, the poem's irregular but frequent use of rhyme creates a sense of loose, fluid musicality. Thetis describes her difficult experiences in a surprisingly chipper, sing-song tone, emphasizing her strength and cleverness in the face of danger. Meanwhile, the unpredictability of the poem's rhymes mimics Thetis's ever-changing nature; the rhyme scheme constantly transforms, just as she does.
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“Thetis” Speaker
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"Thetis" is named after its speaker, a sea nymph from Greek mythology who was forced to marry the mortal Peleus against her will. Throughout the poem, Thetis attempts to escape Peleus's advances by transforming into a series of animals and natural elements. (Thetis never calls Peleus by name, however, instead referring to him using generic nouns like "man," "guy," "fisherman," and "groom." In this way, Thetis refuses to grant Peleus respect and legitimacy while also recognizing how his actions reflect broader patriarchal violence.)
At the beginning of the poem, Thetis becomes a small songbird perched in "the hand of a man." Thetis attempts to placate Peleus with a "small" and "sweet" song but is met with "the squeeze of his fist." Thus, finding that charm and docility cannot protect her from male domination, she attempts to fly away in the nearly holy form of an albatross.
Such transformations continue, showcasing Thetis's versatility as well as her determination to secure her own freedom. Each form she takes highlights new aspects of her character. As a lion in stanza 4, she becomes bloodthirsty and ferocious; as a storm in stanza 7 she becomes ethereal and intangible; as fire in stanza 8, she becomes seductive and cunning. However, no matter what form Thetis takes and what attributes she embodies, Peleus finds a new way to trap and harm her, highlighting how difficult patriarchy is to escape, even for the most resourceful of women.
In the poem's final lines, Thetis undergoes one last transformation: she becomes a mother. This conclusion might seem like a triumph for Peleus and a loss for Thetis because, ultimately, he has succeeded in marrying and impregnating her. However, Thetis presents childbirth as yet another act of metamorphosis and therefore suggests that perhaps maternal creation actually offers her a profound sense of empowerment and independence.
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“Thetis” Setting
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As Thetis's physical form shifts, so does the poem's setting. For example, the poem's first stanza, in which Thetis becomes a songbird, presumably occurs on land, while in the second stanza, Thetis flies overseas as an albatross. Likewise, in stanza 4 Thetis roams the jungle as a lion, while in stanza 5 she descends through the earth, entering the sea as an aquatic animal. In a sense, this varied setting highlights the pervasive nature of patriarchy; Peleus's pursuit of Thetis knows no physical limits.
The time period in which "Thetis" is set also seems to change throughout the poem. Obviously, Thetis and Peleus are characters from Greek mythology. However, Thetis's diction is far from ancient—over the course of the poem she invokes modern references, idioms, and colloquialisms. Furthermore, the methods Peleus uses to pursue Thetis grow increasingly contemporary as the poem goes on: crossbow becomes gun, boat becomes plane, and so forth. Thus, "Thetis" seems to span centuries, highlighting how male oppression of women has developed over time.
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Literary and Historical Context of “Thetis”
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Literary Context
Carol Ann Duffy is an award-winning Scottish poet and playwright who served as the United Kingdom's first female poet laureate from 2009 to 2019. "Thetis" appears in her 1999 collection The World's Wife, which retells the stories of famous and infamous male figures from history and literature from the perspectives of their female counterparts. In witty, conversational language, The World's Wife subverts traditional male perspectives, examining instead the ways that women's stories have been ignored, overlooked, or misrepresented. The collection features lots of characters specifically drawn from mythology, including Demeter, Medusa, Penelope, Circe, and Sisysphus's wife.
This poem in particular of course draws from the myth of Thetis. Fearing a prophecy that foretold that the son of Thetis would become greater than his father, Zeus (the king of the gods) and Poseidon (Zeus's brother and god of the sea) married the sea nymph off against her will to the mortal Peleus. Thetis attempted to shape-shift in order to escape Peleus's grasp, but he held fast to her forms until ultimately subduing her. The couple were married and Thetis gave birth to a son, Achilles, the glorious hero of the Trojan War. Thetis appears in Homer's Iliad and is referenced in many subsequent works, largely in terms of her relationship to her son.
In her fondness for dramatic monologues, Duffy follows in the footsteps of writers like Robert Browning, but she also fits into the contemporary poetry scene around her. Margaret Atwood, for example, has used the form for similar feminist purposes. Duffy is also one of many 20th-century poets to embrace free verse. She sees herself as a descendent both of more recent free verse poets like Sylvia Plath and of Romantics like John Keats. In turn, she has influenced (and championed) writers like Alice Oswald, Kate Clanchy, and Jeanette Winterson.
Historical Context
Carol Ann Duffy was born in 1955 and grew up under the influence of the second-wave feminist movement of the 1960s, '70s, and '80s. While first-wave feminism focused primarily on securing women's suffrage, second-wave feminism critiqued patriarchal structures more broadly and encompassed issues like sexuality, domestic violence, and reproductive rights. The influence of second-wave feminism can be seen in "Thetis" and across Duffy's larger body of work, which often highlights the perspectives of women living within a male-dominated society.
Notably, second-wave feminism coincided with the foundation of modern environmentalism. Following World War II and instigated in part by books like Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, this global surge in environmental awareness focused largely on limiting pollution and the exploitation of natural resources. Environmental literature and discourse from this era often compares humanity's destruction of the environment to patriarchal violence against women, describing industry as a violation of "Mother Earth." The term "ecofeminism," coined in 1974, addresses this relationship between nature and women. In many ways, "Thetis" can be read as an ecofeminist text, with Thetis representing not just women in general but also the natural world, and Peleus representing not just patriarchy but humankind.
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More “Thetis” Resources
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External Resources
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On Thetis — Learn more about Thetis's role in Greek mythology from this reference entry, courtesy of Britannica.
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Carol Ann Duffy's Biography — Learn more about the poet's life and work from this brief biography, courtesy of the Poetry Foundation.
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The Wedding of Peleus and Thetis — Take a closer look at Joachim Wtewael's famous painting, "The Wedding of Peleus and Thetis," courtesy of the National Gallery of Art.
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An Interview with Carol Ann Duffy — Listen to Duffy discuss The World's Wife and her perspective on poetry in this interview with the Lincoln Review.
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What Is Ecofeminism? — Learn more about the relationship between feminism and environmentalism.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Carol Ann Duffy
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