The Silhouette of the African Woman and Gender Relation in Patriarchal Communities as Displayed through Carol Ann Duffy's "Frau Freud"

This paper purports to decipher Carol Ann Duffy’s view of the role of women in the patriarchal community and gender relation in her celebrated poem “Frau Freud”. It is Duffy’s craftsmanship of women’s voice and a nuanced portrayal that reflects women’s perplexity faced in the dominant patriarchal society of the poem. The text analysis has shown that Frau Freud is the antithesis of Sigmund Freud’s penis envy theory. As the poem unfolds, Frau Freud vehemently lashes out her husband about the harms done against women due to the cultural domination of patriarchy. The poem is replete with genitalia imagery: 45 items over 144 items which make the whole text are euphemisms of male intimate part. Through discourse analysis and stylistics, it has been noticed that Frau Freud is denouncing not only the males’ harassment over women but she is seeking to contradict Sigmund Freud about his odd theory.