Queen Herod is based on Duffy's The World's Wife, a collection that reverses gender roles to celebrate female characters and show the injustice of male generalizations. This poem reverses gender roles in the biblical story of the arrival of the wise men for the birth of Jesus and the massacre of the innocents ordered by King Herod. Through this transposition, Duffy presents the atrocities of men in an original way, but then indicates that women can also act forcefully and irresistibly to fight for strong convictions. Say no to plagiarism. Get Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get Original EssayDuffy shows women as cunning and deceptive as they have a quiet agenda against men, and uses generalization against men to demonstrate the injustice of the original. stories. In the poem, the "Three Queens" arrive to see Queen Herod's daughter and offer her qualities rather than material gifts: "Grace...Strength...Happiness." These abstract capitalized nouns are juxtaposed with the seemingly useless and neglected material ("Silver and gold, small change") given to Jesus, referring to the gold, frankincense and myrrh given in the biblical story. Duffy thus suggests that while men only desire limited material gifts, women desire useful and lasting qualities. Moreover, at Queen Herod's house, the asyndeton of "with gifts...in exchange for built-in baths, curtained beds, fruits, the best meat and wine, dancers, music, discussions", mimetically leaving "until the bitter dawn" at the end, connotes the extent of the pleasure reserved for the queen since the men were "deep asleep" and the great length of time during which she enjoyed her activities without being disturbed by the men. Although "the bitter dawn" might suggest what time she stays awake in the morning, it more likely suggests that she enjoys time spent without men; When Herod and his men wake up, the day suddenly becomes "bitter" and the queen must become violent and laconic to deal with them. This change is further accentuated by the arc of the stanza, mimetic of the night, as the night culminates with the longer "in exchange for sunken baths, curtained beds", without Herod, and returns to the boring day with the more direct “those long live three -/until the bitter dawn” when Herod wakes up. The cunning evil of the women contrasts with the senseless brutality of the men to highlight an image of facades. The italicized list of antithetical names as direct speech of the Three Queens – “The Husband. Hero. Big piece. The boy next door. The Lover” – suggests that Queen Herod does not know the baby’s future and accepts that it could be beneficial; however, to be completely sure that her daughter will not be harmed, she orders the death of "every mother's son". This commandment denotes the barbarity that women can inflict to protect themselves in order to reinforce the fact that violence does not belong to men. Furthermore, the juxtaposition of the harsh diction and sibilance of the men's actions in "Pedaded, Spit, Snatched the Smoky Jug" with the majesty of the women in "I Watched Them...The Queen Rise Like a God", emphasizes the contrast of disgusting horror. men, compared to divinity through simile, as women become the dominant force over the pathetic actions of men. This theme is reinforced in Medusa by the repetition of first-person pronouns—“my…I”—with the recurring use of synonymous verbs such as “hissed and spat” to imply that women can be possessive and controlling. In addition, Duffy ensures that the female characters are more.”