Carol Ann Duffy is one of Scotland's most acclaimed and widely read poets. She was also named poet laureate of the United Kingdom in 2009. Throughout her long and illustrious career, Duffy wrote countless poems and poetry collections. None, however, were as successful as The World's Wife, which was published in 1999. One of the most significant poems in that collection is called "Mrs. Faust," which tells the story of the eponymous Fausts, their life, and their marriage. Told from the perspective of Mrs. Faust, who narrates the poem, "Mrs. Faust" ultimately tells the story of a man who was more interested in himself and his interests than in his wife.
Throughout her career, Duffy was known as one of the leading feminist poets of her time. And "Mrs. Faust" is no exception. It is a fundamentally feminist poem. Often, poems and other literature focused on the perspectives of men. Instead, The World's Wife and "Mrs. Faust" focuses on the perspective of a woman, the eponymous Mrs. Faust. She offers a unique, more nuanced, and more emotional perspective on a relationship that readers otherwise would not have seen.
When it was published, The World's Wife (and all of the poems therein) received exceedingly positive reviews. The Antioch Review, for instance, loved the book and said that the collection "f[ramed] ingenuity and social concern in insightful, exuberant dramatic monologues." Other reviewers, including those for Publisher's Weekly and The Independent, loved the collection (and "Mrs. Faust"), singling out the group for its "fierce feminism and uncompromising social satire."
