The women who shopped

• form


  first 7 explore the woman’s realistic shopping habits, while the second set of 7 acts as an extended metaphor. 7 stanzas, Duffy is suggesting that the woman’s addiction is 24/7, each day being represented by a stanza.
• 1 and 2

  internal rhyme, to speed up the meter. She rhymes ‘buy’ with ‘eye’, ‘brim’ with ‘him’, pushing the poem ever onward. In doing this, Duffy centers  instantly rapid imagery, the poet moving through items at a great pace.
• 3,4,5

  ayndetone listing Consumerism is who she is, Duffy exaggerates the stereotype of the shopaholic woman.
• 6,7

  ‘silver shilling’, she has now progressed ‘all over Europe’. Duffy is perhaps suggesting that internet shopping has only further enabled this stereotype. Duffy demonstrates this through the pluralization of ‘pools, caravans, saunas’, all things that she could not use at the same time. The woman is buying for the euphoric moment of hitting ‘buy’, not to use the items themselves, critices consumerism
• 8,9,10

  double repetition of ‘stone’ simultaneously links to the metaphor of becoming a shop, while also displaying a deep emotional sadness.

  euphemism of ‘her stockings were moving stairs, her shoes were lifts, going up, going down’ to suggest she has become a prostitute. With no line of support left, the only way the woman can feed her addiction is to sell her own body. harsh reality of capitalism, while also revealing the precious nature of women’s bodies.
• 11,12


   semantics of the body with the lexis of the shop. She writes ‘lungs glittered with chandeliers’, furthering the metaphor of the woman becoming a shop. She loved shopping so much that Duffy created a metaphorical representation that is half woman-half shop, hence the fusion of semantics.
• 13,14

  Duffy presents the end of the world through the lens of capitalism, the ‘sky was unwrapping’ like a present. Even the most untouchable forms of nature, ‘sky’ and ‘light’ became products that were bought and sold. The final image is of the total destruction of nature, ‘birds sheik and voided’. Duffy presents a future in which everything is sold, the woman expanding onwards until everything is consumed by consumerism.
• A03


  draws upon the stereotype of a shopaholic woman Duffy laughs at this ridiculous depiction, exaggerating a satirizing its creation. The constant process of buying reflects consumerism, how people always desire the next best thing. Duffy also comments on women’s bodies, and how they are seen as a commodity that is bought and displayed like trophies.