Mrs Midas (Symbol)
The title character herself is the predominant symbolic figure in this work. The poem appears in a collection by the author titled The World’s Wife, in which it is joined by similarly themed works of verse with titles like “Mrs Sisyphus,” “Queen Kong” and “The Kray Sisters.” Mrs Midas is a symbol of the untold stories of the women orbiting around the oft-told stories of famous men. Duffy herself has stated in an interview that her aim in the poem was to retell a familiar myth from a feminist perspective, subverting the traditional, masculine literary canon of the West. Mrs Midas's pragmatic and weary attitude is also meant to symbolize Duffy's female Irish relatives, who met obstacles in their life with stern determination.
Gold (Symbol)
Gold is the central symbol in the story, representing Midas's greed and the limits of consumption. Beginning with the pear that gleams like a lightbulb in the second stanza, Duffy relentlessly describes golden objects in each stanza, using elaborate language: the corn on the cob becomes "the teeth of the rich," the wine glass becomes a "golden chalice," the spare room is turned into the "tomb of Tutankhamun." These descriptions of gold take on an increasingly sinister and despairing quality: rather than grant Midas the endless wealth he craves, the golden objects become a "tomb" that encases him and prevents him from interacting with the world. By retelling this myth about gold in a modern setting and from a feminist perspective, Duffy gives us symbolic insights into the capitalist world of the late twentieth century. While success in the twentieth century was largely described as material wealth obtained through success in capitalist society (one that often excluded women), Duffy argues through the symbol of excessive and ultimately useless gold that human connection and intimacy are more important than material belongings.
The Child (Symbol)
In the eighth stanza (Lines 43-48), Mrs Midas dreams that she gives birth to a child made of gold. Encapsulating the increasingly horrific descriptions of gold in the narrative, this child is depicted in gruesome terms, with "amber eyes / holding their pupils like flies" (Lines 46-47) and frozen, golden limbs. This child symbolizes the destroyed future of the Midas's marriage: while Mrs Midas had envisioned that she and her husband would have a child, this is no longer possible due to Midas's wish-come-true. The child also symbolizes the continued subversion of the original Midas myth. In Ovid's myth, Midas turns his daughter into gold. Here, their unborn son is (in Mrs Midas's imagination) turned into gold. This continues to shift the gender dynamics of the myth and subtly challenges the concept of women's objectification (women historically being treated like objects instead of human beings in society), by depicting a male child literally turned into an object. Finally, it symbolically plays on two further concepts. The "golden child" is typically used as a metaphor for a child that is successful and favored by their parents, whereas here the golden child reflects the mistakes of his father by being born already turned into gold. Second, the child also symbolizes the concept of a "stillborn"—a fetal death resulting in a miscarriage at birth. Here, the child is born literally still, frozen in time and turned into a solid gold object. This tragic, haunting, and disturbing image counterbalances the humor scattered throughout the rest of the poem to demonstrate the full horror and reality of Midas's wish.
Corn (Symbol)
Mrs Midas attempts to serve her husband a dinner of corn on the cob, but "[w]ithin seconds he was spitting out the teeth of the rich" (Line 20). The "teeth of the rich" is a metaphor for the corn, which has turned to gold, and this golden corn is in turn a symbol of the irony of Midas's wish: he has now obtained "riches," but he cannot even eat, dooming himself. The corn thus symbolizes the food that Midas cannot access and the wealth that he cannot utilize, embodying the tragic limitations of his wish.
Pan (Symbol)
The "music of Pan" that Midas claims to hear in the final stanza is a symbol that represents the irony of his wish and that connects the poem back to the origins of the Greek myth. Pan is the Greek god of the wilderness; he is associated with wild animals and is typically depicted as part-human, part-goat in appearance. This contrasts sharply with the purpose of Midas's wish, which was to further improve his position within organized society by profiting off of his gold. While gold is materially valuable among humans, it has no purpose in the wilderness since it can't be used for sustenance or protection. Further contributing to this irony, Pan is also the God of fertility, which contrasts with Midas's new inability to become a father due to his wish. This subtly references the component of the myth that Midas received his wish from Dionysus, the God of wine and fruitfulness. Pan and Dionysus are polar opposites in terms of their representations as Greek Gods: Midas has lost his association with human pleasures and is miserably fending for himself in the wild glade.
