Pilate's Wife

Pilate's Wife Literary Elements

Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View

The speaker is a reimagined version of an unnamed minor character from the New Testament, the wife of the Roman governor Pontius Pilate.

Form and Meter

Free Verse

Metaphors and Similes

This poem uses little figurative language. Most of its figurative language occurs in the first stanza and describes Pilate's hands. The speaker uses a metaphor, calling her husband's hands "a woman's." She then uses a simile to say they are "like shells from Galilee."

Alliteration and Assonance

Alliterative C sounds in "Camp hands that clapped" mimic the sound of clapping. Duffy also uses alliterative, sibilant S sounds in the phrase "sweating, sexual" and alliterative B sounds in the phrase "baying for Barabbas."

Assonant long O sounds in the phrase "Rome, home" create a wailing effect that expresses the speaker's feelings of longing, while assonant I sounds create drama in the phrase "eyes were eyes to die for." Assonant U sounds extend and dramatize the phrase "useless, perfumed."

Irony

While Pilate occupies a position of power partly by virtue of being a man, he ironically has traits associated with femininity—submissiveness, indecisiveness, and vanity.

Genre

Lyric poetry, Persona poetry

Setting

Ancient Jerusalem during the events described in the New Testament

Tone

Longing; Lamenting; Biting

Protagonist and Antagonist

Protagonist: the speaker. Antagonist: Pilate.

Major Conflict

The poem's major conflict concerns the fate of "The Nazarene," or Jesus. While the speaker wants him to be pardoned, her husband prioritizes self-preservation, allowing his execution.

Climax

The climax is the moment in which Jesus is "dragged" to the place of his execution.

Foreshadowing

The first stanza, dwelling on Pilate's hands, foreshadows Pilate's own behavior at Jesus's trial, where he washes his hands to absolve himself of guilt.

Understatement

The description of an execution with the phrase "My maid knows all the rest" is understatement, using a muted description rather than delving into the specifics of the dramatic moment.

Allusions

The poem as a whole is an allusion to the Bible, and specifically to the story of Pontius Pilate's wife in the Book of Matthew.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

The phrase "the crowd was baying" uses metonymy to identify a crowd as itself the source of a noise, rather than the members of that crowd.

Personification

N/A

Hyperbole

The phrase "His eyes were eyes to die for" appears hyperbolic, although it can be interpreted as a reference to the Christian tradition of martyrdom.

Onomatopoeia

N/A

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