The polyvocal poem Delilah by Carol Ann Duffy is a form of intertextuality that reconstructs the traditional Biblical story of Samson and Delilah. Samson is presented to constitute alpha male tropes whilst Delilah, previously portrayed to be a temptress that led to the ultimate downfall of Samson, is presented anew by Duffy as an empowered female character who teaches Samson of his greatest weakness – emotional vulnerability. Throughout the poem, Duffy presents a realistic, unromanticised perspective on the world that exposes the detrimental nature of the social constructions of both masculinity and femininity. The reconstructed Biblical story serves to echo a greater contemporary relevance which speaks truths of the strength behind emotional vulnerability and the difficulty in self-expression brought about by such social expectations.
Duffy illustrates the limitations behind social constructions of masculinity through Samson’s inability to express emotional robustness. Duffy presents Samson to quantify his strengths through a polysynthetic list of his achievements including to “rip out the roar/ from the throat of a tiger,/ or gargle with fire”. The subsequent repetitions of “or” in listing his experiences in a toneless manner, suggests that Samson finds these feats uninteresting and colourless. Considering that his list consists of supposedly emotionally weighty scenarios, he deprives his experiences of emotion, reflecting the reality that Samson is unable to feel. Duffy portrays Samson to put up a facade that is as impermeable as his emotionally-detached list of achievements. This idea is perpetuated as Samson distances himself emotionally again when he claims “(he) cannot be gentle, or loving or tender”. Duffy utilises the tricolon and caesuras to slow down the pace of the poem, putting emphasis on the words ‘gentle’, ‘loving’ and ‘tender’ – words that are typically associated with femininity and therefore, meant to be foreign to him. This is followed by the reaffirmation of his beliefs that “(he has) to be strong.” The punctuation of the end stop, suggests the notion that the statement is definitive and factual. At this moment, Duffy parallels and mimics statements that typically men and boys would hear. Additionally, Samson’s diminished capability to express emotions is consistent through Delilah’s recount of how Samson “fucked her again”. The use of an expletive rather than a euphemism creates a jarring effect that is quite shocking, as if mimicking a slap of reality which contrasts greatly with the previous intimate stanza. Duffy uses the anachronistic term to avoid romanticising the sex, to highlight that to Samson, the act is unemotional and purely for physical desire. Duffy avoids the use of “we” to describe the act and instead, claims it was “he” who “fucked (her)”, effectively objectifying Delilah. By phrasing it in such a manner, Samson is once again in control, slipping back into the stereotypical representation of masculinity – power and dominance. Duffy illustrates how Samson has no capacity to comprehend how such an act could be anything beyond merely the physical. Despite this, Duffy portrays Delilah to unspokenly understand such a phenomenon, suggesting the true extent to which the ‘alpha male’ depiction of masculinity has been ingrained into society.
