At first, it appears that Mrs. Faust hates her husband.  After a closer reading, it is clear she loves him.  I think looking closely at context clues and ending details show that hatred is not the case.  Although I believe the poem sends a deliberate message involving the scrutiny women go through, there is still a level of love between the spouses.   

After reading this poem for the first time, I could not help but picture The Great Gatsby.  The way in which money is so important to Mr. Faust and the way he cheats, and does irrational things, reminded me of Jay Gatsby.  I also pictured a sad woman with every material item a person could dream of.  Mrs. Faust seems to secretly hate her life and is looking for a way out.  But, she does not speak her mind much like Daisy in The Great Gatsby.  After re-reading the poem several times, I began to take more from it.  I started picking out key moments in the poem such as “had a facelift, /had my breasts enlarged, /my buttocks tightened” (Duffy 76-78).  I found myself going back to these lines.  Why would Mrs. Faust be improving her body image if she does not love her husband or care he is cheating on her?  By getting work done on her body, she is trying to improve her own self-image, which is something many women struggle with.  Maybe she does still love him. Again, this thought led me back to The Great Gatsby.  Daisy stuck with her husband, Buchanan, even after she knew he cheated.  Obviously, the two stories do not completely parallel, but they give off a similar tone.  One last phrase of the poem that gave off the "Gatsby" impression is, “I grew to love lifestyle, /not the life” (Duffy 18-19).  Mrs. Faust loved all of the things she received from being with a man who treated her poorly and cheated, but was unhappy with her life.   

As I stated before I think this poem speaks in ways to women around the world, who are treated worse than a man.  The fact that Mrs. Faust’s name is never written shows how unimportant her role is as a human being.  Mrs. Faust is Mr. Faust’s wife, and that is all.  The poem is stressing that she had no other purpose or responsibility on this world than to be his wife.  This used to be normal in the United States, which is why this piece of literature is written as a woman’s campaign.  In the beginning of the poem, Duffy uses the pronoun “we” flourished academically.  The poem quickly turns to only Mr. Faust success’.  Stanzas later, Mrs. Faust talks about all of Mr. Faust’s success, and how unhappy she becomes so quickly.  Mrs. Faust went to school just like Faust.  She had potential, she was smart.  But amounted to nothing because of her spouse.  I strongly believe this was a main cause for her disappointment with how her life panned out.  Although Faust was accomplishing all these amazing things, he did not bring his wife along with him to experience them.  She may have been proud of him, but she could not relish in his achievements due to the lack of presence in each other’s lives.   

After coming to the realization that Mrs. Faust still loves him, I wondered why.  Why would a woman treated so poorly by her spouse still love him?  Mrs. Faust knows deep down that he loves her too.  It was not easy to come to the realization by reading the poem a time or two.  But, when reading closely, I discovered something at the end of the poem.  Although he basically ditched her his entire life, after death Faust left everything to his wife.  He gave her his whole world that he sold his soul to obtain.  Once I knew Faust had no soul to give and she knew this, everything made more sense.  Mrs. Faust knew Faust could not show his love and affection for her.  He wanted to, but he had no soul.  When a person has no soul, they cannot truly love another person.  After he was sentenced to hell, Mrs. Faust kept Faust's secret because in her heart she knew that he loved her, and she loved him back. 

Lastly, towards the middle of the poem Duffy writes, “70 Faust surfed the internet /for like-minded Bo Peep” (Duffy 67-68).  I took this line that Faust was seventy years old at the time.  It then goes straight into lines about Mrs. Faust exploring her life in her early forties’.  This led me to believe that when Faust was seventy years old, Mrs. Faust was forty.  This leaves a huge age gap in between the two of them.  Maybe she started out as a "gold digger" who actually fell in love.  She changed many things about herself to try and catch his attention.  This age gap would make more sense as to why they did not have children.  In the beginning of the poem, Duffy mentions “no kids” (Duffy 7).  Initially, I was confused as to why this fact was mentioned.  I read online “A big issue for couples with a big age gap is mismatched life experiences and goals around marriage, children lifestyle and freedom” (Pappa 1).  Again, this could be why Mrs. Faust was so unhappy so early.  Maybe, she actually wanted children and Faust did not.  Faust wanted to have things, and money, rather than experiences and a family who loves him. 

In conclusion, the poem written by Carol Ann Duffy titled Mrs. Faust is extremely deep and can be interpreted several different ways.  I saw several things in the poem, which were different every single time.  I saw glimpses of The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  I saw through all of the separation and distance, the true love the Faust couple shared.  I also saw age differences, and a poem addressing women’s injustices.  The poem makes you think and forces the reader to ask questions critically, read through the lines, and dig deep.   
