In society today, most people care more about material possessions than enjoying their lives. They focus solely on making money and not on their relationships with other people. This leads to relationships failing, as shown by the divorce rate in America being over 50%. American society is one of the most materialistic countries in the world, which is why the US has the 10th highest divorce rate of any country in the world. When we look at the word choice in Mrs.  Faust, we can see that Carol Duffy chooses her words purposefully to accentuate the story in many different instances in the poem. This is important because it makes the moral of the story easier to understand and more profound.

Throughout the entire poem, there are words that jump off of the page, as well as the punctuation associated with the words. For example, Mrs. Faust says, “First things first -/ I married Faust./ We met as students, shacked up, split up,/ made up, hitched up,/ got a mortgage on a house,/ flourished academically,/ BA. MA. Ph.D. No kids./ Two toweled bathrobes. Hers. His.” (Duffy 1-8). The word that jumps out at me in this quote is academically, because it shows that while they were successful in their own private lives in terms of what degrees they earned, and their wealth, but the quote doesn’t say how they flourished as a couple with the well-being of their marriage. Also, Mrs. Faust saying “no kids” leaves readers to wonder if she wants kids, because she likely would have left it out if she had no intentions of having children. This likely means that Mr. Faust didn’t want to have kids, as he was too worried about his career to have children. The word choice in this quote foreshadows Mrs. Faust’s unhappiness, as she could have easily left out “academically” and just have said that they flourished. However, her adding “academically” shows the readers that that is the only area they flourished in, with their marriage being unsuccessful. While this quote shows Duffy’s word choice to be critical to the story, it is not the only example of her word choice.

The third stanza of the poem is one of the most important stanzas in the poem, even though it is only two lines long. The two lines have such a profound impact on the poem that without those lines, the rest of the poem would be missing a great deal of substance. The third stanza reads, “I grew to love lifestyle,/ not the life” (Duffy 18-19). These two lines, while they may not seem like much, set the foundation for the rest of the poem. While we as readers already knew that Faust and Mrs. Faust were both greedy, we didn’t know that they didn’t have a good relationship. After this stanza, Mrs. Faust expands on her feelings, and tells us that there is no love in their marriage, and that the marriage is in shambles as a result of the lack of love between the two. Duffy could have easily left these two lines out of the poem, without losing the whole point of the story. However, with these two lines in the poem, the storyline is much easier to understand. Without these two lines, the poem would have gone directly from Mrs. Faust talking about their greed to talking about their problems as a couple, which would have made sense, but the this stanza eases the readers into hearing about their problems as a married couple, as it is like an introduction to their imperfect marriage. This stanza, while it may seem insignificant, is possibly the most important stanza in the entire poem, which shows Duffy’s skill of using words effectively, as this stanza is only two lines long.

Similar to the first and third stanzas, the fourth stanza shows how important Duffy’s word choice is, and how her skill is put on display for all readers. In the fourth stanza of the poem, there is another example of the word choice having an impact on the story. Mrs. Faust explains, “He grew to love the kudos,/ not the wife./ He went to whores/ I felt, not jealousy,/ but the chronic irritation” (Duffy 20-24). The word that sticks out in this quote is chronic. This shows that the irritation isn’t something that only happens every now and then, but rather something that always occurs. Mrs. Faust shows us that she is always irritated by Mr. Faust cheating on her, which shows us that he cheats on her regularly, and she knows about all of it. If the poem left out the word chronic, it wouldn’t be clear how often she is irritated, or how often he cheats on her. Her saying that she’s irritated instead of jealous tells us that she has given up on their marriage, because if she still had hope for it, she would try to save it, or at least be angry with him cheating. The word chronic tells us that their marriage is truly in shambles, likely without any chance of being saved, due to his cheating, and her irritation to his cheating. The way that Duffy chooses her words is very critical to the poem, as they add substance to the story.

Having the skill of being able to use your words effectively is essential to being a good writer and writing good works of literature. Carol Duffy clearly has perfected this skill, as expressed in Mrs. Faust, where her choice of words is consistently great. She knows exactly how to word her thoughts, and how to gain the reader’s attention, while not using many words. Her word choice is essential to the poem, as it makes the story flow much better than an average writer’s words would have. This makes the poem more enjoyable to read, which leads to more people reading the poem, which is what authors want. Word choice is one of the more overlooked elements of writings, but when you look at poems such as Carol Duffy’s poems, you see how good some authors are at choosing their words, and appreciate it. In Carol Duffy’s Mrs. Faust, the word choice is impeccable, which makes the storyline much more profound, and much easier to follow as a reader.
