Questions

Q. “The Dolphins” is a protest against abuse of animals and destruction of nature.

Elaborate.
A. In her dramatic monologue ‘The Dolphins”, Carol Ann Duffy has presented herself as an animal-
lover and protested against the exploits of animals and other natural elements by man. Though the
poem only speaks of the deplorable condition of the dolphins who are forced to live in a pool to
perform tricks in circus, the theme actually goes beyond this. In a broader view, the dolphins are mere
representatives of all such creatures receiving ill-treatments in the hands of man.
The poet here expresses the sadness in the dolphins’ mind through their own voice using the technique of
dramatic monologue. The dolphin says that they are in their ‘element’ to mean they are still living in water, but
they are kept away from their natural habitat, i.e., the ocean. They are not free. Freedom is what the dolphin
finds most important to be happy. They are not ‘blessed’ anymore as their movements are restricted in a pool
and are guided by a man. They cannot even move according to their will; they have to perform tricks as the
man wishes in order to entertain people. So, the dolphins are now used for the monetary purpose of humans.
They have to balance themselves on a coloured ball. The dolphin regrets repeatedly:
We were blessed and now we are not blessed.
The dolphin is sad as it is living a monotonous life in the same space. It is in sharp contrast to what
the life was like when they were in the sea. The space is limited. A man is there constantly above
them guiding their movements and making them feel guilty. The moon has disappeared for them, not
only literally but also metaphorically. They can no longer see the moon as they are not in the open
sea, and the cheerfulness of their free life has now turned gloomy.
The dolphin remembers its happy days of the past. It finds its own reflection in the other dolphin’s
actions. Its heart turns to stone when it hears the “music of loss” from the other dolphin.
… Music of loss forever
from the other’s heart which turns my own to stone.
So, there is a sense of loss and there is hopelessness. The only thing they have got to entertain
themselves is a plastic toy. That is not the ideal thing they used to use living in the open ocean. The
man’s whistle makes them sink to the limit of the pool. There is a tone of suppression. Humans are
toying with the innocent animals’ lives. The very last line has a sarcastic tone:
There is a man and our mind knows we will die here.
It is as if where there is a man, there is impurity, there is distortion, artificiality and destruction of
everything natural. In fact, the existence of a man above them has been repeated in every stanza of
the poem to highlight the authority of man not only over the dolphins but also over nature and most
other natural creatures. The way man is expanding their reach in this universe and trying to use
natural elements in their way, they may eventually end up making a mess with the balance of this
universe and its natural aspects. We are slowly but surely destructing nature and its purity.
The poet here raises her voice against this destruction through human cruelty towards animals.
The dolphin acts as the poet’s voice to convey her message towards the readers that we should
respect the rights of animals to live in their natural habitat and should not inflict our cruelty on them.

People often fail to understand that the relative brain of a dolphin is only second to that of a modern
human being. They live in large complex social groups and swim vast distances in open ocean. But
while in captivity they can only swim in circles in tanks and are denied to stay in natural habitat and
are forced to perform meaningless tricks and are often taken away from their family.

It is just like a man in a prison blindfolded, the dolphins feel the same way. Accounting to all the years
many of the dolphins died while in captivity in touch tanks. By this poem the poetess wants to show us
the torture the animals receive in the hands of the people. The poetess expects us to see the world
from their perspective too and to protect the life of the innocent animals and demands to stop the
exploitation of wildlife in the name of self-entertainment. Most of the countries have already banned
the dolphin captivity.
Q. The dolphins’ captivity shows them the importance of freedom. Explain.
A. The story of the captive dolphins in Duffy’s poem makes us ponder on the question — Which is
more important in life, freedom or captivity? Certainly, the answer cannot go only one way here.

Freedom and captivity, both have their own role in life. Freedom is what everybody wants to enjoy in
life. The dolphins too wish that they get their freedom of roaming about and playing in the large ocean.
“We were blessed and now we are not blessed” reveals their regret and sorrow to live in a mere bowl
and be guided by a man.
But, this is their captivity that makes them realise the importance of freedom. If they were not confined
in where they are now, they would never know how it feels to be in captivity and how it is different from
the life they had spent while living freely in the ocean. Thus it can be concluded that one should get
and enjoy one’s freedom in life, but one should also know the importance of freedom in order to enjoy
it fully.

Q. “The Dolphins” by Carol Ann Duffy is a dramatic monologue. Discuss.

A. Monologue means a speech from a single (mono) person. The main features of a dramatic
monologue are:

• A single narrator (but not the poet) narrates everything.

• One or more other characters are present, but they don’t speak anything directly. We know
what they say or do from the narrator’s mouth.
• The text reveals the speaker’s character and temperament.
Now, in the poem The Dolphins a dolphin is the single speaker who narrates its deplorable condition
in a restricted pool. It not only speaks of itself but also of the other dolphin in which it finds its own
reflection. The other dolphin and a man are present in the scene but they remain silent throughout.
We come to know of their presence and activities from the single speaker — the speaking dolphin’s
voice.
Again, the dolphin does not narrate something merely objectively but it reveals its feelings, its
sadness, hopelessness, the monotony and even its fellow-feeling for the other dolphin. Revealing the
speaker’s heart is an important aspect of a dramatic monologue.

Through the monologue of the dolphin Carol Ann Duffy presents the sheer abuse of animals in the
hands of man. She protests against this kind of exploitation of wildlife and other natural elements. A
dolphin revealing its feelings in its own voice is not at all to give the readers a new kind of amusement;
rather underlying it goes a strong message that man has been cruel to nature and its components and
it should stop now anyway. She attacks the human prejudice called speciesismand demands the
protection of rights of animals who we think are inferior to us and thus inflict ill-treatment upon to use
them in our way.

Q. What message does the poet convey in the poem "The Dolphins"?
Or, In the poem “The Dolphins” Carol Duffy presents herself as an animal lover. What purpose does
the poem “The Dolphins” serve for the poet Carl Ann Duffy?

Or, What message does the poet want to convey to the readers through her poem “The Dolphins”?

A.Here Duffy is not really trying to prove herself an animal lover. Her sole purpose is to protest against human
cruelty towards animals and nature at large. That is why she presents the dolphin who are confined to a pool
with restricted movements to depict how we humans are treating other animals badly for our own entertainment
or monetary purpose. She tries to make the readers feel bad for the dolphins and make us understand that this
kind of actions from man may eventually lead to a destruction of nature and its ecosystem. That isn’t going to
be good for us at all. In short, the poet just wants us to feel for the creatures and let them live in their natural
habitat.
Q. How does the dolphin describe the world of thraldom?
Or, How is the world of thralldom or bondage depicted in Carol Ann Duffy’s poem “The Dolphins”?

A. In her poem “The Dolphins” Carol Ann Duffy lends voice to a dolphin to express its feelings living in
a pool in its own words. The dolphin describes how their life of thraldom has been different from the
life when they enjoyed complete freedom in the open ocean. In fact, the poem opens with the dolphin
saying what true ‘world’ would be like:

World is what you swim in, or dance, it is simple.

This is the kind of world that the dolphin used to live in earlier. But now they are forced to live in a
pool. Though they are in their element, i.e., in water, they are not free. Freedom is what the dolphin
finds most important to be happy. There is a man constantly guiding their movements through hoops.
There is a constant feeling of guilt in their life of bondage.

The dolphins don’t find the comfort and ease in the pool. They are now unhappy for being regulated
and restricted by a man. They cannot do anything they like. Rather they have to work in the tunes of
the whistle as the man wants them to perform to entertain people in the circus. The dolphin finds its
life in the aquarium monotonous with no change at all. It repeats the words “same space” twice to
highlight the monotony.
It was the same space. It is
the same space always and above it is the man.
In the pool, the dolphins have got nothing but only a coloured plastic ball on which they have to
balance. They can no more see the moon as they are not in the open ocean. They sing a “music of
loss” and there is hopelessness everywhere. They sink to the limits of the pool, not only literally but
also metaphorically. They know that they will eventually die here in the pool, as there is a man
restricting their movements.

There is a man and our mind knows we will die here.

So, to conclude, through the voice of a dolphin the poetess has successfully painted how a life of
suppression and slavery feels like as opposed to a free life. It is full of restrictions, monotony, artificial
barriers, sense of loss and hopelessness, and of course, realisation of the importance of freedom, as
the dolphin now realises.

Q. What is the ‘constant flowing guilt’ according to Duffy?

Or, Explain the line “There is a constant flowing guilt” from Carol Ann Duffy’s poem “The Dolphins”.
A. In the context of the poem where a dolphin speaks of its deplorable condition, it speaks of
its feeling. The dolphin constantly feels guilty as it is confined to a pool. Most probably, the
man who is there to regulate the dolphins’ movement in the pool as a part of performing tricks
to entertain people makes them feel guilty if they do something wrong or can’t perform well.
Again, maybe the dolphin feels guilty as it feels it has not been clever enough to escape and
have now been caught by humans and kept here in such restricted space.

However, the expression ‘a constant flowing guilt’ also suggests the poet’s feeling here. Duffy
here upholds herself as an animal-lover and feels guilty that we, the humans are treating
animals badly that we shouldn’t do anyway.
Q. ‘The Dolphins’ by Carol is a protest against Speciesism. Discuss .
Or, Explore the poem The Dolphins by Carol as a critique of Speciesism with regard to the way
humans exploit the dolphins for their selfish purpose.
Or, What is speciesism? How does Duffy criticize speciesism in her poem about the dolphins?

A. Species-ism is prejudice against individuals based on their species membership, just like racism is
a prejudice and discrimination against individuals based on their race. To make it easy, speciesism is
the belief that some species like humans are superior to other species on earth. It involves treating
members of one species as morally more important than members of other species even when their
interests are equivalent. The term ‘speciesism’ and the argument that it is nothing but a prejudice is
rather new and first appeared in 1970 in a pamphlet written by the British psychologist Richard D.
Ryder.

More often than not we assume that we humans are superior to other species on this earth and that
leads to abuse of wildlife and exploitation of animals. The poet Carol Ann Duffy protests against this
tendency of ours in her poem “The Dolphins”. Here she lends voice to a dolphin and helps it express
its sadness over ill-treatment in the hands of man.

The dolphin speaks of how it has to live in a pool with its movements restricted and regulated by a
man. The man is constantly there to make the dolphins perform tricks in order to entertain people in
circus. There are hoofs and a plastic ball on which the dolphins have to balance. The dolphins don’t
feel happy living in such restricted conditions and they feel one day they will die here.
There is a man and our mind knows we will die here.
The dolphin repeatedly mentions the presence of a man there as the authority over them in every
stanza of the poem. This is very significant in conveying the message that man shouldn’t be there
abusing and exploiting other animals. It is as if wherever there is man, there is impurity, distortion and
destruction, as I have explained here before. The poet here wants to deliver a strong message that
this exploitation of animals and other natural elements come from our prejudiced belief that we are
superior to others and thus are the authority to use anything in our way. The poem is seen as the
poet’s plea to the readers to respect the natural rights of animals and is thus anti-speciesism.