MindMap Gallery The Devil's Wife
This is a mind map that contains information about the devil's wife.
Edited at 2020-10-08 11:59:52The Devil's Wife
1. Dirt
- Origins of her relationship with Brady
-The Devil was one of the menat work.
- Mythical evil being in hum-drumsituation
- Brady as a metaphorical devil
- Didn't flirt.
- Behaved aloof - rude, unpleasant.
- Hindley is attracted to badboys
- I'd stare him out, chewingmy gum, insolent, dumb
- Hindley pretended to beunintimidated, unimpressed
- Classic young girl rebellion
- I'd lie on my bed at home, onfire for him.
- Secretly in love with him
- Metaphor shows strengthof her feelings
- He bit my breast. Hislanguage was foul. Heentered me.
- Crude, animalistic.
- Double meaning of entered
- Sexual
- Control of her heart
- I swooned in my soul.
- She was won overcompletely, spiritually
- She was under his spell
- I went mad for the sex
- Colloquial language
- Again, crude, unsophisticated
- The murders themselves
- We drove to the woods andhe made me bury a doll.
- Matter of fact tone
- Unable to acknowledge theyhad killed a person - calls her adoll
- Suggests Hindley thought itwas a plaything
- It was either the woods orlooking at playgrounds,fairgrounds.
- The pair became focussed onthe killings
- Duffy lists where the childrenwere picked up
- Creepy suggestion of looking at
- As though they were spyingon children
- in the rain
- Sad, pathetic, haunting atmosphere
- Ominous
- Her appearance
- Classic image that wascirculated in the papers
- Tongue of stone
- Silent
- Two black slates for eyes.
- Emotionless connotation of slate -stones
- Thumped wound of a mouth
- Violent imagery
- Reflects the violence she wasguilty of
- Bloody
- Nobody's Mam
- An idea Duffy later follows up
- That Hindley was not a woman
- Incapable of maternal love
2. Medusa
- The claustrophobic relationship
- She changed her appearancefor Brady
- Nobody liked my hair. Nobodyliked how I spoke.
- She felt loved by Bradybecause nobody else like her
- Repetition emphasises her isolation
- Her desire for love
- Blames Brday
- Claims he manipulated heraffection for him
- He held my heart in his fistand he squeezed it dry
- Mix of imagery both bloodyand romantic
- Contrast of heart and fist
- The trial and judgement
- Her sentence
- She became so bitterbecause of the public hatredof her
- I heard the judge summingup. I didn’t care.
- Lost any desire to live
- Convicted for life
- I was left to rot. I was locked up,double locked. I know they chucked thekey.
- Emphatic - no chance ofbeing released
- Colloquial chucked suggestsshe doesn't care
- She only cares about hermissing lover
- Reiterated in It was nowt to me.
- She didn't appreciate howserious her situation was
- Only realises later
- But life, they said, means life
- The public image of Hindley
- I gave the cameras myMedusa stare
- Medusa was able to turn a manto stone by looking him in theeye
- Hindley's image could stoppeople in their tracks
- It has become mythical and horrific
- But is it a true representationof her?
- Contrast this bitterness with her vulnerableNobody liked my hair. Nobody liked how Ispoke.
- Unable to accept what shehas done
- I flew in my chains over thewood where we’d buried thedoll.
- Her chains are her handcuffs - asymbol of incarceration
- Repetition of things she knowsfor sure
- I know... I know... I know...
- Contrast with But I cannotremember how or when or preciselywhere
- Is she being selective with hermemory to escapepunishment?
- Still desires Brady
- I wrote to him every day inour private code.
- Hindley and Bradycommunicated by letter whilstunder arrest
- I thought in twelve, fifteen,we’d be out on the openroad.
- Hindley naively hopes to bereleased and reunited withhim
- Her obsessive love did notdim because she was inprison
- Begins to fall out of love with him
- Dying inside
- Double meaning
- Dying in prison
- Emotionally dying in her heart
- I howled in my cell.
- Weeping for her stupidity
- Her heart broken
- If the Devil was gone thenhow could this be hell
- How could she experiencesuch pain without the devil?
- Brady had abandoned her
- Play on words
- The devil as Brady
- The biblical devil
5. Appeal
- Double meaning of appeal
- Reaching out to persuade
- Also legal appeal - attempt tooverturn the sentence
- In 200 Hindley tried to havethe sentence overturned ascruel
- Hindley said she would ratherhave hanged
- Hanging had been abolishedin the UK just months beforethe Moors Murderers trial
- If life means life meanslife means life
- This is ambiguous
- Does she mean that taking alife should result in losing yourlife?
- Or does she mean you shouldbe made to live inpunishment?
- What did I do to us allwhen I was the Devil'swife?
- Suggests that she has tarnished thepopular view that women are toomaternal to commit horrific crimes
- She has smeared thename of her gender
- us all
- Everyone has the capacity to dohorrible things in the rightcircumstances
- Hindley is a reminder ofthis truth
- Metaphor
4. Night
- Hindley's decision in 1987 toconfess her guilt
- Brady's influence hadwaned by this point
- Reference to biblical longdark night
- the long, fifty-year night
- Hindley says she has spenther whole life seekingforgiveness
- words that crawl out of the wall
- Could be talking about theprocess of self-reflection
- Could be words that areheard through the wall of theprison
- Imagery of Hindley graduallybeing surrounded by thesewords
- Suffer. Monster. Burn in Hell
- Words used against Hindleyin the press and media
- She has come to realisewhy she is so hated
- Stark contrast with thedenial ofBible
- When morning comes Ishall finally tell
- Hindley has decided to confess
- Admits her guilt to thepublic AND to herself
- She has tired of lying
- Amen
- The closing of a prayer
- She has made peace withherself
- Shows remorse?
3. Bible
- Hindley's denial continued,after incarceration
- She always insisted Brady hadcommitted the acts and that she wasnever present
- Brady quickly confessed his guilt
- I never not in a millionyears it was him
- I said, No not me I didn’t I couldn’t Iwouldn’t. Can’t remember no idea nonot in the room
- Lack of punctuationsuggests desperate tone
- Constant barrage of denialsuggests determination anddesperation
- Suggests breakdown ofher mental health
- A sonnet in form
- Ironic as it details thebreakdown of a relationship
- Not in any way romantic
- In prison she adopted theCatolic faith