Duffy's poems, Adultery and Disgrace, depict the theme of betrayal in many different ways. Both show that betrayal is destructive and deadly to relationships, however, different types, including sibilants and oxymorons, are used in the two poems to describe it. It is possible to infer that the two poems are connected since Adultery describes betrayal in the present tense while Disgrace shows the consequences of betrayal in a relationship. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay In both poems, betrayal proves destructive and deadly towards relationships, however, different devices are used to describe these effects. In Adultery, one of the speakers describes their night as a "deadly and thrilling night" which, at first glance, conveys the excitement and thrill of the night. However, the use of the word “lethal” makes this statement an oxymoron, drawing attention to the word and forcing the reader to stop and contemplate the phrase. This could be a method of showing the reader that the chill of the night will inevitably lead to tragedy. Furthermore, the choice of the word lethal also adds a sense of dramatic tension as lethal implies that this betrayal will be deadly to the relationship, not just harmful. On the other hand, Disgrace uses the simile "your clothes like a corpse on the floor" which, although it also represents a deadly image of betrayal, shows it in a different way. The simile suggests that once the act of betrayal has occurred, only his clothes on the floor will remain of the other party in the relationship, as if a memory of him remained. The semantics of decay and death run throughout the poem, yet this image is particularly powerful. The dark image of "dead flies" immediately implies the death of the relationship, but the use of the "net" image may suggest that all the negative things involved are still trapped in the two parts of the relationship, despite the relationship being dead. The speaker of this poem may be indicating that even when betrayal has killed the relationship, the feelings and events around that betrayal remain present with former partners. Furthermore, the use of the words "darkened" and "stiffened" in the following line may imply that the destructive nature of betrayal persists for a long time in the people involved in the relationship. Likewise, both poems use images of decay to present the idea of ​​betrayal. In Adultery, the speaker makes the simile of the relationship crumbling "like a wedding cake," implying that the relationship is still in the process of breaking up and that the vows and commitment of the marriage are inevitably eroding. While in Disgrace, the image of apples "rotten to the core" shows that the relationship is so rotten that after the betrayal there is nothing left. Both of these images use conventional, domestic metaphors to convey the idea of ​​decay due to betrayal, however, they also highlight the temporal gap between the two poems as adultery is in the process of decaying while disgrace has already completely decayed "deep down" . '.The contrast between the two tenses of the poems is made evident by the language used. In adultery, the present tense such as 'now', 'affect' and 'know' is used rather than the past tense equivalents 'then', 'affected' and 'knew'. This could be to give the poem a tone of raw, heated emotions about betrayal and adultery, making the narrative of the poem more intense. However, Disgrace opens with the line "One day we woke up to our own misfortune." which implies that the poem stands.