Compare how death or the threat of death is presented in the poems you have studied

rhetorical questions which suggest to people she out to kill. However in Havisham Duffy uses the following metaphor to suggest that the speaker is looking for revenge by murdering them “ ropes on the back of my hands could strangle with”. This could mean that the speaker is so angry for revenge that she strangle him with the veins on the back of her hands, which presents the threat of death as this gives the idea that the speaker is unstable and cannot control herself not to kill him. Unlike the speaker in Havisham the speaker in the laboratory is seen to have more control over herself and doesn’t seem to be unstable unlike the speaker in Havisham. It is also suggested that the speaker in Havisham has no control over her desire for revenge as the oxymoron “beloved sweetheart bastard” suggests she has no control over her emotions as they are conflicting, therefore suggesting that the speaker has no control over what she is after. But the speaker in the laboratory is seen to have more control over her revenge which give the impression that threat of death is more serious than the one in Havisham as the speaker in the Laboratory is suggesting the poison is precious to her as she uses the metaphor “gold oozing” suggesting that poison is as precious as gold to her. I think that threat of death presented in the laboratory would worry the reader more as browning character is seen to be more psychotic than the Duffy’s speaker in Havisham. Jealousy is another way which death or threat of death can be seen to be presented in the poems the laboratory and my last duchess. Similarly both speakers are both jealous of somebody they love but are jealous because of different reasons. In my last duchess the metaphor “her looks went everywhere” suggests the duke is jealous of his wife because he doesn’t have control over her. This presents death as this could be suggesting that the duke is angry that he didn’t have control over who looked at his duchess and he killed her as he didn’t have control over her. It is also suggested that he killed her when browning has the duke says “That’s my last duchess painted on the wall, looking as if she were alive” as it sounds as if he is finds the death of his last duchess funny because “looking as if she were alive” gives the impression that she no longer looks the same when she died as she was murdered. However the laboratory presents jealousy in a different way to my last duchess. In the laboratory browning presents death through jealous through the imagery “He is with her, and they know I know” as this suggests the speaker is jealous that he is he is still with her even though they know the speaker knows. This makes the speaker jealous similar to the duke in my last in my last duchess that she cannot control him making the speaker want to kill her because he is still her even though the speaker knows. I think that both poems present death or threat of death through jealous similarly because they are both written by Robert browning but the poet however doesn’t use the same techniques to present jealousy. Lastly anger is another way which death or threat of can be said to be presented in the poems Hitcher and Havisham. Similarly in both poems the speakers are angry but for different reasons. In hitcher Armitage presents death or threat of death through anger the use of the metaphor “once with the head, and six times with the krooklok”. This could suggest that he hit the hitcher loads of times because he had uncontrollable anger and he took it out on the hitcher as he needed somebody to let his out on, which gives the idea that he cannot control his anger or his actions. However it could also be argued that he hit hitcher because the speaker is angry as the hitchers has an easier life as all he does is follow “the sun from east to west” which contrast the life of the speaker as he finds life hard and the speaker wanted the hitcher wanted to take away this easy life from the hitcher so he tried to kill him. Similarly in Havisham the speaker is angry at somebody and Duffy presents the threat of death through her anger. “White veil; a red balloon bursting” presents the idea of anger because red is colour which symbolises anger which contrasts the colour of the white veil as white symbolises happiness and the speaker has just has had her happiness burst making her angry therefore making her a threat of death to her boyfriend that left her at the altar. The threat of death through anger could also be presented through the metaphor “Don’t think it’s just the heart that b-b-b-breaks” suggests that the speaker has had her heart broken literacy as part of her of her has died inside therefore making her angry as part of herself as died. Anger is presented for similar and different reasons but is presented by different techniques in each poem. Death or the threat of death is used in the poems to present the speakers feelings which could be jealousy, anger or revenge. These feelings present death or the threat in similar ways yet in each poem yet the writers use different techniques to create these feelings that suggests death which gives us different ideas about each character.