Compare how Death or the threat of Death is represented in the poems you have studied

Authors Avatar

Compare how Death or the threat of Death is represented in the poems you have studied.

Death is presented in many of the poems I have studied. Some of them are presented in similar ways whereas others are presented in a more diverse way. For example, ‘The Hitcher’ by Simon Armitage and ‘Education for Leisure’ by Carol Ann Duffy are similar in the fact they are both about psychotic characters who are killing for pleasure and not really for any real reason but selfish ones. On the other hand there are poems like ‘Havisham’ by Carol Ann Duffy and ‘The Laboratory’ that express strong emotions through death, for example love in the laboratory leads her to kill and in Havisham she talks about death and hate because of the love she has lost. In complete comparison to these poems we have ‘On my first Sonne’, a pre 1914 poem by Ben Jonson, which expresses death in a completely different manner. He is talking about losing love, but not in a hateful way but in a remorseful way. In this poem he is not giving out death but the one on the receiving end of death.

Both ‘Education for Leisure’ and ‘Hitcher’ are dramatic monologues by people who kill. In ‘Education for Leisure’ the speaker kills animals but then goes outside to kill a human. In ‘Hitcher’ the speaker picks up a hitcher and kills him. They are both psychotic characters, killing for no valid reason. The two speakers have personalities that differ even though they both have the same ideas and motives to kill; they both obviously have problems with people and their social skills. They have entirely opposite reasons to kill.

In ‘Education for Leisure’ I feel the speaker has a very warped view and is different in that way to the speaker in ‘Hitcher’. The Speaker, unknown whether a man or a woman, has “had enough of being ignored” Feels s/he is a genius, superior to others but people aren’t recognising this. So s/he decides “today I am going to kill something. Anything” S/he wants to be known and feels ignored. When you read the poem, it comes across that the speaker is very lonely, s/he only has pets but no friends. Perhaps this is the reason for their killing along with many other reasons.

It comes across that he wants power; he talks about when he squashes a fly against the window with his thumb, “Shakespeare. It was in another language and now the fly is in another language”.

Shakespearean Characters all had power in the Stories. The Shakespearean world was populated by very powerful and famous people. It’s another world, full of death and murder. Perhaps another world he wants to belong. This shows that the theme death is a big part of his life. Also, from that quote you can say that language, poetry and his way with words was Shakespeare’s Genius and the speaker’s genius is killing, death, which is perhaps why s/he sees himself as a genius. You also get the feeling s/he’s very bored at the beginning which is what also may have lead to murder, “a sort of grey with boredom”.

S/he doesn’t feel appreciated, this comes across especially when they talk about being a genius and going to pick up their benefits, “they don’t appreciate my autograph”

S/he seems very cold, especially when s/he has killed most of the animals around. It’s like the Speaker doesn’t have feelings, they don’t care “there is nothing left to kill”. This makes them come across as very cold. At the beginning they say “I am going to play God”, this could be taken as a biblical reference, that killing = doing good because s/he then goes on to say “I see that it is good” which is a biblical line. S/he thinks they have the right to kill like God, which makes them come across as very egotistical and arrogant.

All throughout the Poem, they make themselves appear very proud and self-obsessed. They have a very inflated view of themselves and want to be powerful. In the first Stanza alone the word ‘I’ stands out in the first few lines. Its all about them, s/he revolves around themselves and s/he’s had enough of being ignored, this gives the impression s/he only thinks about themselves and their “genius”. S/he is very self-obsessed and only goes by their own point of view. S/he says a lot of things that come across to us as very arrogant. At the end of Stanza 2, after s/he’s killed a fly, they “breathe out talent on the glass” and then begins at the start of Stanza 3 “I am a Genius”. At the end of the poem when s/he’s rang up the radio station, s/he tells the man “he’s talking to a superstar”. All these quotes show that the view they think of themselves is to be a genius, when in fact all we see is a warped person who is unemployed and has a twisted mind.

Join now!

In ‘Hitcher’ the Character is completely different in personality compared to the speaker in ‘Education for Leisure’. At the beginning of Stanza 1 in ‘Hitcher’ it starts “I’d been tired, under the weather, but the Ansaphone kept screaming: One more sick note, mister; and you’re finished. Fired” This already gives evidence for some sort of stress at home and work. This also gives the impression that he has not been at work possibly which leads to us thinking where has he been?

In this Poem we know it’s a man and different to the speaker in ‘Education for Leisure’ ...

This is a preview of the whole essay