Compare the ways in which Duffy and Pugh write about unhappiness and suffering
Shooting stars, education for leisure, frozen field * Biblical, literature and other references * Protagonist named/unnamed, reasons why, those who suffer are named * Structure-enjambment, chaotic,
Make references to question in every paragraph/section.
Include alternate readings of the same thing 1. Introduction set out poems, outline types of suffering, set out foci (see above) 2. Duffy 1 3. Pugh 4. Duffy 2 5. Duffy 1 6. Pugh 7. Duffy 2 8. Conclusion
In Duffy’s ‘Education for Leisure’, the speaker is said to be someone who has left school and is now unemployed. In the second stanza, a parallel to King Lear is drawn: “As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods/ they kill us for their sport”. Thus, as the fly is squashed against the window, the speaker aligns themselves both to “the gods” and with “wanton boys”.
Wanton is defined as “(of a cruel or violent action) deliberate or unprovoked”, and the reference to Shakespeare reminds the reader that the violence is done for amusement and fun: “sport”.
The fly could also be a way in which the speaker makes him or herself seen by the world: Like the window, he or she feels invisible. Their image is neither reflected nor can they see the window. As the fly is squashed against the window (and killed), the window (speaker) becomes visible.
Another reference which Duffy includes is one to the biblical “God” of the Old Testament, related to revenge “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”, as shown by the line “I see that it is good”. This line refers to the line in the Bible “And God saw that it was good” Genesis 1:24, after God has created the living creatures in all the domains. So even though the speaker has put him/herself on the same level as “God”, they “play God” by destroying “Today I am going to kill something”, as if in revenge for the slights and powerlessness the speaker has felt.
The speaker indentifies with God both in the power that they exert over their “dominion”, in response to “being ignored”, and the idea of killing for sport (reference to King Lear) to lessen the “sort of grey with boredom stirring in the streets”. The reference in the second stanza of “we did that at school” both relates to “Shakespeare” and to the squashing flies, speaking of a life of “being ignored”, and an exertion of power and violence over lesser beings to be noticed: “The cat knows I am a genius” but the society and those of a higher status “don’t appreciate my autograph”.