`Education For Leisure’By Duffy

Joe Grayson, Matthew Ruff and Luke Testa

What attitudes and ideas are shown in this poem?

• The poem is about someone who is so disaffected with their life they are a prospective murderer.

• The poem is set on the day of the murder and leads up to it.

“Today I am going to kill something. Anything. I have had enough of being ignored”

Who is the speaker?• A psychotic character feels

under appreciated because of his treatment from others. He has ‘had enough of being ignored’ and therefore feels he needs to ‘play god’. This shows the character’s frustration. His frustration gives him the compulsion to express himself through violence;

“I pour the goldfish down the bog”

This can be used to explain his reason for killing the goldfish, the fly and, possibly the veiled threat to the reader.

How does language help you understand the character?

• Today I am going to kill something. Anything.I have had enough of being ignored and todayI am going to play God. It is an ordinary day,a sort of grey with boredom stirring in the streets.

• I squash a fly against the window with my thumb.We did that at school. Shakespeare. It was inanother language and now the fly is in another language.I breathe out talent on the glass to write my name.

• I am a genius. I could be anything at all, with halfthe chance. But today I am going to change the world.Something’s world. The cat avoids me. The catknows I am a genius, and has hidden itself.

• I pour the goldfish down the bog. I pull the chain.I see that it is good. The budgie is panicking.Once a fortnight, I walk the two miles into townfor signing on. They don’t appreciate my autograph.

• There is nothing left to kill. I dial the radioand tell the man he’s talking to a superstar.He cuts me off. I get our bread-knife and go out.The pavements glitter suddenly. I touch your arm.

I is repeated throughout the poem to show the character’s egotism.

Exaggerated claims and biblical language show his god complex.

The pronoun ‘your’ Involves the reader and threatens them.

Colloquialisms giveThe character a Realistic voice.

Opportunity for close text analysis (A)

“Today I am going to kill something.”“There is nothing left to kill.”

• In ‘Education for Leisure’, the clearest word to analyse is ‘Kill’ as it highlights the focus of his violence and compulsion to harm. This word is repeated in stanza one and five to show the continuous threat this character presents. His compulsion grows worse throughout the poem as his violence escalates and he “Kills” or threatens bigger things. He starts with a fly, then gradually increases to killing his goldfish, panicking the budgie and scaring the cat, until he involves the reader in the final sentence. This clearly shows his psychotic response to being “ignored” in the local town.

Opportunity for alternative interpretation (A*)

“Once a fortnight, I walk the two miles into townfor signing on. They don’t appreciate my autograph.”

‘Signing on’ shows that he feels he should be giving autographs. This helps identify the character’s egotism. This could also show the character’s intention in changing other people’s views of him by having more status than he is currently given. Duffy intends to show unemployment leads to stress, this is shown through the character’s actions to get across their negative view of unemployment.

Structure

“The pavements glitter suddenly. I touch your arm.”

Caesura is used in the poem which makes the reader pause, and causes them to think about the two phrases. This means the poem ends on a violent cliff hanger that involves threat to the reader.

Enjambment is used in the poem to give the stanzas the rhythm of natural speech. This makes the character’s voice more realistic and threatening.

Which poems does it compare to?

Which poem? Why?

‘The Laboratory’ or ‘My Last Duchess’

Egotistical, cold and calculated voice.

‘Hitcher’ Egotistical, cold and calculated voice.

‘Stealing’ Someone on the edge of society. Unemployment.

Thanks to …

• Joe Grayson, Matthew Ruff and Luke Testa

• Philip Alan Updates GCSE Student Text Guide

• Google