Education For Leisure By Duffy

1
Education For LeisureBy Duffy

• Joe Grayson, Matthew Ruff and Luke Testa

2
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

3
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
  characters 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.

4
How does language help you understand the
character?
I is repeated throughout the poem to show the
characters egotism.

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

Colloquialisms give The character a Realistic
voice.
Exaggerated claims and biblical language show
his god complex.
The pronoun your Involves the reader and
threatens them.
5
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.

6
Opportunity for alternative interpretation (A)

• Once a fortnight, I walk the two miles into
  townfor signing on. They dont appreciate my
  autograph.
• Signing on shows that he feels he should be
  giving autographs. This helps identify the
  characters egotism. This could also show the
  characters intention in changing other peoples
  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 characters actions to get across
  their negative view of unemployment.

7
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 characters voice more realistic and
  threatening.

8
Which poems does it compare to?
9
Thanks to

• Joe Grayson, Matthew Ruff and Luke Testa
• Philip Alan Updates GCSE Student Text Guide
• Google