During this essay I will be exploring and comparing two of Carol Ann :: English Literature

During this essay I will be exploring and comparing two of Carol Ann Duffy’s poems, Education for Leisure and Stealing Comparison between two of Duffy’s poems. During this essay I will be exploring and comparing two of Carol Ann Duffy’s poems, â€Å"Education for Leisure† and â€Å"Stealing†. In both of these dramatic monologues Duffy clearly portrays a certain persona, the character in â€Å"Education for Leisure† is shown as a young adult, that, because he has been ignored, is trying to find power by killing living things. Similarly the character in the poem â€Å"Stealing† is ignored and friendless and so resorts to stealing just for the thrill of it, often stealing things that aren’t useful to him. The character in the poem Education for Leisure is very egocentric, â€Å"I breathe out talent on the glass to write my name† this shows that he really believes that even the air he exhales is important enough to be classed as talent and he writes his name on it as if it was an autograph. He also says â€Å"I could be anything at all, with half a chance.† This shows that he isn’t given the chance to be anything that he wants to be and that he is quite ignored by others. This helps explain why he goes on his killing spree, its probably because people don’t acknowledge him that he wants that kind of power of someone, or something so he isn’t ignored anymore. The character in the poem â€Å"Stealing† is very lonely, when talking about a snowman he once stole he says â€Å"I wanted him, a mate with a mind as cold as the slice of ice within my brain.† This shows that what he wants is a friend that is just like him, someone he can relate to, because no one else could understand. He also says â€Å"Sometimes I steal things I don’t need† He does this because he got a thrill out of doing it the first time and it gives him a sense of power of who he is stealing from. The quote â€Å"I sigh like this - Aah† shows the satisfaction he gets when he is stealing, and the short sentence â€Å"Mirrors.† show that he likes to see himself, and he sees it as a