The Death of Marylin Monroe

The Death of Marilyn Monroe

Critical Essay


Choose a poem that deals with the themes of responsibility and innocence in an interesting way. Show how the poet’s techniques help to convey these themes effectively.

An extremely thought provoking example of a poem which deals with the themes of responsibility and innocence in an interesting way is “The Death of Marilyn Monroe” by poet Edwin Morgan. The poem centres around Hollywood sex icon Marilyn Monroe and how the life she lived and the people she met may have, in some way, contributed to her eventual death in 1962.

The poem opens dramatically with four questions, written one after the other, conveying how the public reacted when they discover Monroe’s death. This has the excellent effect of portraying to the reader the themes of responsibility and innocence.

“What innocence? Whose guilt? What eyes? Whose breast?”

Morgan uses the word’s “innocence” and “guilt” to further these themes and to...