Suicide off Egg Rock

Question 1

Key points

Answer 1

• Links to ‘The Bell Jar’
• An unnamed male protagonist turns his back on the industrial landscape, in the final moments before committing suicide. He looks forward to the moment when he’ll be washed up on the beach with the other rubbish.
• Stanzas of diminishing length (13, 7, 3, 1) chart his movement towards oblivion- sense of impending doom/something coming to an end
• Use of seascapes
• Juxtaposition between industry and nature

Question 2

Key quotations

Answer 2

• ‘I am, I am, I am’
• Describes his body as ‘a machine to breathe and beat forever’
• ‘A dead skate’s eyehole’
• ‘Everything shrank in the sun’s corrosive ray’