The Death of Marilyn Monroe: Reflections on Fame and Tragedy

1. The poem reminds the reader of the price paid by the private person for living life to the full in the public eye. The Death of Marilyn Monroe What innocence? Whose guilt? What eyes? Whose breast? Crumpled orphan, nembutal bed, white hearse, Los Angeles, Di Maggio! Los Angeles! Miller! Los Angeles! America! The poem opens dramatically... This highlights to the reader that the poem will be exploring the themes of responsibility and innocence. with the clamour of questions echoing the public’s (and the media’s) reaction to the news of Marilyn Monroe’s death.

2. and the shocking and confusing nature of her death. This series of short questions conveys the sense of loss felt by Morgan, and the public... The Death of Marilyn Monroe What innocence? Whose guilt? What eyes? Whose breast? Crumpled orphan, nembutal bed, white hearse, Los Angeles, Di Maggio! Los Angeles! Miller! Los Angeles! America! The poem opens dramatically... This highlights to the reader that the poem will be exploring the themes of responsibility and innocence. with the clamour of questions echoing the public’s (and the media’s) reaction to the news of Marilyn Monroe’s death.

3. as she had no privacy and was constantly hounded by them. By mimicking newspaper headlines, Morgan alludes to the media’s obsession with Monroe, in life and in death. Morgan feels this media obsession was at least partly responsible for Monroe’s death... The Death of Marilyn Monroe What innocence? Whose guilt? What eyes? Whose breast? Crumpled orphan, nembutal bed, white hearse, Los Angeles, Di Maggio! Los Angeles! Miller! Los Angeles! America! Accusative tone Series of rhetorical questions. Rhetoric (using language effectively and persuasively) is used to make the reader re-evaluate his/her opinion of the media. Mirrors the snap-shot click of cameras?

4. Metaphor – creates an image of her innocence while painting a picture of a person broken down by the demands of the life she led. This image of abandonment evokes the reader’s pity... and anger. The Death of Marilyn Monroe What innocence? Whose guilt? What eyes? Whose breast? Crumpled orphan, nembutal bed, white hearse, Los Angeles, Di Maggio! Los Angeles! Miller! Los Angeles! America! The public? Media? Film industry? who abandoned her?

5. It has been connected to many overdoses and has been used in assisted suicide. She died in her bed. The Death of Marilyn Monroe What innocence? Whose guilt? What eyes? Whose breast? Crumpled orphan, nembutal bed, white hearse, Los Angeles, Di Maggio! Los Angeles! Miller! Los Angeles! America! and produces a wide range of effects, from mild sedation to anaesthesia. The Coroner’s report of Marilyn Monroe’s death concluded her death was due to a massive overdose of 47 nembutal capsules. Nembutal is a barbiturate that acts as a central nervous system depressant…

6. Contrast – lines 2 and 3 slow the pace and introduce a sense of compassion. Usually associated with the death of a child... this continues the idea of child-like innocence. The Death of Marilyn Monroe What innocence? Whose guilt? What eyes? Whose breast? Crumpled orphan, nembutal bed, white hearse, Los Angeles, Di Maggio! Los Angeles! Miller! Los Angeles! America!

7. Morgan points the finger of blame at areas of Monroe’s life which he feels contributed to her destruction. The Death of Marilyn Monroe What innocence? Whose guilt? What eyes? Whose breast? Crumpled orphan, nembutal bed, white hearse, Los Angeles, Di Maggio! Los Angeles! Miller! Los Angeles! America! Pace accelerates again in line 4 – series of angry outbursts, punctuated by exclamation marks. Exclamation marks suggest the shouting of a news vendor.

8. Monroe’s 2nd and 3rd husbands - Joe Di Maggio (1954) and Arthur Miller (1956-61). The Death of Marilyn Monroe What innocence? Whose guilt? What eyes? Whose breast? Crumpled orphan, nembutal bed, white hearse, Los Angeles, Di Maggio! Los Angeles! Miller! Los Angeles! America! Repetition – emphasises the key part Los Angeles (i.e. the American film industry) had in her death. American public. Film industry.

9. Ironic paradox – suggests that life is so intolerable that death is seen as a welcome release. Death was the only friend Monroe could turn to in her despair. Personification – Death as kind figure. That Death should seem the only protector - That all arms should have faded, and the great cameras and lights become an inquisition and a torment - That the many acquaintances, the autograph hunters, the inflexible directors, the drive-in admirers should become a blur of incomprehension and pain - Melancholic tone. Shows the pompous self-indulgence of the selfish and uncaring film industry. The film industry, and the fame that went with it, became instruments of torture to Monroe.

10. The people who surrounded her were there because of her name and fame, not because they were her friends. ‘autograph hunters’ - idea of relentless pursuit. Builds up a picture of loneliness. That Death should seem the only protector - That all arms should have faded, and the great cameras and lights become an inquisition and a torment - That the many acquaintances, the autograph hunters, the inflexible directors, the drive-in admirers should become a blur of incomprehension and pain - The sense of emotional isolation is conveyed most effectively here... ‘drive-in admirers’ are literally separated from the real person by two screens, the movie screen and the car windscreen.

11. That Death should seem the only protector - That all arms should have faded, and the great cameras and lights become an inquisition and a torment - That the many acquaintances, the autograph hunters, the inflexible directors, the drive-in admirers should become a blur of incomprehension and pain - These dramatic pauses invite the reader to consider the extent to which the media and public controlled Monroe’s life. Caesuras in lines 5, 7 and 10 – creates an audible pause that breaks up lines of verse.

12. which intensifies the sense of Monroe’s insecurity and confusion… Personification - uncertainty is portrayed as a sleazy voyeur, preying on her pain and naivety while luring her to her death… and introduces the idea that she was no longer in control of her life. That lonely Uncertainty should limp up, grinning, with bewildering barbiturates, and watch her undress and lie down and in her anguish call for him! Call for him to strengthen her with what could only dissolve her! A method of dying, we are shaken, we see it. Strasberg! who treated her as their possession to “watch” any time they wanted. This voyeuristic control destroyed her and led to her death. “uncertainty” may represent the public...

13. That lonely Uncertainty should limp up, grinning, with bewildering barbiturates, and watch her undress and lie down and in her anguish call for him! Call for him to strengthen her with what could only dissolve her! A method of dying, we are shaken, we see it. Strasberg! and the placing of “bewildering barbiturates” at the beginning of the line... emphasises her bewilderment and Morgan’s pity for her. The hard alliterative sound of the ‘b’...

14. The use of the pronoun ‘we’ shows solidarity between the reader and the poet... It also shows that the poet and reader, as members of the public, are not entirely blameless for her death, as we eagerly consume celebrity gossip. and provides a contrast to Monroe’s loneliness. That lonely Uncertainty should limp up, grinning, with bewildering barbiturates, and watch her undress and lie down and in her anguish call for him! Call for him to strengthen her with what could only dissolve her! A method of dying, we are shaken, we see it. Strasberg! This refers to Lee Strasberg’s particularly stylised ‘method’ acting studied by Monroe. Her death has a theatrical quality to it.

15. Repetition - further reinforces the film industry’s role in her death. Los Angeles! Olivier! Los Angeles! Others die and yet by this death we are a little shaken, we feel it, America.

16. Olivier also directed the film and there was a great deal of conflict on the set between Monroe and him. He became frustrated with his co-star, often raising his voice in anger and occasionally insulting her. Laurence Olivier, who starred with Marilyn in ‘The Prince and the Showgirl’ (1957). Los Angeles! Olivier! Los Angeles! Others die and yet by this death we are a little shaken, we feel it, America. She relied on prescription drugs to alleviate her fears and insecurities while making the film. Marilyn responded by arriving on the set hours late and sometimes failing to show up at all.

17. and reminds us that, in a world almost desensitised by death, this one is different, it touches us. The poet himself enters the poem again... Los Angeles! Olivier! Los Angeles! Others die and yet by this death we are a little shaken, we feel it, America.

18. Begins by emphasising the importance of communication in people’s lives. Morgan goes on to comment more directly on her death. Secret language. Let no one say communication is a cantword. They had to lift her hand from the bedside telephone. But what she had not been able to say perhaps she had said. 'All I had was my life.

19. Let no one say communication is a cantword. They had to lift her hand from the bedside telephone. But what she had not been able to say perhaps she had said. 'All I had was my life. She died trying to reach out to someone. Morgan quotes Monroe’s words. Emphasises her loneliness and isolation.

20. I have no regrets, because if I made any mistakes, I was responsible. There is now - and there is the future. What has happened is behind. So it follows you around? So what?' - This to a friend, ten days before. Morgan reports Monroe’s words ‘to a friend, ten days before’ her death. This gives us an insight into her attitude towards life. For Monroe, all that mattered was the present and the future... and she was a person who lived life to the full and regretted nothing.

21. Prepares reader for his hard hitting concluding lines Strong sense of irony And so she was responsible. And if she was not responsible, not wholly responsible, Los Angeles? Los Angeles? Will it follow you around? Will the slow white hearse of the child of America follow you around?

22. Prepares reader for his hard hitting concluding lines. Strong sense of irony And so she was responsible. And if she was not responsible, not wholly responsible, Los Angeles? Los Angeles? Will it follow you around? Will the slow white hearse of the child of America follow you around? Poem ends as it began... with a series of questions... focusing on responsibility and innocence.

23. emphasising the extent to which Morgan blames the pressures of celebrity for Marilyn’s death. “Los Angeles” is repeated seven times in the poem… And so she was responsible. And if she was not responsible, not wholly responsible, Los Angeles? Los Angeles? Will it follow you around? Will the slow white hearse of the child of America follow you around? Repeats Monroe’s words in a rhetorical question. but Los Angeles, and American society in general, is unwilling to accept any responsibility for the part it played in her death. The reader is forced to see that while Marilyn was willing to accept responsibility for her life…

24. Repeats image of white hearse. Reinforces the idea of Monroe’s innocence and vulnerability. And so she was responsible. And if she was not responsible, not wholly responsible, Los Angeles? Los Angeles? Will it follow you around? Will the slow white hearse of the child of America follow you around? Monroe was a ‘child of America’ - born there, produced by the American film industry, and she possessed a child-like innocence. This metaphor further strengthens this idea of innocence and encapsulates the poem’s themes. The finger of blame is pointed firmly at American society.

25. The reader is left feeling ‘Mother America’ has abdicated all responsibility for her child. This metaphor also contains an implied sense of parental responsibility on the part of American society. And so she was responsible. And if she was not responsible, not wholly responsible, Los Angeles? Los Angeles? Will it follow you around? Will the slow white hearse of the child of America follow you around? Monroe was a ‘child of America’ - born there, produced by the American film industry, and she possessed a child-like innocence. This metaphor further strengthens this idea of innocence and encapsulates the poem’s themes. The finger of blame is pointed firmly at American society.