Dorothy Parker

An American critic, satirical poet, and short-story writer, Dorothy Rothschild Parker, b. West End, N.J., Aug. 22, 1893, d. June 7, 1967, is remembered as much for her flashing verbal exchanges and malicious wit as for the disenchanted stories and sketches in which she revealed her underlying pessimism. Starting her career as Vanity Fair's drama critic (1917-20) and continuing as the New Yorker's theater and book reviewer (1927-33), Parker enhanced her legend in the 1920s and early 1930s through membership in the Algonquin Hotel's celebrated Round Table. Parker published her first light verse in Enough Rope (1927) and Death and Taxes (1931), volumes marked by an elegant economy of expression, sophisticated cynicism, and irony. (Frewin, 1987, p12-13)

The act of getting a gun would take too much effort because they are not legal. Once one had acquired the gun, would they really have the mindset to pull the trigger? Ropes, belts, or bathrobe ties would all be possible instruments used to hang oneself. Nooses give, implies that a person would most likely have a problem successfully making or finding a noose that would work (6). However, if one was to find an instrument that would hold their weight one may have second thoughts as they gasp for that last breath (the last breath that comes before the breaking of one s neck from the pressure). Gassing oneself would be unpleasant. Just the fact that one would have to smell the gas until they passed out would make the mind deteriorates and possibly causes that person to re-think their decision.

After all these considerations, the speaker has found some flaw in each method. The conclusion is reached that suicide is too much work. Death is not seen as a solution, you might as well live (8), is the last line of the poem. In that the speaker has Barton 3 realized living would be much easier than committing the act of suicide. Suicide is seen to be a way out of life, but after evaluation of all the methods, the suicidal person does not want to end their life anymore. However, the reader is not provided with why the speaker wants to discontinue their life. The reader is lead to believe that the speaker has no happiness in their life. There is no happy way to die.

Happiness is rarely found in the speaker s life in Symptom Recital. In this poem, the ...