"True Apothecary!..."

Poison is the order of the day. Perhaps the most famous literary poisoning is that of Shakespeare's Romeo, who, upon hearing that his beloved Juliet is dead, buys poison and then drinks it himself. (Little did he know that she was only feigning death - but thats what happens when you jump the gun.) I love the way that this scene is portrayed in 'Shakespeare in Love' by Gwenyth Paltrow. The film really does capture the whole 'play within a play' thing.

 "O true apothecary!
Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die."
Romeo and Juliet (V, iii, 119-120)


 Poison has been a popular murder weapon and suicide method throughout history, and 'Romeo and Juliet' is just one example. Other notables do, of course, include Hamlet (Not only the poison in the ear, but the poison-dipped dagger/sword used by Laertes..), Madam Bovary, and more recently films such as 'Casino Royale' and 'Chicago'.

In  'Casino Royale', 007 James Bond is poisoned during a game of cards, and when having tried drinking some water he still cannot recover and begins to go into cardiac arrest, there is a panicked phonecall back to headquarters in which he is instructed to use the supplied self-defribulation kit to restart his heart. The music in the background adds to the suspense and had me gripping the edge of my seat:


 As I think we have discussed in the seminars, poison has become the most frequented murder weapon of women in particular. Whether this is because, stereotypically, women have easier access to the food that the murder victim would be eating, or because it is simply easier on the conscience to put a few drips of poison into a drink or plate of food than it is to pull the trigger on a gun or physically stab a person, I do not know. But as famously stated by one of the murderesses in Cook County Jail, "Some guys just can't handle their arsenic". One of my favourite musicals (I'm a bit of a musical junkie - my iPod is full to the brim of musical soundtracks - some of which never even became popular in England) is Chicago. In particular, I like the 'Cell Block Tango', and no - not just because I learnt the dance back when I did ballet/jazz:


This is an excellent song to listen to when you've just broken up with your boyfriend, or found your husband cheating or have any reason to feel murderous. (Lets face it - 'hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. ' Bonus points if you know where that came from.) I find the song just encapsulates everything that Rita, the heroin from Devil's Food featured in my previous blog post, must have felt - only she got away with murder.

Unquestionably, my favourite poisoning in modern literature happens to be the accidental poisoning of Ronald Weasley, in J.K.Rowling's Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

"Ron had dropped his glass; he half-rose from his chair and then crumpled, his extremities jerking uncontrollably. Foam was dribbling from his mouth and his eyes were bulging from their sockets...[he] twitched and choked: his skin was turning blue." (Rowling, 2005: pp372)

Poor Ron suffers one of the most unlucky birthdays at the hands of Rowling: First, he unwittingly a few Chocolate Cauldrons spiked with a particularly potent love potion which were in actual fact targetted at Harry. (That's where greed will get you.) Then, just as he sobers up from his brief infatuation with (previously unknown) Romilda Vane, he is subject to a very near fatal poison, originally meant for Professor Dumbledore. (Although this is not revealed straight away.) Luckily, Harry is quick to act, and manages to find a bezoar - a stone found in the stomach of a goat which will act as an antidote to almost any poison. As if his coming-of-age could not get any worse, he then accidentally murmered Hermione Granger's name whilst in recovery, instead of his then-girlfriend, Lavender Brown's name. This, as you might imagine, caused some friction between the pair when he was fully recovered.

My conclusion for this post, is that murder is either a weapon of desperation and/or lack of resourcefulness, for example, the desperate housewife situation. Or, it is a sly, hidden way of committing murder - a coward's way out. (Sorry all you Draco lovers - he was never going to get the..ba-...guts to do it properly!)



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