Technically, there are no characters in Murder in the Dark. Rather, there is the allknowing and all-seeing presence of the narrator—the emphatically reinforced "I" of the poems—interspersed with partial characters like "C" in "Horror Comics" or the brother in "Making Poison." The man, the beggar, and the ambivalent You in "Raw Materials" serve only as extensions of the narrative voice that develops throughout the collection. Like the partial characters "C" or the beggar, the "I" and "You" of the poems are metaphorical identities; they are anyone; they are everyone; they could be you.