Havisham
Discussion Point…
 Describe something in your life that you
have strong, mixed or contradictory
feelings about.
 Describe why this person/place/issue etc.
makes you feel this way.
 What impact does this have on you as a
person?
Important points to consider when reading
the poem
Miss Havisham is a character from the novel Great
Expectations by Charles Dickens.
Miss Havisham was left at the
altar some years before we first
meet her, and has never
changed out of her wedding
dress.
Havisham
She is a rather pathetic figure but also hates men
as a result of having been left: throughout Great
Expectations she spends her time trying to take her
revenge on all men.
Duffy’s intentions…
 The poem seeks to make us understand Havisham.
 The first person narrative enables the reader to
empathise (rather than sympathise) with her feelings.
 The anger expressed in the poem gives a sense of her
reclaiming her ability to change things, as opposed to
just being a victim.
 The possibility of being only a victim is suggested by
the wailing question of who did this to her.
Form and Structure
 The poem is written in four stanzas which are
unrhymed.
 Many of the lines run on, and the effect is like
normal speech.
 The poem is written in free verse, in that it has no
regular pattern of metre or rhyme. It is, however,
arranged in four stanzas of equal length (has egs of
internal rhyme), which suggests some control in its
speaker, undermining the madness the character is
known for, which is one of the points of the poem.
Form and Structure
 A dramatic monologue, Havisham is written in
the first person, with the poet assuming the
voice of a character (a persona).
 This form enables us to understand her
thoughts because she is speaking them
directly. There is no sense of an audience, so
she appears to be speaking to herself.
Havisham – Verse 1
Oxymoron – Suggests love and hate. Ambivalent, contradictory, and conflicting ideas and
feelings. It is pretty clear that Miss Havisham has these kinds of feelings about this man
1) Beloved sweetheart bastard. Not a day since then
The Wedding
Alliteration ‘B’ emphasises anger. The very first sentence in the poem is just three nouns in a row, without a
verb. There are a number of other short and powerful fragments in the poem, which are deliberately used for
effect. They create a sense of anger.
2) I haven’t wished him dead. Prayed for it
Enjambement – Run
on lines
Not only wished for her fiancé's death; she's prayed for it. And she's prayed for it
hard. Poem has taken on a distinctly sinister tone.
Assonance -"hard" and "dark." A repetition of similar vowel sounds. Used often in this poem.
3) so hard I’ve dark green pebbles for eyes,
Metaphor - Green as the colour of jealousy and greed, and sometimes even the colour of sickness. And
pebbles are hard and small. Her fiancé's betrayal has left her jealous and hardened.
4) ropes on the back of my hands I could strangle with.
Metaphor - "ropes" on the back of her hands again show how Havisham has aged (Veins) and hardened over the
years. There is violence in this metaphor too, as they are ropes Havisham "could strangle with".
Havisham – Verse 2
Single word sentence – Negative word for an unmarried older woman - Denotes Her bitterness- what society
sums her up as. Monologue – get a glimpse into Miss Havisham's deepest thoughts (Stream of consciousness)
5) Spinster. I stink and remember. Whole days
She has never washed since her wedding day. She sees her life as decay and memories. She ‘remembers’,
suggests she has been stewing for decades, recalling every bit of unhappiness that she has had to endure
because of her fiancé's actions.
6) in bed cawing Nooooo at the wall; the dress
Metaphor - of a parrot “CAWING” makes her sound like an animal. Might she be reliving the moment when she of
her fiancé's betrayal/bemoaning her current state of affairs? No one listening; she's just shouting at the wall.
Age
Internal Rhyme - repeated sounds of "Spinster. I stink and remember,"/"aw" sounds of caw and wall
combined with her short sentences claustrophobic? Trapped in Havisham's terrifing mind/ repeated thoughts
7) yellowing, trembling if I open the wardrobe;
Personification, As if dress waiting to be put back away / she lterally trembles when looking at the clothes of her past.
Mirror. She sees herself first as a "her," as if she doesn't recognize herself and what she's become. Mirror is
"slewed," or turned/broken and warped, like a funhouse mirror. She could also be drunk
8) the slewed mirror, full-length, her, myself, who did
Full-length, giving Havisham a clear view of her entire body - old, yellowing, and wasting away. “Myself."
this
Havisham faces facts – she's the one in the mirror.
identity crisis. She no longer knows who is to blame. Split personality? she's staring at herself. And because these
words follow "myself," and there's no question mark after them, we might take it to mean she's blaming herself?
Havisham – Verse 3
Enjambment – Gives the poem new, unexpected layer. Suddenly seems that she believes she's not
at fault. Someone has done something to her/doesn't seem to take blame for the shape of her life.
9) to me? Puce curses that are sounds not words.
Colour of deep red to purple-brown suggests old
blood which represents old wounds
(compare line 6) Suggests she no longer can access
language to express her feelings – where pain is so deep
there is no language available to describe it
10) Some nights better, the lost body over me,
Conversational/Change to Lighthearted tone – Suggests Dreaming
of man and intimacy with him are when some nights are better
‘Its’ She depersonalizes him; in this moment, he's just a ‘body’
or object to her. Continues to imagine intimacy between them
Husband she never had Lost to her /
also creates sexual imagery of body in
her dreams
11) my fluent tongue in its mouth in its ear
This violence ‘bite’ is picked up towards the end of the poem. The ‘suddenness’ ends the fantasy and wakes
her – and us as the reader to the viciousness of the attack (or dreamed attack) Implied revenge?
12) then down till I suddenly bite awake. Love’s
Enjambment - Finally, we get a lingering word on the last line of the stanza:
"Love's." Again, builds expectation.
Havisham – Verse 4
Oxymoron - ‘Love’s hate’ - She doesn’t trust love
as it let her down. Also shows her confusion – she's
trapped between hating and loving him.
Triple meaning – ‘white’ suggests innocence, ‘white veil’
represents the wedding, ‘veil’ represents in feminist terms
that she is concealing something (Hate?)
13) hate behind a white veil; a red balloon bursting
Metaphor - Suggests celebrations that did not take place. Used to express her
embarrassment (the veil concealed this) and the end of her innocence/dreams.
‘Red’ suggests anger,
Alliteration of `b’ and plosive
sound suggest violence.
14) in my face. Bang. I stabbed at a wedding-cake.
Onomatopoeia - Short sentence for
effect – also represents the shock
she experienced.
Violent imagery ‘Stabbed’ shows literally her anger at the time and
metaphorically shows her opinion on marriage.
15) Give me a male corpse for a long slow honeymoon.
Use of dark repulsive image. Reference to death/corpse links to idea that the ‘honeymoon’ would provide the long
painful death she wants for him. Combines both love and revenge(a final triumph?). Rather have him dead than
have him reject her(bitter/twisted) making the reader less understanding of Havisham.
16) Don’t think it’s only the heart that b-b-b-breaks.
Use of plosive ‘b’ in a stuttering style, suggests the is breaking/crying/collapsing. She conveys that her
life/mind/body has broken as a result – not just her heart. Pathos (emotional appeal) to reader – pity. May also refer
to length of time her heart has been broken and the possibility of a stabbing, violent action towards the bridegroom