‘Havisham’
Learning Objective:
To be able to explore and explain the
way in which relationships are
presented through language in
‘Havisham.’
Higher grade criteria
A
Evaluate
and
imagine
You weigh up how effective the
method is. You use your own
judgements and invent your own ways
of looking at a poem.
B
You delve deeper into the poet’s
Analyse methods. You examine them as if under
a microscope.
C
You investigate and look at points in
Explore detail. You see that there is more to
discover.
Background
• Miss Havisham is a character from
‘Great Expectations’;
• She is jilted by her scheming fiancé
before they are married;
• She remains in her wedding dress for
the rest of her life whilst plotting her
revenge on all men.
Stanza 1
‘dark green pebbles for
eyes’
Stanza 2
‘trembling if I open the wardrobe’
Stanza 3
‘Some nights better’
Stanza 4
‘A red balloon bursting…’
‘A white veil.’
Oxymoron shows combination
of feelings
Enjambment
Beloved sweetheart bastard. Not a day since then
I haven’t wished him dead. Prayed for it
Metaphor
so hard I’ve dark green pebbles for eyes,
ropes on the back of my hands I could strangle with.
Metaphor used to emphasise
strength of hands.
Her means
of revenge.
One word sentence is
what society sums her up
as
She sees her life as decay and memories
Spinster. I stink and remember. Whole days
Makes her
sound like an
animal
in bed cawing Nooooo at the wall; the dress
yellowing, trembling if I open the wardrobe;
Turning or twisting
the slewed mirror, full-length, her, myself, who
Sounds like
did this
she no longer
recognises
what she has
become
Suggesting that
at night she is
able to dream
Purplish-red
to me? Puce curses that are sounds not words.
She asks who has
made her this way
The man she might
have married
Some nights better, the lost body over me,
my fluent tongue in its mouth in its ear
then down till I suddenly bite awake. Love’s
What is the effect
of ‘bite awake?’
Use of oxymoron to show
unstable mixture of
Havisham’s feelings.
Suggests celebrations that did
not take place. What else might
‘red’ suggest?
hate behind a white veil; a red balloon bursting
in my face. Bang. I stabbed at a wedding-cake.
Give me a male corpse for a long slow honeymoon.
Don’t think it’s only the heart that b-b-b-breaks.
Combines
both love
and
revenge
Stammered words to
suggest a kind of
collapse
Subject
Write a short description of what the poem is about.
Theme
What are the main ideas in the poem?
Meaning
Is the poem straightforward or ambiguous? What do
you think it means?
Tone and mood
Comment on the poem’s tone and mood. Does the
poem make use of any irony or humour?
Interesting details
Comment on any details that you find interesting in
the poem.
Structure and form
Describe the structure and form of the poems – look
at such things as rhyme, rhythm, stanza form.
Key images
Look for key images in the poem. Say what the image is;
what it means and how it works in the poem.
Personal response
Give your own response to the poem, with reasons.
Questions to consider
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Why does the poet omit Miss Havisham's title and
refer to her by her surname only?
Why does the poet write ‘spinster’ on its own?
What does Miss Havisham think about this word and
its relevance to her?
What is the effect of “Nooooo” and “b-b-breaks”?
Why are these words written in this way?
What is the meaning of the image of ‘a red balloon
bursting?
Does Miss Havisham have a fair view of men?
What do you think of her view of being an
unmarried woman?
• Perhaps the most important part of the
poem is the question ‘who did this/to
me?’
• How far does the poem show that Miss
Havisham is responsible for her own
misery, and how far does it support her
feelings of self-pity and her desire for
revenge?
• What is PEE?
• Point
• Evidence (quote)
• Explain
Consider the way Carol Ann
Duffy presents the speaker of
the poem.
Sample introduction to your
answer
• In the poem ‘Havisham’ Carol Ann Duffy
presents Miss Havisham as bitter and twisted
through her use of language. She shows her
as wanting revenge on her finance who left
her on her wedding day. However Miss
Havisham also seems confused at times.