Havisham
by Carol Ann Duffy
from Mean Time [1998]
Links
Link to media presentation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOsmZqClgBA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1-CMmAocww Jean Simmons
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-bjy28dNiQ Whole film Great
Expectations
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzYNG1FgMNkMiss
H’s Ghosts
She was dressed in rich materials — satins, and lace, and silks — all of
white. Her shoes were white. And she had a long white veil dependent from
her hair, and she had bridal flowers in her hair, but her hair was white.
Some bright jewels sparkled on her neck and on her hands, and some other
jewels lay sparkling on the table. Dresses, less splendid than the dress she
wore, and half-packed trunks were scattered about. She had not quite
finished dressing, for she had but one shoe on — the other was on the table
near her hand — her veil was half arranged, her watch and chain were not
put on, and some lace for her bosom lay with those trinkets and with her
handkerchief, and gloves, and some flowers, and a prayer-book, all
confusedly heaped about the looking-glass.
It was not in the first moments that I saw all these things, though I saw more
of them in the first moments than might be supposed. But, I saw that
everything within my view which ought to be white, had been white long
ago, and had lost its lustre, and was faded and yellow. I saw that the bride
within the bridal dress had withered like the dress, and like the flowers, and
had no brightness left but the brightness of her sunken eyes. I saw that the
dress had been put upon the rounded figure of a young woman, and that
the figure upon which it now hung loose, had shrunk to skin and bone.
Once, I had been taken to see some ghastly wax-work at the Fair,
representing I know not what impossible personage lying in state. Once, I
had been taken to one of our old marsh churches to see a skeleton in the
ashes of a rich dress, that had been dug out of a vault under the church
pavement. Now wax-work and skeleton seemed to have dark eyes that
moved and looked at me. I should have cried out, if I could.
[Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, p50]
Learning Intentions
I will develop a knowledge and understanding of the complexities of
poetic language.
I will convey information using specialist terminology, analysis and
evaluation of texts.
I will persuade, argue and evaluate using supporting evidence from
the text.
I will structure a convincing analytical examination of key areas of
the text. In written and spoken forms.
I will make relevant notes and organise them in a coherent way to
create new texts.
I will read primary and secondary sources to expand my
understanding of texts.
I will present my ideas in a fluent way that is appropriate to my
audience.
I will examine the interpretation of written/spoken/ performed texts
and evaluate effectiveness.
Collaborative Learning
All must take notes.
All must present findings to whole class.
All must contribute to discussions and
presentations.
----------------------------------------------------------Groups could study:
1. Mood, imagery,
2. Characterisation, themes,
3. Narrative voice and tone
4. Structure and word choice.
5. Symbolism and literary devices
SPIRIT of poetry
S=
P=
I =
R=
I =
T =
Structure
Poetic Techniques
Imagery
Rhythm and Rhyme
Ideas
Tone
Introduction
Restate the question in your own words. (Use
key words from the task).
Mention the name of the writer and the title of
the text.
State your intentions. (How are you going to
answer the question / complete the task).
FOCUS ON THREE AREAS IF POSSIBLE.
[TART]
TART
Title of text
Author
Response to question/topic.
Techniques and aspects you will examine.
-----------------------------------------------------Attempt to be stylish and intelligent – but above all
else keep your writing clear and intelligible.
Havisham
by Carol Ann Duffy
Write about a poem that deals with the
subject of love.
Examine how the poet explores the subject
and explain to what extent you found the
treatment effective.
[You may consider: theme, structure,
imagery, tone, mood, symbolism,
character, narrative voice and style.]
Essay Question 2
Choose a poem which takes a pessimistic view
of some aspect[s]of life.
Briefly state what the poem is about and go on
to show how the techniques used convey these
pessimistic feelings.
In your answer you must refer to the text and to
at least two of: tone, word choice, imagery,
rhythm, or any other appropriate feature.
Essay Question 3
Choose a poem that communicates the
experience of loss or isolation.
Show how the poet communicates the
experience in a way you found meaningful.
In your answer you must refer to the text
and to at least two of: tone, word choice,
imagery, rhythm, or any other appropriate
feature.
Essay Question 4
Choose a poem that creates an
interesting, tragic, sinister or humorous
character.
Show how the poet uses various poetic
techniques to make the character feel real
to you.
[You may consider: theme, structure,
imagery, tone, mood, symbolism,
character, narrative voice and style.]
Havisham
by Carol Ann Duffy
How far does the poet want us to sympathize with
Havisham? [List elements of sympathy / disgust]
Why does the reader have to know about Great
Expectations to understand the poem?
Does 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?” Discuss.
How far does the poem show that Havisham is
responsible for her own misery, and how far does
it support her feelings of self-pity and her desire
for revenge?
Havisham
by Carol Ann Duffy
Explain how the word ‘stink’ expresses
self-loathing.
What does it mean that Duffy has used
‘great economy of language’?
How effectively does Duffy convey the
idea that Havisham hates the word
‘spinster’?
Discuss in turn what each colour
represents and what Duffy is trying to
convey through its use.
Other than the wedding celebration, what
could the red balloon which bursts
symbolise?.
Havisham
by Carol Ann Duffy
In your groups prepare a presentation on your stanza.
``
Examine:
Mood, imagery,
Characterisation, themes,
Narrative voice and tone
Structure and word choice.
Symbolism and literary devices
------------------------------------------------------------------------1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Enjambement, metaphor, simile, oxymoron, dark
imagery, climax,
Analyse word choice and aspects of punctuation.
You should also refer to how mood is created,
How Duffy uses characterisation, tone and
symbolism
1. ‘Alphabet Group’: Mood and
Imagery
Beloved sweetheart bastard. Mood starts as being loving and caring
and changes almost immediately as the word ‘bastard’ is
incongruous to the other words in the phrase. The mood from this
word on is very sinister. (Oxymoron)
‘Love’s hate behind a white veil’: her change of emotions is instant,
‘Bang’ shows this. The love turns to hate in an anger fuelled
outburst, ‘red’ symbolising this.
‘Dark green pebbles for eyes’ suggests her envy for all those who
are happy in the world. The symbolic green colour, for envy, is
further darkened and the stonelike pebbles represent her harsh
outlook on the world.
‘Ropes on the backs of my hands I could strangle with’ suggests old
age and violent intentions. She is still enraged, obsessed, insane
with anger , jealousy, revenge, despair and loneliness.
1. 5DMood and Imagery
Twisted love letter: ‘Beloved Sweetheart Bastard.’ Ironic tone, mood
is sinister due to the powerful contrasting, contradicting, oxymoronic
wordchoice.
Levels of malice and hatred change throughout the poem:
Strangling, stabbing and praying for death are contrasted with
fantasy elements of a wedding night. However the sinister mood
intensifies as the ‘Bites awake’ into the reality of her loneliness and
isolation.
The image of ‘dark green pebbles for eyes’ is effective in conveying
Havisham’s jealousy and her harsh stony outlook on the world. The
symbolic green colour, representing envy, is further emphasised by
using the word ‘dark’ to suggest her depth of hatred.
‘love’s hate behind a white veil’ is an oxymoron that places love and
hate side by side and conceals both emotions behind the symbolic
bridal veil that is ironically white. The veil also conceals her face,
emotions and mental decay.
2. 5Dcharacterisation and
themes
She has a harsh, hissing, (plosive) narrative voice. She seems to
spit the word ‘Spinster’ out because she hates the idea of being
unmarried, unwanted, unfulfilled as a woman of that period.
‘Ropes on the backs of my hands I could strangle with’ suggests she
is physically becoming older and emotionally more hateful.
The themes of love and hate are explored as binary oppositions. Her
love was so intense that the rejection by her lover made her only
focus in life hatred.
Isolation, loneliness, revenge, self-pity, being unloved.
3.5DNarrative voice and tone.
‘Cawing Nooooo at the wall’. Shows self-pity but makes the reader
feel sympathy for the narrator as she appears pathetic and lost.
Cawing suggests a crow sound and the use of neologism in
Nooooo, to extend the word no, suggests an animalistic persona
where language has broken down into a series of sounds only she
can understand.
‘Bang,’ is used to show how quickly her life changed but is ironically
understated as no exclamation mark is used. Her tone here seems
in disbelief here and disappointed. She then turns violent and stabs
the wedding cake, returning to her hateful tone.
4. 5D Structure and wordchoice
Contrasting wordchoice starts the poem and shocks the reader.
Plosive b sounds create a menacing mood and creates a dramatic
monologue that is cathartic as it reveals all the narrator’s innermost
feelings and emotions. She appears hateful yet vulnerable as the
poem is structured like a twisted love letter or secret diary entry and
this makes the reader feel guilty or voyeuristic.
Praying for death, suggests she has some form of demonic sense of
injustice and wants her lover dead.
Cawing = symbolic of death, crow sound, darkness, language
becomes merely sounds, animalistic.
Colour symbolism: Red, white ,yellow, puce, green, black????
Who did this to me: central point of poem, moment of clarity.
Rhetorical question, enjambment, pause from line to line make the
question more dramatic. Direct speech to reader: we answer the
question in our minds: she did it to herself.
2. 5A Character and theme
The theme of despair is explored and can be seen in the line
‘Cawing Nooooo at the wall’. She seems isolated, alone and
deperate, her language has become a series of animalistic sounds
due to the character’s, self-imposed, lack of human contact.
The main themes of the poem are the binary oppositions love and
hate. The love turns to hate as ‘a red balloon bursting in (her) face’
quickly changed her emotions and focused her life in a very negative
way. ‘Bang.’ is understated as no exclamation mark is present and
suggests her isolation, disappointment, disgust and tragic
resignation to her fate.
Anger is shown when the narrator ‘stabs at a wedding cake.’ This is
a metaphorical murder of marriage and the love she once had.
Her aspect on the world seems clouded by jealousy as she has
‘dark green pebbles for eyes’. The word ‘dark’ intensifies the
symbolic green for envy into a malicious outlook that saw no value in
the world.
3. 5A Narrative voice and Tone
Tone is bitter at the start, ironic, angry and hateful words are placed in
juxtaposition to loving words.
A structure similar to a love letter starts the poem but the narrative voice
creates a bitter tone and bitter irony, as we soon realise that the narrator is
writing a cathartic letter or diary entry that we are not supposed to read.
This makes the reader feel awkward and isolated as they are viewing
something they should not be, but it also attracts them to the narrator’s
world and situation.
‘Spinster.’ shows the narrators self-hatred and this is emphasised through
the hissing ‘s’ sound. She seems to spit the word out at the world, rejecting
it and herself as it seems to personify her existence.
The ‘yellowing’ dress, the ‘slewed mirror’ show her as she really is; aging,
decaying and not recognisable to her own visions of herself. She tragically
asks: ‘who did this to me’ and the reader must decide who is to blame for
her situation. This use of direct speech is very effective and haunts the
reader as they answer the question: it is her fault!
5.5A Symbolism and Literary
devices.
Metaphors are used ‘sounds not words’ suggests that, in her isolation, language has
become a series of animalistic sounds that reflect her erratic, unstable, despairing,
self-loathing mental state.
The oxymoron: ‘love’s hate behind a white veil’ conceals the impact of her being
rejected. ‘A red balloon bursting…’ symbolises love and hate in this context as her
emotions seem to become combined as she realises her fate.
She fantasises of her wedding night and dehumanises her lover by calling him ‘it’ and
then states she desires a ‘male corpse for a long slow honeymoon’, this shows that
the narrator has had a long slow life, dressed in her wedding gown and decaying
physically and mentally as a corpse may. She sees her lover as corpse as he
symbolically died the day of their wedding.
Colour symbolism is used throughout and Duffy subverts our normal perceptions of
these colours.
‘Don’t think it’s only the heart that b-b-b-breaks.’ Ambiguity is used to offer many
interpretations of the ending. The repeated ‘b’ sound could be the last beats of her
breaking heart, it could be her voice breaking as she remembers her fate, it could be
her last words as she finally emotionally and physically breaks.
4. Structure and word choice
Spinster is a one word sentence and emphasises her sense of
isolation.
‘Who did this to me’ is an epiphany. It shows a moment of rare
clarity for Havisham, as she realises that she is the cause of her
own suffering. It may be seen as the turning point of the poem as it
links past with present.
Two stanzas past (one line present- who did…)
Two stanzas past (one line present- …heart that b-b-b-breaks)
Her violence is present right to the end of the poem as she stabs at
the wedding cake, metaphoricaly killing the concept of marriage.
5.Symbolism and literary
devices
Mood, imagery, 5D1Tristan, Matthew, Jack
Beloved Sweetheart bastard [oxymoron] hateful mood established.
Ropes [death/strangulation/murder]
dark green pebbles, sickly colour, decay. Jealousy, stone like gaze, windows to the soul and
Havisham has closed her soul to the outside world. Medusa connections as her harsh gaze
could turn you to stone.
Spinster. Minor sentence implies self-loathing, solitude and loneliness. Sounds menacing due to
hissing s.
Cawing NOOOO at the wall. Crowlike sound, connotations of death, decay. [onomatopoeia]
[Neologism = new word] Dehumanises her sounds/language. In denial of her loneliness.
Image of a tragic, lonely, desperate, bitter character, who relives her pain in isolation every day.
Lost body… fluent tongue… Bite Awake. Fantasy imagery, dreamworld is where she
sometimes feels ‘better’. Sexual connotations of wedding night that never was.
Puce curses that are sounds not words – sibilance creates menace, hissing s sound. Her evil
intent cannot be voiced through language and becomes unintelligible sounds of bitterness and
despair.
Yellowing dress, white wedding dress becomes a symbol of decay and decomposition as
opposed to love and unity.
Love’s hate behind a white veil. [oxymoron]
Red balloon. Symbolises her heart breaking/exploding. Bang! Onomatopoeia to emphasise the
impact on her.
Stabbing a wedding cake seems a violent attack on the concept of marriage.
Male corpse… long, slow honeymoon. Images of death and isolation create a sinister,
murderous mood.
B-b-b-breaks, mind, body and heart breaks. Image of broken woman, solitary and isolated. We
sympathise
Mood/Imagery. 5A1 Omar, Nicola
Amy
Opening lines suggest anger in the narrative voice. Cathartic/dramatic
monologue. Hatred against men/marriage.
Dark Green Pebbles – Jealousy, cold stone like view the world.
Ropes I could strangle with – violent death connotations, Tied to the
situation. Suggests old age also.
Sinister mood, Gothic imagery.
Stanza 2 continues to be sinister and introduces personal bitterness from
the character/narrator.
Sexual fantasy that is dreamlike. Lost Body. Bite Awake!!! Reality and
allusion
Cawing NOOOO at the wall. Neologism= creating new words for situations.
Negative wordchoice and sound effect [hyperbole] enhances the menace in
the statement
Puce curses [S sounds hissing alliteration/sibilance] No language can turn
the ‘sounds’ into meaning. Her evil intent is expressed in sounds only.
Mood changes in last stanza to sympathy due to the change in tone. The
harsh tone is replaced by what appears to be the narrator b-b-b-breaking
down
Almost like a letter at start and end.
Characterisation, themes, 5D1Abbie, Sheraine, Emma
Title Havisham is her family/maiden/single name. Her title
would have been ‘Miss’. She omits this as she is embarrassed
by her rejection and isolation.
She is decomposing as a person physically and mentally.
[Yellowing, spinster, stink.]
She is lonely and isolated. [Gothic figure]
Stuck in time and place, she looks into her wardrobe
‘trembling’. She gazes into the past to remember how things
could have been.
Ropes suggest murderous intentions.
Who did this to me? Self-denial? Blaming someone else?
Central question of the poem. She is responsible for her current
situation but circumstances from the past influenced her
decisions and her behaviour.
B-b-b-breaks signifies her breakdown emotionally and mentally.
Themes: Anger, aggression, embarrassment, isolation,
suffering, love, hate and despair. Death, betrayal, embitterment,
FEAR!!!!!!
Characterisation, themes, Polly, Susan, Jodie, Ilona
Havisham – title suggests no gender, possibly a place or object. We
consider ‘Miss’ as having connotations of youth, unmarried status. The
narrator is old, was jilted at the alter and is now embittered and driven by
hatred. CA Duffy removed the prefix Miss to add mystery and menace to the
character.
Not a day since then… Shows she lives in the past and dwells on the
incidents that made her what she has become. Wishes/prays for death!!!!
[word choice/imagery]
Spinster. Word seems spat out in disgust. It makes her feel unloved,
betrayed, unwanted. She becomes something she never wanted to be,
ALONE!!!! The word sounds like a curse to HERSELF. Hissing ‘s’ sounds
sinister and shocking.
I stink and remember… suggests her physical and emotional decay and the
fact that she can only live in the past. She sees no happy future.
Whole days in bed cawing NOOOO at the wall.
Dream world is where she feels sometimes ‘better’. She dreams of her
lover: [‘lost body’ corpse like image] Bites awake: violently she is jolted back
to reality.
Stabbed wedding cake – metaphor for killing her memories of her wedding
day. She may also be killing all things associated with the institution of
marriage: including the man! Theme of confusion, as ironically she wanted
to be married and is now alone.
THEMES: revenge, self-hatred, self-destruction, isolation, jealousy,
separation, desperation, death. Poem is a statement of grief.
Narrative voice and tone 5D1Zoe, Matthew, Nicola, Lorna,
Zoe
Strong and violent word choices create a aggressive, violent and disturbing tone.
Stab, strangle, dead, ropes.
1st person narrative [cathartic, personal, emotional.] Dramatic monologue tells her
story.
Stream of Consciousness = thoughts, memories, actions, speech and observations
creating a rambling, garbled effect.
[Suggests narrator may be mentally disturbed in this context.]
Where we may expect exclamation marks there are none. This gives the poem a
harsh, matter of fact tone that creates a disturbing mood and narrative voice.
Tone changes – Spinster. Stink, NOOO at the wall. Suggests she cannot identify
herself in a positive way. She describes herself using abstract nouns [her, spinster]
that emphasises her loneliness, her lack of companionship, her isolation from
society. Tone is bitter and pessimistic.
‘Who did this/to me? [Rhetorical question] tone is tragically pitiful, she knows the
answer is herself. The reader sees her now as a victim rather than a potential killer.
Dream world takes her away from reality. Bites awake. Violent image jolts her back
to reality. She has to escape and dreaming still reminds her of her situation.
Tone in last line changes from bitter, violent and aggressive to sad and afraid.
The repetition may suggest her heart breaking repeatedly, day after day and every
day.
It may suggest the last beats of her heart.
Narrative voice and tone 5A2 Liam, Connor, Michael,
Sarah
Tone seems emotional yet detached at the start due to the irony of the comment. [Oxymoron]
First person narrative [I] makes it more personal and cathartic.
‘Dark green pebbles for eyes’ symbolic of jealousy. Connotations of stone give the image a
harsh and menacing quality.
Cawing NOOOO at the wall. Suggests self-pity. Connotations of a crow sound, links to theme of
death. Neologism creates new word to signify her pain. No is a very negative word choice, and
she can only scream it at the wall. This shows the reader how isolated and lonely she has
become. Her tone is desperate and terrifying, but also appears afraid and vulnerable.
Who did this to me? She questions her own appearance. She seems surprised and shocked by
what she sees in the ‘slewed’ mirror. The distorted reflection seems to appear to her as a
physical manifestation of her mental state. She has become a twisted vision of a bride and
cannot comprehend how this has happened.
Trembling at opening the wardrobe shows her fear and reluctance to face her reality. She looks
into her past and finds disappointment and rejection. Dresses never worn remind her of her
situation and isolation.
Puce curses that are sounds not words. Supernatural blood coloured oaths suggest evil intent
and the tone now seems murderous. Verbal poison flows from her to her ex fiance. The hissing
‘s’ sound makes the tone menacing and shows that her words are now only garbled sounds.
She cannot put her feelings into words and only evil sounds come from her lips.
Word choices, throughout, create a menacing, disturbing tone. Mood is sinister and tense.
Corpse, Love’s hate behind a white veil. Images are dark / gothic / shocking.
Tone in last line changes from bitter, violent and aggressive to sad and afraid.
The repetition may suggest her heart breaking repeatedly, day after day and every day.
It may suggest the last beats of her heart.
Structure and word choice.5D1Breagh, Lewis Rebecca
4x4 lined stanzas = very tightly controlled structure.
Enjambement allows the lines to flow from stanza to stanza to create a rambling
STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS effect. That is cathartic and a dramatic monologue.
[ S of C= thoughts, reflections, words, actions, speech and memories to create a MONTAGE effect
that compresses Time, Space and Action.]
TWENTY YEARS OF SOLITUDE, HATRED AND DECAY, IN A TWENTY SECOND POEM!!!!!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -•
She talks about killing
•
She discusses what she has done to herself
•
Fantasy scenes of what could have been for her.
•
Anger, embarrassment and breakdown,
‘Bites awake’ – moves her from dreamstate to reality.
‘Spinster.’ Minor, one word sentence. Negative connotations meaning loneliness, single life,
isolation, lacking love? [Sounds menacing due to hissing ‘s’?]
‘Yellowing’ – white purity of wedding dress gone and the purity of her love. 20 years of isolation has
led to her physical and mental decay. Yellow has connotations of disease.
‘Lost body over me’ – romantic dream of her ‘husband’. Suggests death, loss and, ironically, love.
She still pictures herself with him as young lovers.
‘Red balloon bursting in my face’ – anger, embarrassment, humiliation. Red balloon may symbolise
her heart, not just’ b-b-b-breaking’, but dramatically exploding.
‘Cawing’ – crow-like cry [onomatopoeia]. Links to her older state/death
‘Beloved sweetheart bastard.’ [start]– ‘…b-b-b-breaks.’ [end]
Starts and ends on plosive ‘b’ sounds creating a cycle of her pain. Her vulnerability and fear are
shown at the end and her she seems to hide behind a mask of hatred - ‘loves hate behind a
white veil’ - at the start to cope with her rejection everyday.
Structure and word choice. Lauren M, Sophie, Laura,
Lauren H
Start and end of poem appear climactic. Plosive ‘b’ sound creates a dramatic
impact on the reader. It sounds harsh and emphatic and creates a cyclical
effect. Starts with an oxymoron [beloved sweetheart bastard] and ends with
mentioning the heart that b-b-b-breaks. By using references to ‘hearts’ at the
start and end we see how CA Duffy creates a unity in imagery.
A ‘sweetheart’ and a broken heart create a symmetry to the poem and puts
the heart as a symbol of love in different contexts.
Green pebbles suggest jealousy, decay, disease. Spinster. Isolation /
loneliness / lack of identity / completion.
Harsh violent words – dead, ropes, strangle, corpse, stabbed, bang.
4x4 line stanzas- 1 she discusses the man who left her. 2 Describes herself.
3 Fantasy world. 4 She describes her decline into despair and relates to the
circumstances that led to her isolation.
Symbolism and literary devices Jed, Grant, Euan, Jordan
Green pebbles – symbol of jealousy, envy, decay, disease. Stonelike eyes,
harshness of her glare on the world.
Death drives her purpose, it is her reason for living.
Ropes = old, death, strangling,
Yellowing = old, decaying,
Stink connotations of decay, self loathing, awareness of her decline. [Physical and
emotional]
Trembling = ambiguous, she/dress trembles.
Cawing NOOOO – image of isolation, sadness and fear.
Spinster. Symbolic of single female. Tone is disgusted and afraid. Her identity is
consumed by her unmarried status. Hissing s sound makes this minor sentence
sinister. Sibilance. She may be in denial that she will never be married and that is the
cause of her emotional turmoil.
PATHOS = suffering grief Gk. Evoking strong feelings of pity or sorrow.
Who did this/to me? [ambiguous]
Confronting herself for her position and condition? In denial of the fact that she is
responsible?
Colour symbolism: Puce curses. Blood colour,
Wedding cake, symbolises the institution of marriage. Stabbed = she murders the
concept of marriage.
PATHOS – pathetic lonely figure, we feel deeply sympathetic even though she
appears hateful, bitter and murderous to us. Her heart breaks constantly. The
bbbbreaks may be the last beats of a tragic, lovelorn heart.
Symbolism and literary devices: Bonnie, Michelle, Jodie,
Danielle, Jordan
Start is dramatic! Alliteration, Harsh b.
Wish him dead/prayed for it… Metaphorical murder is desired by H. This
murder only takes place in H’s mind, her life is played out in the past: in her
mind. This suggests her mental instability and her lack of action, as she
seems to be a total recluse.
Colour symbolism [Green= jealousy symbol. puce= sibilance hissing s,
white = purity, IRONY, oxymoron on love, red= metaphor for her life
exploding/heart bursting, yellow= age, decay, decline]
Rope = death, age, wringing emotions. SYMBOL
Spinster. Minor sentence. [A title of a single woman. Just as miss is - the
word CA Duffy omitted from the title.]
Her identity is embodied in this word. She is the word she hates most. She
appears to spit the word out at the world!!!!!
Cawing [crow sound, onomatopoeia, NOOOO neologism, creates the sound
of despair and isolation. At the wall – no one to speak to illustrates solitude
and loneliness.] IMAGE OF FEMALE ISOLATION AND PATHOS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lost body… Bite awake. Fantast IMAGERY. Dream world, escape.
Love’s hate behind a white veil. She is a personified as a symbol of ‘love’: as
a bride. This changes to ‘hate’ as the ‘red balloon’ of her hopes explodes in
front of her when she is rejected at the alter
Wedding cake symbolises marriage. Stabbed – suggests her killing the
concept of marriage.
Havisham
by Carol Ann Duffy
Beloved sweetheart bastard. Not a day since then
I haven’t wished him dead. Prayed for it
so hard I’ve dark green pebbles for eyes,
ropes on the back of my hands I could strangle with.
Spinster. I stink and remember. Whole days
in bed cawing Nooooo at the wall; the dress
yellowing, trembling if I open the wardrobe;
the slewed mirror, full-length, her, myself, who did this
to me? Puce curses that are sounds not words.
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
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.
Havisham
by Carol Ann Duffy
Havisham
by Carol Ann Duffy
Background:
This poem is a monologue spoken by ‘Miss’
Havisham, a character in Dickens' Great
Expectations.
Jilted by her scheming fiancé, she continues to wear
her wedding dress and sit amid the remains of her
wedding breakfast for the rest of her life, while she
plots revenge on all men.
She hates her spinster state - of which her unmarried
family name constantly reminds her (which may
explain the choice of title for the poem).
Havisham
by Carol Ann Duffy
Summary of Poem:
She begins by telling the reader the cause of her
troubles - her phrase “beloved sweetheart bastard”
is a contradiction in terms (called an oxymoron).
She tells us that she has prayed so hard (with
eyes closed and hands pressed together) that her
eyes have shrunk hard and her hands have
sinews strong enough to strangle with - which fits
her murderous wish for revenge.
(Readers who know Dickens' novel well might
think at this point about Miss Havisham's ward,
Estella - her natural mother, Molly, has strangled a
rival, and has unusually strong hands.)
Characterisation.
Havisham is aware of her own stink because she does not ever change her
clothes nor wash.
She stays in bed and screams in denial.
At other times she looks and asks herself
“who did this” to her?
She sometimes dreams almost tenderly or
erotically of her lost lover, but when she
wakes the hatred and anger return.
Thinking of how she “stabbed at the
wedding cake” she now wants to work out
her revenge on a “male corpse” presumably that of her lover.
Havisham
by Carol Ann Duffy
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 poet
uses many adjectives of colour - “green”, “puce”, “white”
and “red” and
lists parts of the body “eyes”, “hands”, “tongue”, “mouth”,
“ear” and “face”.
Sometimes the meaning is clear, but other lines are
more open - and there are hints of violence in “strangle”,
“bite”, “bang” and “stabbed”. It is not clear what exactly
Miss Havisham would like to do on her “long slow
honeymoon”, but we can be sure that it is not pleasant.
Havisham
by Carol Ann Duffy
Questions:
Why does the poet omit Havisham's title and
refer to her by her surname only?
Why does the poet write “spinster” on its own?
What does 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”?
Havisham
by Carol Ann Duffy
How far does the poet want us to sympathize with
Havisham?
Does the reader have to know about Great Expectations
to understand the poem?
Does 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 Havisham is responsible for her own misery,
and how far does it support her feelings of self-pity and
her desire for revenge?
Stanza 1
The opening line portrays the order of events. "Beloved sweetheart
bastard."
The man she describes was someone special but soon became
someone she hated.
She has longed for revenge as the reader is told, "Not a day since
then I haven't wished for him dead."
The words "prayed" also tie in with this deep seated longing for
change.
The imagery of her eyes being like "Dark green pebbles" hints to the
hardness of stone but also the green is jealousy.
She has become trapped by obsession: thinking, praying and
waiting for her fiance.
Stanza 2
The word "Spinster" is a minor one word sentence,
almost spat out in distaste. Havisham describes her
condition "I stink and remember" the words refer to her
smell from wearing the same clothes but also the stench
of the terrible thing that has happened to her.
The events have changed her and there is real sadness
and fear behind the words.
Her wedding dress is described as "yellowing" as she
questions how she has ended up in this situation.
Stanza 3
The final part of the previous stanza merges into this
third verse and the disjointedness reflects Havisham's
own distress.
This stanza hints that sometimes she can feel happy and
when she is bed asleep for a moment it as if she is still
with her lover, but the strong words "bite awake"
describe the gnawing pain of having lost a loved one.
The dream is only a dream and life is difficult to live with.
Stanza 4
Love is personified and the narrator describes herself as
"Love's hate behind a white veil"
Love enjoys hurting her and again this is emphasised with
her description of the balloon "bursting in my face."
Balloons are supposed to be fun like love but in this instance
it becomes something shocking ready to spoil her happiness.
Havisham also describes at destroying her wedding cake, "I
stabbed at a wedding-cake." This describes not only her
pain, but the pain she would like to inflict on someone else.
The imagery of a honeymoon is coupled with the words
"male corpse" this also shows her unfeeling towards men.
She doesn't want something living, she wants something
dead. The very last word comes out in a stutter when she
talks about how a heart "b-b-b-breaks" this shows sadness
and madness at the same time.
When she talks about her heart not being the only one that is
broken it reminds us of Pip from "Great Expectations", she's
been hurt and knows how to break a man's heart. In the case
of Pip, she wanted to crush his dreams of gaining an
education.