Havisham

By Carol AnnDuffy

“BelovedSweetheart

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.

•‘Not a day since then’ ‘then’ refers to her wedding day, when her fiance left her at her alter.

• ‘…I’ve dark green pebbles for eyes ‘ Eyes are commonly called the ‘windows to the soul’ and Havisham’s eyes have become hard, like pebbles, suggesting that her soul has also hardened with anger and hatred. Green is also the colour of envy, suggesting that she is envious of her ex-lover’s life (probably he is happy and contented while she is left to wallow in bitterness and hatred).

• ‘ropes on the back of my hands I Havisham has ‘prayed so hard’ with her could strangle with’ hands clasped together that they have

become hardened, and the sinews and veins now look like ropes. She has murderous thoughts of strangling her ex-lover with the ‘ropes’ on her hands.

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.

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.

oxymoron

Alliteration of the blosive ‘b’

enjambementDark imagery

Religious imagery

Note the lack of exclamation mark – she is serious and seemingly no longer angry?

Metaphor represents her jealousy

Use of the model verbMetaphor represents her aging, as well as the years spent ‘wringing her hands’ with emotion / anger / nerves

This opening stanza is both moving and disturbing. The opening line, ‘Beloved sweetheart bastard’ is surprising. It indicates both the strength of her love and her pain but also the strength of her hatred.

We see how this man’s actions have affected her emotionally: she is simply engulfed in pain to the point where she has nothing left to live for but her hatred of him and her wish for him to die.

Spinster. I stink and remember. Whole days

in bed cawing Noooooo at the wall; the dress

yellowing, trembling if I open the wardrobe,

the slewed mirror, full-length, her, myself, who did this

‘SPINSTER.I stink and

remember.’

‘Spinster’ is the term used for an unmarried woman. This was because, a long time ago, women who were unmarried tended to make their living by spinning and weaving material, hence the name ‘spinster.’ However,

it is a term which as very negative connotations.

Compare the word ‘spinster’, and what it makes you imagine, to the word ‘bachelor,’ which is the word for an unmarried man. ‘Bachelor’ is much more

positive.

‘Spinster’ is a word which therefore has negative connotations. The SIBILANT sound of ‘s’ in it, and the fact that Duffy has positioned it in a sentence of its own, makes it sound as if Havisham is spitting the word out in hatred and tells us that she hates her status as an unmarried woman.

The sibilant sound is carried on in, ‘I stink and remember,’ which evokes feelings of both disgust and pity in the reader: Havisham is so swept up in hatred and bitterness that everything normal about her life has disappeared. She sits alone in her wedding dress, unwashed, dwelling on the past and what could have been. We are disgusted by her disregard for hygiene but pity her pain and misery.

Spinster. I stink and remember. Whole days

in bed cawing Noooooo at the wall; the dress

yellowing, trembling if I open the wardrobe,

the slewed mirror, full-length, her, myself, who did this

One word sentence stands out

Observation of what she is now (literally) – and a suggestion of what was wrong (metaphorically) with her to be dumped?

The cry of a crow creates gothic imagery

Neologism created to represent the pain (no word previously created to express)

Highlights time passed

Double meaning – the dress trembles (personification), as if waiting to be put back away / she trembles (literally) when looking at the clothes of her past

Double meaning – past tense of ‘slay’ suggesting she has smashed the mirror in anger / also means drunk, suggesting she is unable to see her true reflection through the blur of alcohol

Use of feminist reference to that of Julia Kristeva – she is unable to identify herself – ‘he’ made her an ‘object’ and she now fights to regain the ‘symbolic’ (myself)

‘…Whole days / in bed cawing Noooo at the wall; the dress / yellowing, trembling if I open the wardrobe;

the slewed mirror, full –

length, her

myself…’

This stanza is the part of the poem where we most feel pity for Havisham, as she describes the terrible effect that her experience has had on her. The fact that she spends ‘whole days’ in bed tells us the extent of her depression. The word choice of ‘cawing’ gives an animalistic image of her, as though the experience has reduced her to being less than human; indeed she can barely speak anymore.

The ‘dress yellowing’ reminds us of how much time has passed and she is ‘trembling’ at opening the wardrobe, afraid of facing who she has become in the mirror, and who she once was by looking at her old clothes; she is caught in limbo, unable to go back and unable to move on.

‘...her myself’ tells us that she can barely recognise herself anymore because the experience has altered her so much.

‘…who did this to

me?’

‘….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.’

to me? Puce curses that are sounds not words,

Some nights better, the lost body over me,

my fluent tongue in his mouth in its ear

then down till I suddenly bite awake. Love’s

End of rhetorical question

Colour of deep red to purple-brown suggests old blood which represents old wounds

Suggests she no longer can access language to express her feelings – a feminist analysis explored by Caryl Churchill in The Skriker, where pain is so deep there is no language available to describe it

Conversational tone

She tries to make him the ‘object’

Lost to her / also creates sexual imagery of body in her dreams

The dream continues and the love making is easy and poetic – she sees ‘him’

The act of biting is ‘sudden’ in the dream and the suddenness wakes her. Is she imagining herself attacking him? The hard consonants, ‘t’ and ‘k’ emphasise the sudden, harshness of this action. It contrasts with the soft, poetic love described before, and ties with the paradoxical idea that she both loves and hates simultaneously (think of the opening line).

‘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

honeymoo

n

Don’t think it’s only the heart

that b-b-b-breaks.

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.

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.

Love’s hate - oxymoron

Triple meaning – ‘white’ suggests innocence, ‘white veil’ represents the wedding, ‘veil’ represents in feminist terms that she is concealing something

‘red’ suggests anger, ‘red balloon bursting’ – just as her hopes and dreams ‘burst’; also, it represents her blush of embarrassment, concealed behind the ‘white veil’

Short sentence for effect – also represents the shock she experienced

‘Stabbed’ creates violent imagery / ‘stabbed at a wedding-cake’ shows anger literally and metaphorically

Use of dark imagery, reference to death links to idea that the ‘honeymoon’ would provide the long painful death she wants. She imagines torturing her ex-finance, and, indeed, men in general

Use of ‘b’ in a stuttering style, suggests the is breaking down again / she suggests that her life, her mind, has broken as a result – not just her heart. Her speech is also broken – she cannot articulate her feelings

Havisham Beloved sweetheart bastard. Not a day since thenI haven't wished him dead. Prayed for itso 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 daysin bed cawing Nooooo at the wall; the dressyellowing, 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 earthen down till suddenly bite awake. Love's

hate behind a white veil; a red balloon burstingin 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.

Oxymoron

Metaphor

Expressing her violent

emotions

Reference to age, but not having lived

Her Victorian label, suggesting she will never marry Reference to the wedding dress and to her own sense of decay

Bird imageryEnjambment links

stanzas 2/3 3/4The reflection shows a

devastated stateSo emotional she emits only

soundSexual fantasy

Oxymoron

Onomatopoeia

Her language echoes her pain

Violent & disturbing

images

Red is a passionate colour

Why the enjambment?

Summarise what you now know about the poem:

• What is it about? (Content)• What themes are covered?• What tone does the poem have?• What literary devices have been used?• How effective is the poem for the reader?

Summarise what you now know about the poem:

• What is it about? A woman telling the tale of being stood up on her wedding day

• What themes are covered? Anger, revenge, hatred, death

• What tone does the poem have? Angry, aggressive, bitter

• What literary devices have been used? Enjambement, metaphor, simile, oxymoron, dark imagery

• How effective is the poem for the reader?