Havisham Carol Ann Duffy Lack of Miss in
- Slides: 8
Havisham Carol Ann Duffy
Lack of ‘Miss’ in her name highlights lack of any status. Havisham Powerful opening sentence. Oxymoron of affectionate and insulting language. Beloved sweetheart bastard. Not a day since then I haven’t wished him dead. Use of pronoun rather than real name.
Metaphor showing how much she has been crying. Green also represents envy. Prayed for it so hard I’ve dark green pebbles for eyes, ropes on the back of my hands I could Metaphor showing how withered she has become; her veins stick out like ropes. strangle with.
Effective one word sentence. Summarises her whole identity. Play on word ‘think’. Shows how inactive she has been since he left. Spinster. I stink and remember. Whole days in bed cawing Nooooo at the wall; Word normally associated with an animal. Highlights her lack of femininity. Loss of language. Losing the ability to express herself.
‘slewed’ = turned or twisted Nervous – her or the dress itself? As the wedding dress decays, so does she. Pronouns highlight how she barely recognises herself. 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. Questioning how she became like this. Use of enjambment highlights this confusion. Puce = purplish brown
She becomes able to express herself again physically in her dreams. Again the male is not referred to by name. He is simply a body that she misses. Some nights better, the lost body over me, my fluent tongue in its mouth in its ear then down till I suddenly bite awake. Imagery becomes more sexually suggestive and then violent as she awakens to the reality of her loss and hatred.
Oxymoron used again like in opening sentence. Emotional confusion further highlighted by use of enjambment. Connotations of colour: White = purity, virginity, pale, death Red = Love, passion, anger, blood Love’s hate behind a white veil; a red balloon bursting in my face. Bang. I stabbed at a wedding-cake. Violent verbs highlight her anger, reinforce how abruptly her happy dream of wedded bliss came to an end.
Grotesque image emphasising her desire for revenge. Romantic idea yet when juxtaposed with previous image it becomes sick and twisted. Give me a male corpse for a long slow honeymoon. Don’t think it’s only the heart that b-b-b-breaks. Repeated theme of loss of language. Emotions are so confused that she cannot express herself clearly.
