Havisham Carol Ann Duffy

1
HavishamCarol Ann Duffy
2
Lack of Miss in her name highlights lack of any
status.
Powerful opening sentence. Oxymoron of
affectionate and insulting language.
Havisham Beloved sweetheart bastard. Not a day
since then I havent wished him dead.
Use of pronoun rather than real name.
3
Metaphor showing how much she has been crying.
Green also represents envy.

Prayed for it so hard
Ive dark green pebbles for eyes, ropes on the
back of my hands I could

strangle with.
Metaphor showing how withered she has become her
veins stick out like ropes.
4
Play on word think. Shows how inactive she has
been since he left.
Effective one word sentence. Summarises her whole
identity.

• Spinster. I stink and remember. Whole days
• in bed cawing Nooooo at the wall

Loss of language. Losing the ability to express
herself.
Word normally associated with an animal.
Highlights her lack of femininity.
5
slewed turned or twisted
Pronouns highlight how she barely recognises
herself.
Nervous her or the dress itself?
As the wedding dress decays, so does she.

• 
  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
6
Again the male is not referred to by name. He is
simply a body that she misses.
She becomes able to express herself again
physically in her dreams.

• 
  
• 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.
7
Connotations of colour White purity,
virginity, pale, death Red Love, passion,
anger, blood
Oxymoron used again like in opening sentence.
Emotional confusion further highlighted by use of
enjambment.

• 
  Loves
• 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.
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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.
• Dont think its only the heart that
  b-b-b-breaks.

Repeated theme of loss of language. Emotions are
so confused that she cannot express herself
clearly.