Miss Havisham, the jilted bride from Great Expectations, expresses her lasting anger and desire for revenge in this poem. She wishes for her former fiancé to be dead and describes violent urges and disturbing dreams of him. The poem depicts her bitter isolation and mental deterioration since being left at the altar decades prior through its imagery of rotting wedding dress and decaying surroundings.

1. Havisham
By Carol Ann Duffy

2. •Creates a persona
•Monologue
•Miss Havisham – character
from Great Expectations by
Charles Dickens – jilted on
her wedding day by her
fiancée.

3. 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
Alliteration of `b’ and `p’ sound
suggests ANGER
OXYMORON
SUGGESTS
LOVE/HATE
I.E. the wedding
day
Image suggests
hard and cruel
Veins –
a metaphor
Theme of violence
in poem – (compare with
Stealing/
Education for Leisure/
Hitcher)
Enjambment: lines run over
Green for jealousy
Indicating her
Bitterness “the
Green-eyed monster –
Green like a monster.

4. 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
Single word
Sentence – denotes
Her bitterness
i.e. because she has never
washed since her wedding
day
Image of a crow
“CAWING”
WORD EMPHASISES HER
GRIEF AND DESPAIR
WITH AGE
BROKEN/DESTROYED
(VIOLENCE?)
AS THOUGH IT IS SOMEONE ELSE WHO HAS
DONE THIS. SHE CANT BELIEVE THAT THE
WOMAN IN THE MIRROR WOULD DO THIS.
SPLIT PERSONALITY? DISTURBED?

5. 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 bit awake. Love`s
Enjambment: lines run over She cannot express her anger and
bitterness in proper words
(compare line 6)
Sexual references to
Their relationship
VIOLENCE

6. 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.
oxymoron
Wedding dress/white
For virginity VIOLENCE
Alliteration of `b’ and `p’ sound
suggests ANGER
Sobbing and suggests violence –
a veiled threat
She would rather have him dead than
have him reject her – shows how bitter
and twisted she is

7. 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.

8. 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 but 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.

9. It was not in the first few 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

10. . 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 waxwork
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, waxwork and
skeleton seemed to have dark eyes that moved and looked at me. I
should have cried out, if I could.

11. `Havisham` by Carol Ann Duffy is a poem
about violence. Write about attitudes to
violence in this poem, one poem by Simon
Armitage and TWO from the pre-1914
bank. You should refer to:
• Why they committed (or tried to
commit) the violence
• How they feel about their violent
tendencies
• How each speaker expresses these
feelings

12. •How each speaker expresses these
feelings:
Havisham: alliteration, violent/powerful
verbs, enjambment, oxymoron, metaphor
Hitcher: slang – casual language for
violence
Laboratory: powerful verbs, alliteration
Man He Killed: colloquialisms, hesitation
and repetition

13. Havisham Technique
alliteration “a red balloon
bursting in my
face.Bang”
Violent/powerful
verbs
enjambment
oxymoron
metaphor