Critical Essay Flashcards
Havisham- Intro 1
‘Havisham’ is a poem written in 1993 by Carol Ann Duffy, who uses iambic hexameter throughout this poem. To effectively showcase the pain and anger of the main character Miss Havisham from Charles Dickens ‘Great Expectations’. A woman who was deceived and abandoned by her former lover, soon before their wedding, leading her into a spiral of insanity.
Havisham-Intro 2
Duffy uses violent, dramatic and oxymoronic contrast to illustrate the intense and complexity of Havishams feelings about her former lover and even herself. Displaying her passionate love and wild anger, as a result of the heartbreak. This enhances the effect that wider themes have in improving the understanding of consequences of heartbreak and intense feelings that love has.
Quote 1
“Beloved sweetheart bastard”
Quote 2
“Don’t think it’s only the heart that b-b-b-breaks”
Quote 3
“a red balloon bursting in my face. Bang.”
Quote 4
“I’ve dark green pebbles for eyes”
Quote 5
“her, myself, who did this to me?”
Quote 6
“Whole days in bed cawing Noooo at the wall”
Quote 7
“Give me a male corpse for a long slow honeymoon”
Quote 8
“the lost body over me”
Havisham- Conclusion 1
Overall, Duffy thoroughly expresses Miss Havishams fragile and deranged state of mind, caused bygreat anguish after being jilted by her former lover. We follow through a journey in which Duffy has created by using different techniques repeatedly, with the use of extreme contrast and passionate imagery, oxymoronic language mostly being used, alongside enjambment regularly.
Havisham- Conclusion 2
Allowing the themes of romance, pain and suffering being illustrated in the poem. Duffys simple but complicated imagery establishes the mind of Miss Havisham, making readers disturbed and uncomfortable. As an indication that love is passionate and overwhelming, but can be seriously dangerous. Ending the poem in a draining but alerted way, to ensure we do not go through the same immense agony.
