Critical Essay ('Havisham') Flashcards
1
Q
- “Beloved sweetheart bastard”
A
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OXYMORNIC MINOR SENTENCE
➞ This reveals the focus of the speaker’s hatred from the outset and shows how she boths loves and hates her would-be husband at the same time.
↳ It subverts the reader’s expectations and swiftly changes tone of what would have potentially been a love poem, but still displays her controlled anger in the absence of an exclamation mark.
2
Q
- “Not a day since then I haven’t wished him dead.”
A
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ENJAMBMENT & IRREGULAR LINE STRUCTURE
➞ are used, with the structure adding a sense of obscurity, creating an impression of a truly broken and distorted mind.
↳ The enjambment is utilised to allude to Miss Havisham’s past where we as readers are expected to know what ‘then’ refers to: her wedding day where she was abruptly and cruelly jilted, highlighting the clear intensity of her spiteful emotions and desires,
➜ with the enjambment also emphasising the duration of time that has passed since that fateful day and is effective in indicating the speaker’s long-held obsession with her previous lover for her desire to seek revenge, intensifying the emotional impact of her words.
3
Q
- “Prayed for it”
A
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IRONIC STATEMENT
➞ as praying is usually intending for something pleasant to happen, not wishing for someone’s own grim death, which clearly highlights her depth of hatred and vitriol towards him.
4
Q
- “dark green pebbles for eyes”
A
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METAPHOR
➞ paints a vivid and powerful picture on how much heartbreak has hardend her.
↳ Her eyes—the proverbial “windows to the soul”—being compared to stone illustrates how callous and hard her damaged heart has also grown, and with green having connotations of envy and jealously, it suggests she holds a degree of envy, possibly towards those who have discovered enduring love and is simply no longer able to see things as they are.
5
Q
- “ropes on the back of my hand I could strangle with”
A
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METAPHOR
➞ which signifies that her hands are so tightly clasped that her veins protrude outwards like ropes - which also acts as an indirect reference to the mother of Estella in Great Expectations where she strangled her love rival to death - and in this context, Miss Havisham seems to wish her lover dead.
↳ It also potentially indicates how much she has aged, with her veins becoming more pronounced over time, which she resents him for and the impact caused to her body: thus wishing to strangle him for it.
6
Q
- “Spinster”
A
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WORD CHOICE
➞ which is a name for an older woman who is not married.
↳ It has unkind connotations, with the word itself (spoken in a bitter tone) being isolated in its own sentence at the beginning of the stanza to reflect Miss Havisham’s own isolation, boldy and unequivocally giving herself this title, implying this is how she and others think and see herself.
7
Q
- “I stink and remember.”
A
-
WORD CHOICE
➞ where she admits that she in a literal sense stinks as she hasn’t changed her clothes for decades,
↳ with the stench reminding her of her past and what has happened to her.
8
Q
- “cawing”
A
-
IMAGERY
➞ which emphasises the primtive rawness of her emotions as she feels utterly rejected by her lover who has flown away from the nest.
9
Q
- “Noooo”
A
-
REPETITION
➞ of vowels and onomatopoeia underlines the speaker’s deep anguish which is ‘cawed’ out like a crow.
↳ Additionally, internal rhymes are formed from the repeated “aw” sounds of caw and wall, making the poem feel claustrophobic (as if we are trapped inside Miss Havisham’s unnerving mind where sounds and thoughts are repated over and over again).
10
Q
- “yellowing”
A
-
WORD CHOICE
➞ representing not only her decaying wedding dress but symbolising her deep emotional atrophy, as she so desperately tries to cling on to the memory of her ill-fated wedding by never taking off her dress.
11
Q
- “slewed mirror”
A
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WORD CHOICE
➞ of “slewed” acts as a double meaning - the past tense of ‘slay’ suggesting she previously smashed the mirror in anger or potentially meaning drunk as if she is drinking her way out of thinking.
12
Q
- “her, myself, who did this
to me?”
A
-
ENJAMBMENT
➞ Miss Havisham is still not fully taking responsibility for what has ultimately happened to her, reaching the point where she is unable to identify herself,
↳ showing her disjointed thoughts and confusion.
13
Q
- “Puce curses”
A
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WORD CHOICE
➞ with the colour ‘puce’ being deep red to purple brown, having connotations of disease, fever and old wounds.
14
Q
- “lost body over me”
A
-
(SEXUAL) IMAGERY
➞ which alludes to the erotic things she would have liked to have done to him, creating a disturbing sense of disembodiment.
15
Q
- “fluent tongue… I suddenly bite awake”
A
-
WORD CHOICE
➞ of “bite” implying that she usually bites her tongue in her sleep, which would explain why she has had so much trouble articulating herself, or in an even more sisnter sense: fantasises about inflicting pain on her former lover in a number of different areas.
