Havisham

Question 1

Beloved sweetheart bastard

Answer 1

Declarative sentence

Alliteration & forceful “B” sound gives impression of words being spat out

Oxymoron contrasting beloved - a term of endearment - and the expletive “bastard” is a forceful shocking start to the poem

Reveals without ambiguity the focus of the speakers hatred

Question 2

Not a day since then

Answer 2

Constantly on her mind

Unable to remove the pain

Question 3

I haven’t wished him dead

Answer 3

Violent and destructive - fury

Unambiguous sentance

Question 4

Dark green pebbles

Answer 4

Metaphor:

Green- colour reference, connotations of jealousy

Pebbles- cold, hard, emotionless, frightening

Question 5

Ropes on the back of my hands

Answer 5

Veins: connotations of old age

Ropes: suggests tying the knot, marriage

Question 6

I could strange with

Answer 6

Death, violence

Question 7

Spinster.

Answer 7

Negative connotations

Word is isolated (like her), short sentance

Question 8

I stink

Answer 8

Physical deterioration

Smell symbolises bitter memories

Question 9

and remeber

Answer 9

Constantly looks back

Emphasises isolation

Question 10

Whole days in bed

Answer 10

Isolation

Question 11

Cawing

Answer 11

Word Choice

Animalistic, mad, wild

Usually associated with crows which symbolize death

Question 12

Nooooo

Answer 12

Typography

Repeated “o” sound gives a visual and oral combination that shows Havisham in distress

Question 13

Yellowing

Answer 13

Colour reference

Decay, aged, diseased

Question 14

Slewed mirror

Answer 14

Twisted

Suggesting the disturbed psyche, mind altered, unstable

Question 15

Slewed mirror, full-length, her, myself, who did this

Answer 15

Commas used frequently

Irregular speech pattern

Slows reading to question reasons

Question 16

to me?

Answer 16

Rhetorical question

Emphasised through enjambement

She is searching for an answer

Question 17

Puce

Answer 17

Colour

Purplish brown like a bruise

Question 18

Some nights better

Answer 18

Recalling happier times when she and her fiancé were together

Question 19

The lost body over me

Answer 19

Synecdoche- a part that represents the whole

Question 20

My fluent tongue … mouth… ear

Answer 20

Senses

Suggests sensual dream

Question 21

IT’S mouth … IT’S ear

Answer 21

No name or prounoun his

Even in her dreams there is a distance and an acknowledgment that he is dehumanised

Question 22

Bite awake

Answer 22

Violent action

Jolted forcefully from dreams

Revenge is implicit

Question 23

Love’s

Hate

Answer 23

Enjambement highlights oxymoron (contrast)

The hate belongs to the love (possessive language)

Question 24

Behind a White veil

Answer 24

Alludes to the wedding that never was

Question 25

Red balloon bursting in my face

Answer 25

Metaphor for heart breaking

“Bursting” word choice - symbolises the violent emotions

Alliteration connects and emphasises the forcefulness of the feelings

Question 26

Bang.

Answer 26

Onomatopoeia

Isolated word

Word choice

Violent connotations of gunshot and murderous thoughts

Extends red balloon metaphor

Question 27

Stabbed at a wedding cake

Answer 27

Lethal element to language

Not cutting the cake traditionally but subverting the common image

Question 28

Give me a male corpse for a long slow honeymoon

Answer 28

Demonstrates how warped her mind has become

Contrasts death and life

Question 29

B-b-b-breaks

Answer 29

Her mind is literally and figuratively broken

Repetition of the sound b symbolises her final descent into madness

Question 30

Final stanza

Answer 30

Word by word and line by line becomes more disturbing showing her deterioration into madness

Question 31

Havisham (title)

Answer 31

Her unmarried surname

Reveals her self loathing and bitterness at being denied the epithet of mrs and being forced to live the rest of her life as a spinster

Question 32

Form and structure of havisham

Answer 32

Lack of rhyme and enjambement

creates the effect that havishams voice is choppy and stilted

emphasises the lack of order and structure to her thoughts

Half rhymes and assonance reinforce lack of logic and the erosion of the speakers psyche