Havisham Flashcards
in which ways is the title effective?
- minor sentence for impact
- No Mrs or Miss. Stresses her bitterness at the fact that she never got married and still has her maiden name.
in which ways is the opening line effective?
Minor sentence for dramatic impact. Oxymoron as “beloved sweetheart” has positive connotations of someone adored, while “bastard” suggests someone hated. The profanity and hard alliteration give extra impact. The oxymoron stresses that love and hate are related - she hates him because she loved him and he broke her heart.
“Not a day since then I haven’t wished him dead. Prayed for it…”
Another contrast as a wish or a prayer is normally something positive, wanting something good. Yet she wishes and prays for a negative thing - someone’s death. Shows how bitter love has made her. The fact that she wishes for this every day suggests her life revolves around this hate and she has become mentally unstable
Which poems could this be compared to and why?
- Anne Hathaway, Valentine, Mrs Midas - romantic relationships
- All - interesting character
- War Photographer, Originally - isolation
which phrases dehumanise Havisham?
- cawing
- dark green pebbles for eyes
- ropes on the back of my hands
which quotations make Havisham sound violent?
strangle, stab, bite, corpse
“spinster”
minor sentence for impact. Shows Havisham’s bitterness at her unmarried status.
which quotations show her physical decay?
- stink, yellowing, trembling, her
which quotations show her isolation?
whole days in bed, yellowing, stink
“noooo” “puce curses that are sounds not words” “b-b-b-breaks”
shows she is so brokenhearted she cannot put her words into feelings. Dehumanises her, makes her seem more like an animal.
“the lost body over me, my fluent tongue in its mouth, in its ear”
“body” and “its” dehumanises her ex fiancée. “fluent tongue” suggests that words can seduce as much as actions.
“bite awake”
“bite” again suggests violence and a desire to inflict pain. She turns the dream of loving intimacy into a fantasy of revenge.
which quotations sum up the central idea that love and hate are linked?
- “love’s hate behind a white veil”
- “beloved sweetheart bastard”
“a red balloon bursting in my face. Bang”
Red has connotations of anger, passion and danger. This metaphor is ambiguous, but I could be the shock of finding out he had left her, or a fantasy of hurting him. The onomatopoeia and minor sentence have dramatic impact and suggest the suddenness and shock of this.
which quotations take the traditional wedding symbols and subverts them?
- I stabbed at a weeding cake
- love’s hate behind a white veil
- give a male corpse for a long, slow honeymoon
