Havisham Flashcards
Theme
Corrosive nature of hatred on the human psyche. Hoow a single event of being jilted at the alter can completely shatter and destroy a human being
“Beloved sweetheart bastard”
Oxymoron, revealing the focus of the speaker’s hatred and emphasising the expletive.
The alliteration of plosive ‘b’ sound creates the impression that the words are almost spat out, helping to create the caustic, bitter tone.
“Prayed for it”
The reference to prayer is ironic and blasphemous. Prayer is usually associated with good and not evil intentions
“dark green pebbles”
Green is the colour of envy and jealousy, the pebble imagery suggests that her soul is now cold, dead and hard
“ropes on the back of my hand”
Havisham growing older, she lives in a state of nervous tension, which may cause her veins to bulge.
“strangle with”
murder weapon
“Spinster”
The one word sentence is an expression of self-hatred and also shame, an indication of social failure. Not only has Havisham been insulted and rejected as a person by her fiance, but she will be forced to lead a restricted life with lower status in society.
It also suggests her emotional isolation.
“stink and remember”
wearing a rotting wedding dress and sitting in a musty room with a decaying wedding meal. The smell of the squalor must constantly remind of her wedding day.
“cawing Nooooo”
Onomatopoeia, like a crow perhaps, suggests she is almost no longer human. The animal ‘nooooo’, like a wolf, reinforces this.
“dress yellowing”
she continues to wear her wedding dress until it yellows with age, demonstrates her conflicting feelings; simultaneous hatred and at the same time longing for him to return.
Colours are vivid and significant. Yellow is the colour of cowardice and may signify Havisham’s fear and inability to face a new unmarried life.
“slewed”
She no longer recognises the image that appears before her and the deliberate word choice of slewed shows how the world that she once knew and felt she belonged to is now similarly unfamiliar and strange.
“her, myself, who did this to me”
emphasises just how entirely out of place and alien she feels inhabiting her new persona as a spinster.
The order of the lines and words is deliberately jumbled and confused to emphasise the speaker’s irrationality and her muddled, tormented state of mind.
She presents herself as the victim takes revenge
The irony is that this quest and lust for vengeance is utterly self destructive and only exacerbates her pain.
“Puce curses that are sounds not words”
puce is a deep, intense dark red that conveys her rage. She is so inarticulate that she screams vicious random sounds instead of full words. Hatred has left her almost mute.
“Some nights better, the lost body over me my fluent tongue in its mouth in its ear”
Softer side of the speaker. she recalls how her tongue used to be fluent and she could skilfully use it to seduce her lover.Even here though the strength of her hatred continues to permeate and sour all of her most pleasant memories. Dehumanises him to make it easier to hate him
“Bite”`
she bites her tongue in her sleep, helping to explain her current inability to articulate herself or, even more sinisterly, that she fantasises about inflicting pain on her lover by biting him
