Stanza 4 Flashcards
‘Love’s hate’
Oxymoron and enjambment. Each word is on a separate line to show they have contrasting, distant meanings but they are put in the same sentence to show that she feels both of them at the same time. These are her overlapping feelings.
‘White veil’
The colour white suggests the peace and innocence of Havisham on her wedding day. It shows that she had no experience of the pain of love. Behind the ‘veil’ suggests blind to the harsh reality of love.
‘Red balloon bursting’
‘Red’ has connotations of blood and violence, which suggests she wants to murder him. It also suggests embarrassment because she feels humiliated by what happened to her. A bursting ballon is loud and sudden, showing that it was a shock for her. Alliteration of b shows the suddenness of what happened because b is a short, forceful sound.
‘Bang’
Onomatopoeia and minor sentence. This describes the shocking moment of realisation. A bang is violent and wounding which suggests how badly she was affected - she is damaged forever.
‘Stabbed at a wedding cake’
He is not there, so instead of taking her anger out on him, she does it to the cake - the symbol of their ruined marriage.
‘Give me a male corpse’
This forceful command suggests desperation. She wants any man’s body, it doesn’t have to be his. This shows she is angry at all men and is obsessed with revenge.
‘Long slow honeymoon’
‘Honeymoon’ suggests sexual pleasure and a traditional happy marriage, which suggests she still has feelings for him. However ‘long slow’ shows she actually wants to give him punishment and pain for as long as possible.
‘B-b-b-breaks’
She is about to cry and is emotionally unstable. Many aspects of her have been broken - her heart, mind, language, sanity.
