Themes Flashcards
Closeness of love and hate (Havisham)
Havisham is torn between loving and hating her ex. We see that this is important in making us realise that her meant to be wedding day has taken control of her psychologically. She is mentally weak.
Revenge (Havisham)
Initially she wants specific revenge from her ex lover. However, by the end of the poem it seems any male corpse will be satisfying enough.
Violence (Havisham)
Violent imagery is commonly used throughout to create a sinister character.
Love (Valentine)
The poem is honest about love. We are made to understand that it will only last as long as they make it-love is unsteady no matter how strong you think a relationship is.
Danger (Valentine)
The poem keeps coming back to the negative side of love- the idea that it can harm you if you’re not careful. It ends with the line “cling to your knife” which links to being prepared for an attack towards you. Being careful. This gives us the idea that for all the positives and excitement surrounding love, no one knows what they may face in a relationship. It can turn on you.
The fragility of life (All Poems)
The phrase “all flesh is grass” emphasises the shortness and fragile state of people’s lives (physically). This links to Havisham where she was so sure that her marriage was going to happen that when it didn’t, it killed her mentally. So this emphasises the fragility of her life psychologically. In Valentine the fragility of lives emotionally is highlighted as it describes how despite everything that may seem positive in a relationship, it can all end like that. Relationships are unsteady no matter what. Also in War Photographer we are made to see that the Photographer has been effected psychologically by what is supposed to be a job.
Western Worlds Attitude towards conflict (War Photographer)
Duffy emphasises the fact that the interest shown by ourselves towards conflict not involving us is rapidly declining. Our eyes “prick” with tears while we view the hard work of the photographer before we move on to forget about it and do luxurious things. Even his editor just “picks out five or six for Sunday’s supplement.” The photographer has also become disinterested in his homeland “he stares impassively at where he earns his living and they do not care.” Duffy may be trying to highlight the pointlessness of the photographers job.
The horror of war (War Photographer)
Duffy turns descriptions which we would not associated with war such as “to fields which don’t explode beneath the feet” and follows it up with the “nightmare heat” description. This makes the sinister side seem even more horrifying in the readers mind as we are left to picture the positive side and then the contrasting war side of things. Also, the description of the dying man is the only image described which makes us think about the individual stories and unique experiences which happen during conflict.
