How Far Does the Poet Want Us to Symphatize with Miss Havisham
How Far Does the Poet Want Us to Sympathize with Miss Havisham?
The poet wants us to sympathized Miss Havisham greatly, but not entirely. Her own trappings of her strong need to revenge and her morbid existence that has destroyed her carries a symbolic meaning of self – absorption and destruction. This poem introduces us to Miss Harvisham’s character, who has become a type of embittered woman who was disappointed in love and enjoys withdrawing from the world.
First of all, this poem is written in a first person’s point of view. She begins by telling the reader the cause of her pain and suffering – her “beloved sweetheart bastard” which gravitates into a sense of bitterness and vengeance/retribution. In addition to that, the use of oxymoron in the above-said phrase indicates a contradiction of words. The words “beloved” and “sweetheart” indicates a very admirable personality, but the word “bastard” gives us a completely conflicting quality. Besides, she tells us that she not only wished him to be dead, but instead she prayed for his death, evidently by “Not a day since then I haven’t wished him dead. Prayed for it…” She prayed so hard that she had “dark green pebbles for eyes and ropes on the back of my hands she could strangle with.” She uses metaphors here to explain to us that while she prayed, she had her eyes shrunk hard and felt that her hands were strong enough to strangle someone, which fits her murderous personality. It makes us feel piteous for her as seeing that she has suffered a great amount until it has reached insanity, but at the same time it makes us feel really disturbed by her mad identity.
The second stanza symbolises her “self-absorption” and “self-pity” behaviours. She started off with a strong word: “Spinster”. The use of caesura in beginning of this stanza shows how much she emphasizes and detests this word. Besides, the feeling of abhorrence has been further strengthen by the use of trochee can be seen in the word “Spinster” as the first
The poet wants us to sympathized Miss Havisham greatly, but not entirely. Her own trappings of her strong need to revenge and her morbid existence that has destroyed her carries a symbolic meaning of self – absorption and destruction. This poem introduces us to Miss Harvisham’s character, who has become a type of embittered woman who was disappointed in love and enjoys withdrawing from the world.
First of all, this poem is written in a first person’s point of view. She begins by telling the reader the cause of her pain and suffering – her “beloved sweetheart bastard” which gravitates into a sense of bitterness and vengeance/retribution. In addition to that, the use of oxymoron in the above-said phrase indicates a contradiction of words. The words “beloved” and “sweetheart” indicates a very admirable personality, but the word “bastard” gives us a completely conflicting quality. Besides, she tells us that she not only wished him to be dead, but instead she prayed for his death, evidently by “Not a day since then I haven’t wished him dead. Prayed for it…” She prayed so hard that she had “dark green pebbles for eyes and ropes on the back of my hands she could strangle with.” She uses metaphors here to explain to us that while she prayed, she had her eyes shrunk hard and felt that her hands were strong enough to strangle someone, which fits her murderous personality. It makes us feel piteous for her as seeing that she has suffered a great amount until it has reached insanity, but at the same time it makes us feel really disturbed by her mad identity.
The second stanza symbolises her “self-absorption” and “self-pity” behaviours. She started off with a strong word: “Spinster”. The use of caesura in beginning of this stanza shows how much she emphasizes and detests this word. Besides, the feeling of abhorrence has been further strengthen by the use of trochee can be seen in the word “Spinster” as the first