Miss Havisham Analysis

Frank Sun May 2015

“How does Havisham feel about her life, and how does the poet present her feelings?”

“Havisham” is a poem based on “Miss.Havisham” on the novel “The Great Expectations”. But when you consider the fact this character is referred to as Miss Havisham in the novel Great Expectations, the titles takes on an interesting new twist. The missing “Miss” has an intriguing effects. First, it takes Miss Havisham’s gender out of the picture. When we read the title, we can’t be sure this is the Havisham we’re familiar with. Second, by leaving out “Miss”, Duffy is drawing attention to the fact that Havisham is her maiden name. She hasn’t taken on her husband's name because she never actually married a man. Throughout out a poem,
She uses imagery to emphasise Havisham’s fear towards her fiance. “Not a day since then I haven’t wished him dead” shows the animalistic side of Havisham and now, she is wishing death upon to the man she so loved. This suggests Havisham as a heartless conniving person and to wish someone dead is extremely mean and not something someone of a normal state of mind would do. “...ropes on the back of my hands I could strangle with.” is one of the most shocking lines of the poem where repetition is used as Havisham is once again showing her wish for revenge towards her finace. Duffy’s use of imagery is dark, making the reader uncomfortable to read. In the second stanza of the poem, Havisham’s fear and anger is appeared again. “Whole days in bed cawing Nooooo at the wall,” the word ‘cawing’ implies that Duffy is comparing Havisham to a crow crying out painfully. This is very effective because it helps to build Havisham’s characteristics as crows are seen to be deathly and unpleasant to listen to. This line also draws a picture of Havisham lying in bed lonely, without a man, emphasizing the reality of her life, which highlights the fact that she will never get over this. The phrase ‘at the wall’ suggests that Havisham is surrounded by walls and that she always been reclusive since her wedding day. Duffy’s use of imageries emphasizes the fear and anger from Havisham throughout the poem that gives the reader a clear
The structure of the poem is divided into four stanzas, each one cursing Compeyson herself, describing Havisham’s anger and feelings. Each four lines that are similar length, so it looks quite regular and there is no rhyme and rhythm, showing the dull image of Havisham’s life. The four solid structures are able to convey message effectively, and lines with no punctuation shows the flow of a negative conversation, which links the idea of talking. Also, “Havisham” is a dramatic monologue where it is spoken by fictional character, Miss.Havisham, not the poet Carol Ann Duffy. Dramatic monologues like this enhances the feeling of a natural conversation, as the reader is able to feel like they are talking to Havisham, while we are also able to feel empathy knowing more deep and detail thoughts of her. Throughout a poem, there are many lines that breaks off suddenly in the middle of the sentence, that is continued in the next line or stanza while many poets and their lines with a natural pause. This seems unnatural and implies that Havisham keeps stopping and starting her speech again, making her sound as if she’s not in a control of her words. The phrase “to me? Puce curses that are sounds not words.” suggests repeated “u” sounds: “to” and “puce” are closely related to the sounds in “curses” and “words”. Duffy used internal thyme where we refers to repeating the same sounds