Havisham

By Carol Ann Duffy

Starter Activity

For each of the following questions, write down five adjectives or descriptive phrases
which express how you might feel

1. How would you feel if you were meeting a friend to go to the cinema and they let
you down by not turning up?

2. How would you feel if your best friend was organising your 18 th birthday celebration,
and let you down by not doing a thing and not even turning up?

3. How would you feel if your entire family and friends had attended your wedding day
that you had been planning for over a year, and your bride/ groom left you standing
at the alter?
Who is Miss Havisham?

Read the passage below

She was dressed in rich materials — satins, and lace, and silks — all of white. Her shoes
were white. And she had a long white veil dependent from her hair, and she had bridal
flowers in her hair, but her hair was white. Some bright jewels sparkled on her neck and on
her hands, and some other jewels lay sparkling on the table. Dresses, less splendid than the
dress she wore, and half-packed trunks were scattered about. She had not quite finished
dressing, for she had but one shoe on — the other was on the table near her hand — her
veil was half arranged, her watch and chain were not put on, and some lace for her bosom
lay with those trinkets and with her handkerchief, and gloves, and some flowers, and a
prayer-book, all confusedly heaped about the looking-glass.

It was not in the first moments that I saw all these things, though I saw more of them in the
first moments than might be supposed. But, I saw that everything within my view which
ought to be white, had been white long ago, and had lost its lustre, and was faded and
yellow. I saw that the bride within the bridal dress had withered like the dress, and like the
flowers, and had no brightness left but the brightness of her sunken eyes. I saw that the
dress had been put upon the rounded figure of a young woman, and that the figure upon
which it now hung loose, had shrunk to skin and bone. Once, I had been taken to see some
ghastly wax-work at the Fair, representing I know not what impossible personage lying in
state. Once, I had been taken to one of our old marsh churches to s ee a skeleton in the
ashes of a rich dress, that had been dug out of a vault under the church pavement. Now
wax-work and skeleton seemed to have dark eyes that moved and looked at me. I should
have cried out, if I could.

[Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, p50]

Individually, create a character profile for Miss Havisham. You should include the following:

1. A sketch which reveals what you think she might look like
2. Key descriptions of her appearance
3. Aspects of her personality that we are either told about or able to infer
4. Any other important facts that we learn
 HAVISHAM

Beloved sweetheart bastard. Not a day since then

I haven’t wished him dead. Prayed for it
so hard I’ve dark green pebbles for eyes,
ropes on the back of my hands I could strangle with.

Spinster. I stink and remember. Whole days

in bed cawing Nooooo at the wall; the dress
yellowing, trembling if I open the wardrobe;
the slewed mirror, full-length, her, myself, who did this

to me? Puce curses that are sounds not words.

Some nights better, the lost body over me,
my fluent tongue in its mouth in its ear
then down till I suddenly bite awake. Love’s

hate behind a white veil; a red balloon bursting

in my face. Bang. I stabbed at a wedding-cake.
Give me a male corpse for a long slow honeymoon.
Don’t think it’s only the heart that b-b-b-breaks.
What is the poem about?

This poem is a monologue spoken by Miss Havisham, a character in Dickens' Great

Expectations. Jilted by her scheming fiancé, she continues to wear her wedding dress and sit
amid the remains of her wedding breakfast for the rest of her life, while she plots revenge
on all men; she adopts a daughter, Estella, and brings her up teaching her to hate all men.
She also hates her spinster state - of which her unmarried family name constantly reminds
her (which may explain the choice of title for the poem).

She begins by telling the reader the cause of her troubles - her phrase “beloved sweetheart
bastard” is a contradiction in terms (called an oxymoron). She tells us that she has prayed so
hard (with eyes closed and hands pressed together) that her eyes have shrunk hard and her
hands have sinews strong enough to strangle with - which fits her murderous wish for
revenge. (Readers who know Dickens' novel well might think at this point about Miss
Havisham's ward, Estella - her natural mother, Molly, has strangled a rival, and has
unusually strong hands.)

Miss Havisham is aware of her own stink - because she does not ever change her clothes nor
wash. She stays in bed and screams in denial. At other times she looks and asks herself “who
did this” to her? She sometimes dreams almost tenderly or erotically of her lost lover, but
when she wakes the hatred and anger return. Thinking of how she “stabbed at the wedding
cake” she now wants to work out her revenge on a “male corpse” - presumably that of her
lover.

How does Duffy use structure?

The poem is written as a monologue with one person, Havisham, speaking. It is written in
four stanzas which are unrhymed. Duffy uses enjambment which is a technique where one
line moves into the next line of speech. The effect of this is that the poem sounds like it is
being spoken using normal speech. It also creates a rambling, stream of consciousness effect
which gives the impression that what is being said is coming from a crazed mind leaping
from one subject to the next.

The poet

 uses many adjectives of colour - “green”, “puce”, “white” and “red” and
 lists parts of the body “eyes”, “hands”, “tongue”, “mouth”, “ear” and “face”.

Sometimes the meaning is clear, but other lines are more open - and there are hints of
violence in “strangle”, “bite”, “bang” and “stabbed”. It is not clear what exactly Miss
Havisham would like to do on her “long slow honeymoon”, but we can be sure that it is not
pleasant.
Summarising the Poem

Subject

Write a short description of what

the poem is about.

Theme

What are the main ideas in the

poem?

Meaning

Is the poem straightforward or

ambiguous? What do you think it
means?

Tone and mood

Comment on the poem’s tone and

mood. Does the poem make use of
any irony or humour?
Interesting details

Comment on any details that you

find interesting in the poem.

Structure and form

Describe the structure and form of

the poems – look at such things as
rhyme, rhythm, stanza form.

Key images

Look for key images in the poem.

Say what the image is; what it
means and how it works in the
poem.

Personal response

Give your own response to the

poem, with reasons.
Revision Questions:

1. Why does the poet omit Miss Havisham's title and refer to her by her surname only?

2. Why does the poet write “spinster” on its own? What does Miss Havisham think about
this word and its relevance to her?

3. What is the effect of “Nooooo” and “b-b-breaks”? Why are these words written in this
way?

4. What is the meaning of the image of “a red balloon bursting”?

5. How far does the poet want us to sympathize with Miss Havisham?

6. Does the reader have to know about Great Expectations to understand the poem?

7. Does Miss Havisham have a fair view of men? What do you think of her view of being an
unmarried woman?

8. Perhaps the most important part of the poem is the question “who did this/to me?”
How far does the poem show that Miss Havisham is responsible for her own misery, and
how far does it support her feelings of self-pity and her desire for revenge?