Choose a poem in which the poet creates a distinctive voice and/or credible persona

Show how the poet creates the voice and/or persona and show how this adds to your
understanding of the poem as a whole.

Remember that the example below was produced by a fellow pupil. Whilst it is a very good
example of a critical essay, it should be used as a revision tool only. It is lacking conclusion and
could link further to how the distinctive voice adds to understanding of the poem as a whole.

“Havisham” is a poem by Carol Ann Duffy based on a character, Miss Havisham, from the novel
“Great Expectations” written by Charles Dickens in the 1860s. The character is an old lady who is
rather unstable and has been since she was jilted on her wedding day by her husband-to-be. This
was a huge deal back then and it would have been the ultimate form of humiliation for a woman
since men were heavily dominant in society and women were often defined by their marital status.
Duffy has created a very bitter, hatful tone for the persona of Havisham. The poem is written as a
dramatic monologue to achieve this distinctive voice; it is made stronger through the use of a variety
of poetic techniques such as imagery, structure, repetition and alliteration. This distinctive voice
adds to the reader’s understanding of the corrosive nature of hatred on the human psyche which
Duffy explores through this persona.

In the first stanza, Duffy successfully initiates the distinctive voice of Havisham as being very bitter
and twisted with hate – which it becomes evident is directed to her once husband-to-be. However
hateful her voice is, the reader also gets hints at her confusion and conflict of emotions through her
use of language. The opening line is very effective in conveying this:

“Beloved sweetheart bastard”

This is a very successful opening sentence as it shows the reader from the start the tone of the poem
as being very bitter. The oxymoronic sentence of the combination of love versus hate also
emphasises Havisham’s ambiguity and conflict of emotions. The words ‘sweetheart’ and ‘beloved’
have positive and loving connotations and are words that someone would usually associate with a
loving couple. However, these words are followed by the word ‘bastard’ which rejects the loving
tone and turns it into something more twisted and hateful. The plosives of ‘b’ and ‘d’ also are
effective in highlighting the character’s anger and strength of feelings. The distinctive voice that
Duffy creates is further intensified at the end of the stanza as Havisham is shown to be longing to
hurt the man who jilted her:

“ropes on the back of my hands I could strangle with”

The metaphor acts to highlight and reveal further a more violent tone as the reader is shown that
Havisham’s hate goes so far that she actually pictures hurting him. The metaphor works very well as
it literally describes the aging process – the ropes represent protruding veins on the backs of her
hands – and it highlights that a long time has passed yet the whole time she has been focussed on
hating and has therefore been trapped by her anger. This fact that she is still so full of hate and still
broods over it all the time reveals the corrosive nature of hatred on the human psyche. Havisham
has held on to the hatred she felt when she was abandoned and this hatred has corroded her and
taken control; now she is an old woman who has wasted her life hating rather than moving on.
In stanza two, Duffy has slanted further hints to Havisham’s madness and instability of mind which
emphasises the negative effect hate has had on her since it has driven her into a state of instability.
Duffy describes the result of Havisham’s experience and how she was rejected with disgust as well as
showing the judgement to which she was subjected by society:

“Spinster. I stink and remember.”

The fact that she calls herself ‘spinster’ reveals that she knows what people call her and what society
thinks of her. It creates a harshness to the tone so it is as if the word is used as an expletive.
‘Spinster’ is a one word sentence which is very effective in creating a distinctive voice as it appears as
if the word is almost being spat out – highlighting the character’s disgust with herself. This minor
sentence also serves to highlight her isolation, especially in a society which defined women by their
marriage. Again, Duffy highlights the corrosive effects hatred can have on people as Havisham is in
this state and is isolated because she can’t let go of her hatred which has in turn warped her into
something negative. In this stanza, Duffy also uses imagery to compare Havisham to a bird thereby
creating dark, gothic imagery and emphasising that her hatred has dehumanised her and turned her
into something dark:

“whole days in bed cawing Nooooo at the wall”

The word choice of ‘cawing’ is very effective here as it has connotations of deep despair and denial.
It also mimics the cry of a bird which alludes to how her love has ‘flown’, leaving her rejected and
isolated. ‘Noooo’ is a word that has been drawn out, revealing a desperate denial and illustrates a
primitive rawness of emotions, emphasising her feelings of anguish. This bird imagery acts to
reinforce the vulnerability and fragile state of mind Havisham is subjected to now that she has been
eroded by her hatred.

There is a slight change of tone during the third stanza when it seems that Havisham is dreaming of
happier things and during this dream, leaves her hatred behind. However, this doesn’t last long as
she quickly twists the more reminiscing, happier images into a sick and twisted fantasy. Her
distinctive voice is still heavy with hatred as she describes her dreams of her ‘one love’ being in bed
with her and she is dreaming of the relationship she would have had had she married:

“some nights better, the lost body over me

my fluent tongue in its mouth, in its ear
then down till I suddenly bite awake”

Some ‘nights better’ conveys a sudden direction of tone to something lighter and softer, as if she
might be finally ready to let go of her anger. The work choice of ‘fluent tongue’ is effective as it
shows that she is trying to seduce her old fiancé; ‘tongue’ suggests a more seductive tone which
makes her seem more like a stable person with normal wants and sensations. However, this tone
doesn’t last long as the use of the word ‘its’ suggests that she is still dehumanising the man revealing
that though there is still a lingering feeling of longing and love, she still hates him and doesn’t even
concede he is a human being. The desire to make him an object and to turn the humiliation on to
him by literally taking away his masculinity comes out strongly in these lines. Finally, ‘bite awake’
suggests that she wants to hurt him and dehumanise him in a most horrific way, highlighting the
dark and twisted thoughts that she is having are due to her hatred driving her down that path and
blinding her.
In the last stanza, Duffy finally fully shows that reader the corrosive nature hate has had on
Havisham’s psyche since her distinctive voice of bitterness and hate is broken down and the result of
this hatred and active pursuit of it has taken its toll on both her body and mind and left her
exhausted. This is clearly shown through repetition of the ‘b’ n the closing line, “b-b-b-breaks”. The
reader now knows that Havisham’s hatred has left her fragile and the stutter suggesting that she is
sobbing and that she is having an emotional collapse. The repetition of the ‘b’ also mimics the slow
movement of something being broken suggesting that she has slowly been broken by the hate that
has consumed her.