1. Starter: Remember a time when you’ve been disappointed.
Really let down. Gutted.
No need to share.
On a post-it note
How did you react to your disappointment?
What feelings did your disappointment rouse?
When did you get over it? (Did you ever)

2. ‘Havisham’ by Carol Ann Duffy
Lesson Objectives:
to understand how a writer conveys disappointment;
to explore layers of meaning and imagery in the poem;
and to analyse the language used and consider its effects on the reader.

3. beloved sweetheart bastard dead prayed hard green pebbles strangle
spinster
stink
trembling
slewed
curses
heart
bite
love
hate
white
red
balloon
bursting
bang
stabbed
wedding
corpse
honeymoon
breaks
Slewed = to turn something on an axel

4. Positive & Negative vocabulary:
Look at the set of words
Working in your pair, sort them into two columns …
Positive words Negative words

5. Prediction All of these words come from the same poem.
What do you think the poem could be about?
Write your prediction in your working pad.

6. Who or what is Havisham? The title ‘Havisham’ refers to a character
created by Charles Dickens in ‘Great
Expectations’ called Miss Havisham.

8. 'Great expectations’ Miss Havisham
The mad, vengeful Miss Havisham, a wealthy dowager who lives in a rotting mansion and wears an old wedding dress every day of her life, is not exactly a believable character, but she is certainly one of the most memorable creations in the book. Miss Havisham’s life is defined by a single tragic event: her jilting by Compeyson on what was to have been their wedding day. From that moment forth, Miss Havisham is determined never to move beyond her heartbreak. She stops all the clocks in Satis House at twenty minutes to nine, the moment when she first learned that Compeyson was gone, and she wears only one shoe, because when she learned of his betrayal, she had not yet put on the other shoe. With a kind of manic, obsessive cruelty, Miss Havisham adopts Estella and raises her as a weapon to achieve her own revenge on men. Miss Havisham is an example of single-minded vengeance pursued destructively: both Miss Havisham and the people in her life suffer greatly because of her quest for revenge. Miss Havisham is completely unable to see that her actions are hurtful to Pip and Estella. She is redeemed at the end of the novel when she realizes that she has caused Pip’s heart to be broken in the same manner as her own; rather than achieving any kind of personal revenge, she has only caused more pain. Miss Havisham immediately begs Pip for forgiveness, reinforcing the novel’s theme that bad behavior can be redeemed by contrition and sympathy.

9. Remember : it can only be 140 characters – letters and spaces.
WATCH THE CLIP
On WBs Send a tweet about the poem E: You can not use the word marry M: You can not use the words marry or love H: You can not use the words marry, love or hate
Remember : it can only be 140 characters – letters and spaces.

10. Post it note share the same reaction or feelings?
  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 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.
Did your
Post it note share the same reaction or feelings?

11. Oxymorons
An Oxymoron is a figure of speech that puts together two contradictory terms. Even the word "oxymoron" is itself one, because it comes from combining the Greek words for "sharp" (oxy) and "dull" (moros).
For example:
How many oxymorons can you find in the poem?
Act natural
Bad luck
Deafening silence
Friendly fire
Ill health
Natural additives
Old news
Pretty ugly
Sweet sorrow

12. Verse 1
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.
Oxymoron – emphasises her contradictory feelings
Plosive B sounds aggressive
Heavy emphasis here perhaps indicating her negative/aggressive feelings are now the dominant ones.
Highlights the intensity of her vengeful desires.
Hardened emotions? Dark for her evil thoughts of revenge. Green link with jealousy? Lack of transparency – might highlight the way she conceals her true feelings.
Accentuated veins - due to age, stress, murderous anger etc.
Irony – we usually pray for something good.

13. Verse 2
caesura
Negative connotations
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
Emphasises primitive rawness of emotions
Placed at start of stanza, one word sentence, bitter tone.
Literally true? Or low self esteem?
Doesn’t recognise herself – profoundly changed by rejection.
Ambiguous – her or the dress? Perhaps she is frightened of looking in the mirror and seeing what she has become.
Repetition emphasises intensity of anguish
Emphasises her isolation.

14. Verse 3
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
Enjambment – to convey the idea of run away emotions and a lack of control? To evoke a troubled, restless mind?
Dried blood? Disease?
Deep red – connotations of puce?
Sexual fantasy/dream reveals she cannot rid herself of her desire/affection which now torments her in the living nightmare of her waking existence.
When she wakes the hatred and anger return

15. Verse 4
Caesura here emphasises the finality of it.
Metaphor. Shows how fragile love can be.
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.
Alliteration . Might symbolise her broken heart, her life destroyed abruptly?
One word sentence/onomatopoeia emphasises power/suddenness of above.
Plosive b helps to show the anger and pain
Command. A morbid, macabre, erotic perverse request. Deeply disturbed, vengeful and malevolent. Long + slow – combination of enjoyment and torture
Repetition highlights her emotional and psychological fragility. As well as her heart, her mind is now broken.

16. Looking a little closer…
Why does the poet omit Miss Havisham's title and refer to her by her surname only?
Why does the poet write “spinster” on its own? What does Miss Havisham think about this word and its relevance to her?
What is the effect of “Nooooo” and “b-b-breaks”? Why are these words written in this way?
4. How far does the poet want us to sympathize with Miss
Havisham?
5. Does Miss Havisham have a fair view of men? What do
you think of her view of being an unmarried woman?

17. On the reverse of your poem: Find the quotations for the following
The speaker has mixed feelings about her ex-lover.
The speaker fantasises about killing her ex lover.
The speaker has worn her wedding dress for years.
The speaker is angry.
The speaker conveys feelings of violence.
The speaker is cold and has been hardened by the rejection.
The speaker can’t stand her reflection.
The speaker cannot move on.
She is surrounded by items that have been around since the wedding day.
She is trapped in the house and stares at the same four walls

18. Themes in the poem happiness romance hate memories death jealousy love
A theme is a recurring idea that is developed throughout a text.
Which of the ideas below do you think are themes of the poem and why?
happiness
romance
hate
memories
death
jealousy
love
pride
violence

19. Text-marking:
In your first colour, underline or shade in all of the words of phrases related to weddings and celebrations. Label this colour ‘Wedding/celebration vocabulary’ in your key.
In your second colour, underline of shade in all of the words and phrases related to death, dying or violence. Label this colour ‘Death, dying and images of violence’ in your key.
In your third colour, underline or shade in all of the words that are to do with colour and label it ‘Colour vocabulary’ in your key.
In your fourth colour, underline the question that the speaker of the poem asks (look at lines 8-9). Think about the effects of this poem and write your ideas about this on the poem, e.g. speaker wonders …
In your fifth colour, underline or shade in the examples of oxymoron (contradictions) in the poem, and add this to your key.

20. How have you done? ? Can you:
explore layers of meaning and imagery in the poem
analyse the language used and consider its effects on the reader? ?

21. 1. Choose an effective image from the poem. 2. Sketch it. 3
1. Choose an effective image from the poem. 2. Sketch it. 3. Write the quotation. 4. Write the technique 5. Create a paragraph explaining how the image shows the persona’s feelings.

22. Starter
Imagine you are Miss Havisham. Write a Facebook post sharing your thoughts on life.