1. GCSE English Literature
Section B: Poetry - Havisham

2. MUST: Read and understand the poem Havisham (D) SHOULD: Annotate the poem, identifying literary devices (C ) COULD: Evaluate the similarities and differences between the novel and the poem and identify the layers of meaning(B)

3. What do you think of…?
Havisham?

4. Havisham Great Expectations Adopted a daughter
Stood up on her wedding day
Wanted to reek revenge on all mankind
Stayed in her wedding dress for twenty years

5. 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 Noooooo 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 his 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.

6. What can you infer and interpret?
Annotate the text
What can you infer and interpret?

7. 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.

8. Note the lack of exclamation mark – she is serious and seemingly no longer angry?
Alliteration of the blosive ‘b’
oxymoron
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.
Dark imagery
enjambement
Religious imagery
Metaphor represents her jealousy
Use of the model verb
Metaphor represents her aging, as well as the years spent ‘wringing her hands’ with emotion / anger / nerves

9. Spinster. I stink and remember. Whole days
in bed cawing Noooooo at the wall; the dress
yellowing, trembling if I open the wardrobe,
the slewed mirror, full-length, her, myself, who did this

10. One word sentence stands out
Observation of what she is now (literally) – and a suggestion of what was wrong (metaphorically) with her to be dumped?
One word sentence stands out
Spinster. I stink and remember. Whole days
in bed cawing Noooooo at the wall; the dress
yellowing, trembling if I open the wardrobe,
the slewed mirror, full-length, her, myself, who did this
Neologism created to represent the pain (no word previously created to express)
The cry of a crow creates gothic imagery
Double meaning – the dress trembles (personification), as if waiting to be put back away / she trembles (literally) when looking at the clothes of her past
Highlights time passed
Double meaning – past tense of ‘slay’ suggesting she has smashed the mirror in anger / also means drunk, suggesting she is unable to see her true reflection through the blur of alcohol
Use of feminist reference to that of Julia Kristeva – she is unable to identify herself – ‘he’ made her an ‘object’ and she now fights to regain the ‘symbolic’ (myself)

11. to me? Puce curses that are sounds not words,
Some nights better, the lost body over me,
my fluent tongue in his mouth in its ear
then down till I suddenly bite awake. Love’s

12. End of rhetorical question
Colour of deep red to purple-brown suggests old blood which represents old wounds
Suggests she no longer can access language to express her feelings – a feminist analysis explored by Caryl Churchill in The Skriker, where pain is so deep there is no language available to describe it
End of rhetorical question
to me? Puce curses that are sounds not words,
Some nights better, the lost body over me,
my fluent tongue in his mouth in its ear
then down till I suddenly bite awake. Love’s
Conversational tone
Lost to her / also creates sexual imagery of body in her dreams
The dream continues and the love making is easy and poetic – she sees ‘him’
She tries to make him the ‘object’
The act is ‘sudden’ to him in the dream and the suddenness wakes her – and us as the reader to the viciousness of the attack (or dreamed attack)

13. 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.

14. hate behind a white veil; a red balloon bursting
Triple meaning – ‘white’ suggests innocence, ‘white veil’ represents the wedding, ‘veil’ represents in feminist terms that she is concealing something
‘red’ suggests anger, ‘red balloon bursting’ is a metaphor used to express her embarrassment (the veil concealed this)
Love’s hate - oxymoron
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.
Short sentence for effect – also represents the shock she experienced
‘Stabbed’ creates violent imagery / ‘stabbed at a wedding-cake’ shows literally and anger and metaphorically shows her opinion on marriage
Use of dark imagery, reference to death links to idea that the ‘honeymoon’ would provide the long painful death she wants
Use of the imperative verb
Use of blosive ‘b’ in a stuttering style, suggests the is breaking down again / she suggests that her life has broken as a result – not just her heart

15. Summarise what you now know about the poem:
What is it about? (Content)
What themes are covered?
What tone does the poem have?
What literary devices have been used?
How effective is the poem for the reader?

16. Summarise what you now know about the poem:
What is it about? A woman telling the tale of being stood up on her wedding day
What themes are covered? Anger, revenge, hatred, death
What tone does the poem have? Angry, aggressive, bitter
What literary devices have been used? Enjambement, metaphor, simile, oxymoron, dark imagery
How effective is the poem for the reader?