Havisham

Question 1

Summary of havishm

Answer 1

This poem is written from the point of view of Miss Havisham from Great Expectations (1861) by Charles Dickens. This key character was abandoned on her wedding day and, in her grief and anger, lives frozen in time, immersed in bitterness and resentment.

Question 2

Beloved sweetheart bastard

Answer 2

The beginning is abrupt, with the voice of Havisham cursing the fiance who has betrayed her. ‘Beloved sweetheart bastard’ is an oxymoron, expressing the extremes of emotions that are torturing the speaker. The plosive ‘b’ sounds suggest spitting anger and the three words, if spoken aloud, are halting, with percussive hard consonants.

Question 3

The dress yellowing

Answer 3

Yellow is the colour of cowards, she may thing her fiancé was a coward for leaving her or she is a coward for not being able to move on
Colour imagery

Question 4

I stabbed at a wedding cake.

Answer 4

This is another contradiction. A wedding cake represents happiness and hope, the sugar and fruit symbolising sweetness and future fertility. But she stabs her cake, a violent expression of her anger.

Question 5

Don’t think it’s only the heart that b-b-b-breaks

Answer 5

The word ‘b-b-b-breaks’ is onomatopoeic. The plosive ‘b’ could represent her rapid heartbeat or a stutter. Both suggests she is overwhelmed with emotion. Note that the poem began with plosive ‘b’s and ends with ‘b’s, creating a cyclical structure. It demonstrates that Miss Havisham is imprisoned by an endless cycle of anger.