Notes from class:
Havisham
- “Beloved sweetheart bastard”
- Use of oxymoron
- Aggressive language of “bastard” catches your attention.
- The opening is unexpected, revealing the writer’s conflicted feelings.
- “I stink and remember” – She cannot move on with her life.
- “A red balloon bursting” – symbol of celebration has been destroyed.
- “I stabbed at a wedding cake” – Shows the anger she felt when she was jilted.
- “whole days in bed cawing nooooo at the wall” – she is dehumanised by her grief.
- “not a day since then I haven’t wished him dead” – she wants to kill the man who left her.
- “ropes on the back of my hands I could strangle with” – she is obsessed with killing him.
- “I stabbed at a wedding cake” – anger directed at a symbol of marriage.
- “hole days in bed cawing noooo at the wall” – “cawing” – animalistic noise, shows she is less than human.
- “puce curses that are sounds, not words” – “sounds, not words” – she cannot form words because she is so grief-stricken.
- “b-b-b-breaks” – The stuttering sound shows that love can drive you mad.
- “don’t think it’s only the heart” – the mind can be affected by love, too.
Commonality
- In Havisham, the love has been turned to bitter hatred, which is unexpected.
- In Valentine Duffy avoids all romantic clichés to produce a surprising
- In Anne Hathaway, Duffy compares love to the act of imaginative writing, which is unusual.
Havisham
- “Beloved sweetheart bastard” – Oxymoron – The line expresses the contrasting feelings the character has.
- By expressing love and hate the reader is taken by surprise.
Valentine
- “Not a red rose or a satin heart” – The writer refuses to use clichés about romance.
- This is surprising in a valentine’s poem.
- “I give you an onion” – Duffy gives an object which is not at all romantic.
- This proves she is trying to be original/ surprising.
Anne Hathaway
- “Item I gyve unto my wife my second best bed.”
- This is unexpected because a reader would expect a wife to be left the best bed.
- This item has romantic connotations.
