Havisham Review

The Presentation of Miss Havisham in Chapter 8 and in Chapter 49 of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

As if a ghost flew by, the woman was no longer her former self. She shielded herself with the snow, almost vanishing out of existence with no trace left behind. The woman was strange according to Charles Dickens. Yet only a few years later the white woman would inspire the character Miss Havisham. Miss Havisham is from a book called Great Expectations, the book was written by Charles Dickens during the Victorian era. In addition the book has many intriguing characters with their own intricate backstories. Character like Miss Havisham, Pip, and Magwitch. Each one of them are imprisoned by previous actions accompaned with mistakes.

Miss Havisham plays a big part in Pip's life. Dickens portrays her as a women who has been jilted on her wedding day. This event has ruined her life. Miss Havisham has stopped all clocks and sits in her yellowing wedding dress. Miss havisham has stopped all clocks on the moment she has found out that her lover has jilted her. Dickens describes her in a way whick makes me imagine the castle of the white witch in Narnia, with its frozen statues in the courtyard.

‘Havisham’ and ‘Valentine’ are both poems written by Carol Ann Duffy. They both develop the idea of what love is really about, while being two completely different interpretations about love. The poet reveals the link between the two poems using a variety of techniques; Duffy expresses the reality of love in ‘Valentine’ in contrast to the exaggeration that love is a thing of hate in ‘Havisham’. ‘Valentine’ directly tells the reader what love really is, ‘Not a red rose or a satin heart / not a cute car or a kissogram.’ Duffy takes away the materialistic side of love on Valentines Day, and looks at it realistically, using an onion as a gift, instead.

This means that either Miss Havisham still loves Compeyson or that she is simply throwing a drastic "temper tantrum. " It is obvious that Miss Havisham is a deeply wounded woman: her outlook on life is dismal and desolate. She has not ventured out into the daylight for fifty years, shutting out the rest of the world. Time means nothing to her, for she has nothing to do and no friends to see. Her transformation from a passionate young woman in love to an old, hardened, and lonely woman is a great one.

In the book Great Expectations by Charles Dickens a lot of things happen, some things were good and some things were bad that happened. One of the bad things that happened was the fire at Miss Havisham's house. The main character Pip goes to Miss Havisham's house and sees that she is sitting very close to the fire and she is sitting in her old wedding dress. A flame catches her dress on fire, Pip starts to panic and grabs a coat to put the flames out. I think fire symbolizes her wedding day and also may symbolize that it was a suicide attempt. Dickens put this part in the book because the part goes right with the story line.

In stanza 12, she tells us that he has “bit her pretty red heart in two.” Next, she states that he died when she was ten, and when she was twenty years old, she attempted suicide - “…I tried to die, to get back back back to you.” In stanza 13 is where she starts talking about her husband. She says that instead of dying, her friends “stuck her together with glue,” and since she could not die to get back to her father, she would marry someone who was similar.

Havisham is a dramatic poem. Expressing Havisham's love and hatred she has towards her 'bastard' finance that left her and what he has caused her to become. Havisham has not only wished but prayed which shows a religious imagery and a verb, showing her anger of wanting him 'dead' that her eyes have turned to '' dark green pebbles'' metaphorical describing her jealousy that hardens Havisham shows her violence of what her finance turned her into, she expresses how she rots and stinks as she has remained the same since her wedding day and is '' trembling'' to look herself in the mirror. Showing she no longer recognises herself, it is shown in the rhetorical question'' who did this to me?'' this expresses her anger and pressure.

Throughout the poem the author uses imagery to develop a sense of gentle love, a fondness of the beautiful story of her heritage. Using words such as, “beautiful sisters giggled and danced” and “a lanky girl trailing after her father through his Oklahoma field” and even stating “my sister and I were in love with Meema’s indian blanket.” the author generates imagery of the story she is trying to tell about her family.

This marks a new stage in the narrator's emotions, as she is glum upon his exit. It is clearly evident that the speaker is worried about her husband's journey because of line sixteen, which states, "Through the Gorges of Ch'u-t'ang, of rock and whirling water." This line shows that the husband is travelling through dangerous terrain. Throughout the third stanza, the narrator is said to slowly transition into a depression phase, as she dearly misses her husband. In lines twenty-three to twenty-five, the narrator sees butterflies flying "two by two" in the garden, and she feels very depressed upon seeing this because the butterflies are all together with their spouses, while she isn't. In line twenty-six, the speaker uses imagery to describe her emotion. She fears that she might start to look pale because of her

Havisham ‘Havisham’ by Carol Ann Duffy is a reflection on Miss Havisham’s feelings for her husband who left her at the altar. However, Duffy drops the honorific “Miss” from the title of the poem to highlight that she is simply Havisham — not a maiden, not a wife and not a widow. Consumed by jealousy, anger and regret, Havisham is portrayed as a woman driven mad with loss and the poem is a hymn of pain as she moves in and out of dream and awakening, always remembering the love of her life who betrayed her. The poem begins with a powerful and dramatic opening: “Beloved sweetheart bastard.” This oxymoron shows that Havisham is torn between the love she once had for her fiancé and the hatred she now has for him.

There are many different things that had happened and went on in the book “Great Expectations”. In the book there are also many different symbolic and reasonings for many things that happened. In my belief I thing that the fire at Miss. Havisham’s house was very symbolic to herself.

In the last stanza, the narrator witnesses the young "Harlot" (prostitute) cursing and reprimanding "Blasts" the infant's cries and "tears" at what could be the result of being fatherless. The soldiers' deaths leaving mothers widowed, turning the joyful occasion of marriage (also personified) into a depressing event “the Marriage hearse”. This stanza has a very different rhyme structure to the previous ones. It is half octameter and heptameter, making it slightly off beat. Lines thirteen and sixteen are slower (octameter), while lines thirteen and sixteen (heptameter) have a rapid, excited tone.

But the difference between the two poems is that in Havisham the woman was left on purpose, compared to poem at thirty-nine, who father dies. The poet explains how she loses her husband and doesn’t want him back. The poet says “the lost body over me” which suggests that she doesn’t want him as a personality, but wants his body. This suggests she has lost love and affection for her husband, but would still use his body. Secondly the woman is losing her mind and the poem shows how she is going crazy, from the words she has used. In the poem she says “b-b-b-breaks” which suggests that she is going crazy, while writing the poem. It suggests that she is losing her mind when she repeats the word “b”, which also connotes how the loss of her lover creates her to have a mental breakdown. Lastly the word “breaks” implies that she is broken and has finally lost him and can’t take it anymore.

However, within ‘Alison’ we see more elements of longing, that are also found in ‘Western Wind.’ The poet in ‘Alison’ seems to be singing to a woman who has looked at him “with lossum cheere,” but hasn’t agreed or been asked to marry him yet. While reading this poem and listening to the audio, I felt as though this was his proposal to her; after he tells qualities of how “longing is ylent me on” and that she’s the “fairest may in town,” at the very end he asks her to “herkne” to his “roun.” He’s asking her to listen to his proposal, take it, and be his wife, for his longing cannot stand anymore. The other poem that involves longing is ‘Western Wind,’ which I will discuss further in my single poem