Carol Ann Duffy Havisham Analysis

HAVISHAM

-MIHIR SHAH

Throughout her poems carol ann duffy gives a voice to women who have previously been historically ignored. She addresses stereotypes aggressively and also celebrates female sexuality through her poems. She portrays characters that both support and reject the stereotypical representation of women in the male dominated society of the 1900s, by contrasting innocent, helpless, naive women to unexpected dominant, confident and powerful female figures. ‘Havisham’ is a poem written in monologue, spoken by the voice of miss havisham from Charles Dickens’ novel ‘great expectations’. Duffy uses dramatic monologue to effectively show the womens point of view.

In the title Duffy hasn’t given miss havisham any title before her name, and has subtly just titled the poem ‘havisham’. This might have been done intentionally by her in order to not draw any attention to her martial state and to

Before this enjambment, there is no blatant, outright sense of hatred or anger or violence. Even if there is a little, the poet suppresses it and tends to emphasize more on the more docile image of her. Till this point havisham had not been sure that her condition wasn’t her own fault. But the part of the enjambment that continues onto the next line implies that havisham once again shifts blame back onto some one else (probably her ex- fiancé) for her depressed condition of insanity, since the line now reads as ‘who did this to me?’ From here onwards the stereotypical representation of a women has been shed by carol ann duffy and she moves on to show a dominant, angry and violent character in miss havisham. She no longer shows her as innocent and pure but also portrays her sexual desires and her craving for them to be