Havisham by Carol Ann Duffy from Mean Time [1998]

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Havisham by Carol Ann Duffyfrom Mean Time
1998
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Links

• Link to media presentationhttp//www.youtube.com
  /watch?vMOsmZqClgBA http//www.youtube.com/watc
  h?vC1-CMmAocww Jean Simmonshttp//www.youtube.
  com/watch?vN-bjy28dNiQ Whole film Great
  Expectations
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vzzYNG1FgMNkMiss
  Hs Ghosts

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(No Transcript)
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• She was dressed in rich materials satins, and
  lace, and silks all of white. Her shoes were
  white. And she had a long white veil dependent
  from her hair, and she had bridal flowers in her
  hair, but her hair was white. Some bright jewels
  sparkled on her neck and on her hands, and some
  other jewels lay sparkling on the table. Dresses,
  less splendid than the dress she wore, and
  half-packed trunks were scattered about. She had
  not quite finished dressing, for she had but one
  shoe on the other was on the table near her
  hand her veil was half arranged, her watch and
  chain were not put on, and some lace for her
  bosom lay with those trinkets and with her
  handkerchief, and gloves, and some flowers, and a
  prayer-book, all confusedly heaped about the
  looking-glass.
• It was not in the first moments that I saw all
  these things, though I saw more of them in the
  first moments than might be supposed. But, I saw
  that everything within my view which ought to be
  white, had been white long ago, and had lost its
  lustre, and was faded and yellow. I saw that the
  bride within the bridal dress had withered like
  the dress, and like the flowers, and had no
  brightness left but the brightness of her sunken
  eyes. I saw that the dress had been put upon the
  rounded figure of a young woman, and that the
  figure upon which it now hung loose, had shrunk
  to skin and bone. Once, I had been taken to see
  some ghastly wax-work at the Fair, representing I
  know not what impossible personage lying in
  state. Once, I had been taken to one of our old
  marsh churches to see a skeleton in the ashes of
  a rich dress, that had been dug out of a vault
  under the church pavement. Now wax-work and
  skeleton seemed to have dark eyes that moved and
  looked at me. I should have cried out, if I
  could.
• Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, p50

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Learning Intentions

• I will develop a knowledge and understanding of
  the complexities of poetic language.
• I will convey information using specialist
  terminology, analysis and evaluation of texts.
• I will persuade, argue and evaluate using
  supporting evidence from the text.
• I will structure a convincing analytical
  examination of key areas of the text. In written
  and spoken forms.
• I will make relevant notes and organise them in a
  coherent way to create new texts.
• I will read primary and secondary sources to
  expand my understanding of texts.
• I will present my ideas in a fluent way that is
  appropriate to my audience.
• I will examine the interpretation of
  written/spoken/ performed texts and evaluate
  effectiveness.

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Collaborative Learning

• All must take notes.
• All must present findings to whole class.
• All must contribute to discussions and
  presentations.
• --------------------------------------------------
  ---Groups could study Characters, Themes,
  Language, Key Scene, Symbols, Motifs, Conflict,
  Denouement, Climax, Dialogue.

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Introduction

• Restate the question in your own words. (Use key
  words from the task).
• Mention the name of the writer and the title of
  the text.
• State your intentions. (How are you going to
  answer the question / complete the task).
• FOCUS ON THREE AREAS IF POSSIBLE. TART

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TART

• Title of text
• Author
• Response to question/topic.
• Techniques and aspects you will examine.
• --------------------------------------------------
  ----
• Attempt to be stylish and intelligent but above
  all else keep your writing clear and
  intelligible.

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Havisham by Carol Ann Duffy

• Write about a poem that deals with the subject of
  love.
• Examine how the poet explores the subject and
  explain to what extent you found the treatment
  effective.
• You may consider theme, structure, imagery,
  tone, mood, symbolism, character, narrative voice
  and style.

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Essay Question 2

• Choose a poem which takes a pessimistic view ob
  some aspectsof life.
• Briefly state what the poem is about and go on to
  show how the techniques used convey these
  pessimistic feelings.
• In your answer you must refer to the text and to
  at least two of tone, word choice, imagery,
  rhythm, or any other appropriate feature.

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Essay Question 3

• Choose a poem that communicates the experience of
  loss or isolation.
• Show how the poet communicates the experience in
  a way you found meaningful.
• In your answer you must refer to the text and to
  at least two of tone, word choice, imagery,
  rhythm, or any other appropriate feature.

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Essay Question 4

• Choose a poem that creates an interesting,
  tragic, sinister or humorous character.
• Show how the poet uses various poetic techniques
  to make the character feel real to you.
• You may consider theme, structure, imagery,
  tone, mood, symbolism, character, narrative voice
  and style.

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Havisham by Carol Ann Duffy

• How far does the poet want us to sympathize with
  Havisham? List elements of sympathy / disgust
• Why does the reader have to know about Great
  Expectations to understand the poem?
• Does Havisham have a fair view of men? What do
  you think of her view of being an unmarried
  woman?
• Perhaps the most important part of the poem is
  the question who did this/to me? Discuss.
• How far does the poem show that Havisham is
  responsible for her own misery, and how far does
  it support her feelings of self-pity and her
  desire for revenge?

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Havisham by Carol Ann Duffy

• Explain how the word stink expresses
  self-loathing.
• What does it mean that Duffy has used great
  economy of language?
• How effectively does Duffy convey the idea that
  Havisham hates the word spinster?
• Discuss in turn what each colour represents and
  what Duffy is trying to convey through its use.
• Other than the wedding celebration, what could
  the red balloon which bursts symbolise?.

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Havisham by Carol Ann Duffy

• In your groups prepare a presentation on your
  stanza. Examine
• Mood, imagery,
• Characterisation, themes,
• Narrative voice and tone
• Structure and word choice.
• Symbolism and literary devices
• --------------------------------------------------
  -----------------------
• Enjambement, metaphor, simile, oxymoron,
  dark imagery, climax,
• Analyse word choice and aspects of punctuation.
  
• You should also refer to how mood is created,
• How Duffy uses characterisation, tone and
  symbolism

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Mood, imagery, 5D1Tristan, Matthew, Jack

• Beloved Sweetheart bastard oxymoron hateful
  mood established.
• Ropes death/strangulation/murder
• dark green pebbles, sickly colour, decay.
  Jealousy, stone like gaze, windows to the soul
  and Havisham has closed her soul to the outside
  world. Medusa connections as her harsh gaze could
  turn you to stone.
• Spinster. Minor sentence implies self-loathing,
  solitude and loneliness. Sounds menacing due to
  hissing s.
• Cawing NOOOO at the wall. Crowlike sound,
  connotations of death, decay. onomatopoeia
  Neologism new word Dehumanises her
  sounds/language. In denial of her loneliness.
• Image of a tragic, lonely, desperate, bitter
  character, who relives her pain in isolation
  every day.
• Lost body fluent tongue Bite Awake. Fantasy
  imagery, dreamworld is where she sometimes feels
  better. Sexual connotations of wedding night
  that never was.
• Puce curses that are sounds not words sibilance
  creates menace, hissing s sound. Her evil intent
  cannot be voiced through language and becomes
  unintelligible sounds of bitterness and despair.
• Yellowing dress, white wedding dress becomes a
  symbol of decay and decomposition as opposed to
  love and unity.
• Loves hate behind a white veil. oxymoron
• Red balloon. Symbolises her heart
  breaking/exploding. Bang! Onomatopoeia to
  emphasise the impact on her.
• Stabbing a wedding cake seems a violent attack on
  the concept of marriage.
• Male corpse long, slow honeymoon. Images of
  death and isolation create a sinister, murderous
  mood.
• B-b-b-breaks, mind, body and heart breaks. Image
  of broken woman, solitary and isolated. We
  sympathise

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Mood/Imagery. 5A1 Omar, Nicola Amy

• Opening lines suggest anger in the narrative
  voice. Cathartic/dramatic monologue. Hatred
  against men/marriage.
• Dark Green Pebbles Jealousy, cold stone like
  view the world.
• Ropes I could strangle with violent death
  connotations, Tied to the situation. Suggests old
  age also.
• Sinister mood, Gothic imagery.
• Stanza 2 continues to be sinister and introduces
  personal bitterness from the character/narrator.
• Sexual fantasy that is dreamlike. Lost Body. Bite
  Awake!!! Reality and allusion
• Cawing NOOOO at the wall. Neologism creating new
  words for situations. Negative wordchoice and
  sound effect hyperbole enhances the menace in
  the statement
• Puce curses S sounds hissing alliteration/sibilan
  ce No language can turn the sounds into
  meaning. Her evil intent is expressed in sounds
  only.
• Mood changes in last stanza to sympathy due to
  the change in tone. The harsh tone is replaced by
  what appears to be the narrator b-b-b-breaking
  down
• Almost like a letter at start and end.

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Characterisation, themes, 5D1Abbie, Sheraine,
Emma

• Title Havisham is her family/maiden/single name.
  Her title would have been Miss. She omits this
  as she is embarrassed by her rejection and
  isolation.
• She is decomposing as a person physically and
  mentally. Yellowing, spinster, stink.
• She is lonely and isolated. Gothic figure
• Stuck in time and place, she looks into her
  wardrobe trembling. She gazes into the past to
  remember how things could have been.
• Ropes suggest murderous intentions.
• Who did this to me? Self-denial? Blaming someone
  else? Central question of the poem. She is
  responsible for her current situation but
  circumstances from the past influenced her
  decisions and her behaviour.
• B-b-b-breaks signifies her breakdown emotionally
  and mentally.
• Themes Anger, aggression, embarrassment,
  isolation, suffering, love, hate and despair.
  Death, betrayal, embitterment, FEAR!!!!!!

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Characterisation, themes, Polly, Susan, Jodie,
Ilona

• Havisham title suggests no gender, possibly a
  place or object. We consider Miss as having
  connotations of youth, unmarried status. The
  narrator is old, was jilted at the alter and is
  now embittered and driven by hatred. CA Duffy
  removed the prefix Miss to add mystery and menace
  to the character.
• Not a day since then Shows she lives in the past
  and dwells on the incidents that made her what
  she has become. Wishes/prays for death!!!! word
  choice/imagery
• Spinster. Word seems spat out in disgust. It
  makes her feel unloved, betrayed, unwanted. She
  becomes something she never wanted to be,
  ALONE!!!! The word sounds like a curse to
  HERSELF. Hissing s sounds sinister and
  shocking.
• I stink and remember suggests her physical and
  emotional decay and the fact that she can only
  live in the past. She sees no happy future.
• Whole days in bed cawing NOOOO at the wall.
• Dream world is where she feels sometimes
  better. She dreams of her lover lost body
  corpse like image Bites awake violently she is
  jolted back to reality.
• Stabbed wedding cake metaphor for killing her
  memories of her wedding day. She may also be
  killing all things associated with the
  institution of marriage including the man! Theme
  of confusion, as ironically she wanted to be
  married and is now alone.
• THEMES revenge, self-hatred, self-destruction,
  isolation, jealousy, separation, desperation,
  death. Poem is a statement of grief.

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Narrative voice and tone 5D1Zoe, Matthew, Nicola,
Lorna, Zoe

• Strong and violent word choices create a
  aggressive, violent and disturbing tone. Stab,
  strangle, dead, ropes.
• 1st person narrative cathartic, personal,
  emotional. Dramatic monologue tells her story.
• Stream of Consciousness thoughts, memories,
  actions, speech and observations creating a
  rambling, garbled effect.
• Suggests narrator may be mentally disturbed in
  this context.
• Where we may expect exclamation marks there are
  none. This gives the poem a harsh, matter of fact
  tone that creates a disturbing mood and narrative
  voice.
• Tone changes Spinster. Stink, NOOO at the wall.
  Suggests she cannot identify herself in a
  positive way. She describes herself using
  abstract nouns her, spinster that emphasises
  her loneliness, her lack of companionship, her
  isolation from society. Tone is bitter and
  pessimistic.
• Who did this/to me? Rhetorical question tone
  is tragically pitiful, she knows the answer is
  herself. The reader sees her now as a victim
  rather than a potential killer.
• Dream world takes her away from reality. Bites
  awake. Violent image jolts her back to reality.
  She has to escape and dreaming still reminds her
  of her situation.
• Tone in last line changes from bitter, violent
  and aggressive to sad and afraid.
• The repetition may suggest her heart breaking
  repeatedly, day after day and every day.
• It may suggest the last beats of her heart.

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Narrative voice and tone 5A2 Liam, Connor,
Michael, Sarah

• Tone seems emotional yet detached at the start
  due to the irony of the comment. Oxymoron
• First person narrative I makes it more personal
  and cathartic.
• Dark green pebbles for eyes symbolic of
  jealousy. Connotations of stone give the image a
  harsh and menacing quality.
• Cawing NOOOO at the wall. Suggests self-pity.
  Connotations of a crow sound, links to theme of
  death. Neologism creates new word to signify her
  pain. No is a very negative word choice, and she
  can only scream it at the wall. This shows the
  reader how isolated and lonely she has become.
  Her tone is desperate and terrifying, but also
  appears afraid and vulnerable.
• Who did this to me? She questions her own
  appearance. She seems surprised and shocked by
  what she sees in the slewed mirror. The
  distorted reflection seems to appear to her as a
  physical manifestation of her mental state. She
  has become a twisted vision of a bride and cannot
  comprehend how this has happened.
• Trembling at opening the wardrobe shows her fear
  and reluctance to face her reality. She looks
  into her past and finds disappointment and
  rejection. Dresses never worn remind her of her
  situation and isolation.
• Puce curses that are sounds not words.
  Supernatural blood coloured oaths suggest evil
  intent and the tone now seems murderous. Verbal
  poison flows from her to her ex fiance. The
  hissing s sound makes the tone menacing and
  shows that her words are now only garbled sounds.
  She cannot put her feelings into words and only
  evil sounds come from her lips.
• Word choices, throughout, create a menacing,
  disturbing tone. Mood is sinister and tense.
  Corpse, Loves hate behind a white veil. Images
  are dark / gothic / shocking.
• Tone in last line changes from bitter, violent
  and aggressive to sad and afraid.
• The repetition may suggest her heart breaking
  repeatedly, day after day and every day.
• It may suggest the last beats of her heart.

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Structure and word choice.5D1Breagh, Lewis Rebecca

• 4x4 lined stanzas very tightly controlled
  structure.
• Enjambement allows the lines to flow from stanza
  to stanza to create a rambling
• STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS effect. That is cathartic
  and a dramatic monologue.
• S of C thoughts, reflections, words, actions,
  speech and memories to create a MONTAGE effect
  that compresses Time, Space and Action.
• TWENTY YEARS OF SOLITUDE, HATRED AND DECAY, IN A
  TWENTY SECOND POEM!!!!!
• --------------------------------------------------
  --------------------------------------------------
  ---------------------------
• She talks about killing
• She discusses what she has done to herself
• Fantasy scenes of what could have been for her.
• Anger, embarrassment and breakdown,
• Bites awake moves her from dreamstate to
  reality.
• Spinster. Minor, one word sentence. Negative
  connotations meaning loneliness, single life,
  isolation, lacking love? Sounds menacing due to
  hissing s?
• Yellowing white purity of wedding dress gone
  and the purity of her love. 20 years of isolation
  has led to her physical and mental decay. Yellow
  has connotations of disease.
• Lost body over me romantic dream of her
  husband. Suggests death, loss and, ironically,
  love. She still pictures herself with him as
  young lovers.
• Red balloon bursting in my face anger,
  embarrassment, humiliation. Red balloon may
  symbolise her heart, not just b-b-b-breaking,
  but dramatically exploding.
• Cawing crow-like cry onomatopoeia. Links to
  her older state/death
• Beloved sweetheart bastard. start
  b-b-b-breaks. end
• Starts and ends on plosive b sounds creating a
  cycle of her pain. Her vulnerability and fear are
  shown at the end and her she seems to hide behind
  a mask of hatred - loves hate behind a white
  veil - at the start to cope with her rejection
  everyday.

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Structure and word choice. Lauren M, Sophie,
Laura, Lauren H

• Start and end of poem appear climactic. Plosive
  b sound creates a dramatic impact on the
  reader. It sounds harsh and emphatic and creates
  a cyclical effect. Starts with an oxymoron
  beloved sweetheart bastard and ends with
  mentioning the heart that b-b-b-breaks. By using
  references to hearts at the start and end we
  see how CA Duffy creates a unity in imagery.
• A sweetheart and a broken heart create a
  symmetry to the poem and puts the heart as a
  symbol of love in different contexts.
• Green pebbles suggest jealousy, decay, disease.
  Spinster. Isolation / loneliness / lack of
  identity / completion.
• Harsh violent words dead, ropes, strangle,
  corpse, stabbed, bang.
• 4x4 line stanzas- 1 she discusses the man who
  left her. 2 Describes herself. 3 Fantasy world. 4
  She describes her decline into despair and
  relates to the circumstances that led to her
  isolation.

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Symbolism and literary devices Jed, Grant, Euan,
Jordan

• Green pebbles symbol of jealousy, envy, decay,
  disease. Stonelike eyes, harshness of her glare
  on the world.
• Death drives her purpose, it is her reason for
  living.
• Ropes old, death, strangling,
• Yellowing old, decaying,
• Stink connotations of decay, self loathing,
  awareness of her decline. Physical and
  emotional
• Trembling ambiguous, she/dress trembles.
• Cawing NOOOO image of isolation, sadness and
  fear.
• Spinster. Symbolic of single female. Tone is
  disgusted and afraid. Her identity is consumed by
  her unmarried status. Hissing s sound makes this
  minor sentence sinister. Sibilance. She may be in
  denial that she will never be married and that is
  the cause of her emotional turmoil.
• PATHOS suffering grief Gk. Evoking strong
  feelings of pity or sorrow.
• Who did this/to me? ambiguous
• Confronting herself for her position and
  condition? In denial of the fact that she is
  responsible?
• Colour symbolism Puce curses. Blood colour,
• Wedding cake, symbolises the institution of
  marriage. Stabbed she murders the concept of
  marriage.
• PATHOS pathetic lonely figure, we feel deeply
  sympathetic even though she appears hateful,
  bitter and murderous to us. Her heart breaks
  constantly. The bbbbreaks may be the last beats
  of a tragic, lovelorn heart.

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Symbolism and literary devices Bonnie, Michelle,
Jodie, Danielle, Jordan

• Start is dramatic! Alliteration, Harsh b.
• Wish him dead/prayed for it Metaphorical murder
  is desired by H. This murder only takes place in
  Hs mind, her life is played out in the past in
  her mind. This suggests her mental instability
  and her lack of action, as she seems to be a
  total recluse.
• Colour symbolism Green jealousy symbol. puce
  sibilance hissing s, white purity, IRONY,
  oxymoron on love, red metaphor for her life
  exploding/heart bursting, yellow age, decay,
  decline
• Rope death, age, wringing emotions. SYMBOL
• Spinster. Minor sentence. A title of a single
  woman. Just as miss is - the word CA Duffy
  omitted from the title.
• Her identity is embodied in this word. She is the
  word she hates most. She appears to spit the word
  out at the world!!!!!
• Cawing crow sound, onomatopoeia, NOOOO
  neologism, creates the sound of despair and
  isolation. At the wall no one to speak to
  illustrates solitude and loneliness. IMAGE OF
  FEMALE ISOLATION AND PATHOS!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Lost body Bite awake. Fantast IMAGERY. Dream
  world, escape.
• Loves hate behind a white veil. She is a
  personified as a symbol of love as a bride.
  This changes to hate as the red balloon of
  her hopes explodes in front of her when she is
  rejected at the alter
• Wedding cake symbolises marriage. Stabbed
  suggests her killing the concept of marriage.

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Havisham by Carol Ann Duffy

• 
  Beloved sweetheart bastard. Not a day since
  then I havent wished him dead. Prayed for it
  so hard Ive 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 Nooooo 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 its mouth in its ear
  then down till I suddenly bite awake. Loves
• 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. Dont think its only the heart
  that b-b-b-breaks.

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Havisham by Carol Ann Duffy

• Havisham
• by Carol Ann Duffy
• Background
• This poem is a monologue spoken by Miss
  Havisham, a character in Dickens' Great
  Expectations.
• Jilted by her scheming fiancé, she continues to
  wear her wedding dress and sit amid the remains
  of her wedding breakfast for the rest of her
  life, while she plots revenge on all men.
• She hates her spinster state - of which her
  unmarried family name constantly reminds her
  (which may explain the choice of title for the
  poem).

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Havisham by Carol Ann Duffy

• Summary of Poem
• She begins by telling the reader the cause of her
  troubles - her phrase beloved sweetheart
  bastard is a contradiction in terms (called an
  oxymoron).
• She tells us that she has prayed so hard (with
  eyes closed and hands pressed together) that her
  eyes have shrunk hard and her hands have sinews
  strong enough to strangle with - which fits her
  murderous wish for revenge.
• (Readers who know Dickens' novel well might think
  at this point about Miss Havisham's ward, Estella
  - her natural mother, Molly, has strangled a
  rival, and has unusually strong hands.)

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Characterisation.

• Havisham is aware of her own stink - because she
  does not ever change her clothes nor wash.
• She stays in bed and screams in denial.
• At other times she looks and asks herself who
  did this to her?
• She sometimes dreams almost tenderly or
  erotically of her lost lover, but when she wakes
  the hatred and anger return.
• Thinking of how she stabbed at the wedding cake
  she now wants to work out her revenge on a male
  corpse - presumably that of her lover.

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Havisham by Carol Ann Duffy

• Structure
• The poem is written in four stanzas which are
  unrhymed. Many of the lines run on, and the
  effect is like normal speech. The poet
• uses many adjectives of colour - green, puce,
  white and red and
• lists parts of the body eyes, hands,
  tongue, mouth, ear and face.
• Sometimes the meaning is clear, but other lines
  are more open - and there are hints of violence
  in strangle, bite, bang and stabbed. It
  is not clear what exactly Miss Havisham would
  like to do on her long slow honeymoon, but we
  can be sure that it is not pleasant.

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Havisham by Carol Ann Duffy

• Questions
• Why does the poet omit Havisham's title and refer
  to her by her surname only?
• Why does the poet write spinster on its own?
  What does Havisham think about this word and its
  relevance to her?
• What is the effect of Nooooo and b-b-breaks?
  Why are these words written in this way?
• What is the meaning of the image of a red
  balloon bursting?

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Havisham by Carol Ann Duffy

• How far does the poet want us to sympathize with
  Havisham?
• Does the reader have to know about Great
  Expectations to understand the poem?
• Does Havisham have a fair view of men? What do
  you think of her view of being an unmarried
  woman?
• Perhaps the most important part of the poem is
  the question who did this/to me? How far does
  the poem show that Havisham is responsible for
  her own misery, and how far does it support her
  feelings of self-pity and her desire for revenge?

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Stanza 1

• The opening line portrays the order of events.
  "Beloved sweetheart bastard."
• The man she describes was someone special but
  soon became someone she hated.
• She has longed for revenge as the reader is told,
  "Not a day since then I haven't wished for him
  dead."
• The words "prayed" also tie in with this deep
  seated longing for change.
• The imagery of her eyes being like "Dark green
  pebbles" hints to the hardness of stone but also
  the green is jealousy.
• She has become trapped by obsession thinking,
  praying and waiting for her fiance.

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Stanza 2

• The word "Spinster" is a minor one word sentence,
  almost spat out in distaste. Havisham describes
  her condition "I stink and remember" the words
  refer to her smell from wearing the same clothes
  but also the stench of the terrible thing that
  has happened to her.
• The events have changed her and there is real
  sadness and fear behind the words.
• Her wedding dress is described as "yellowing" as
  she questions how she has ended up in this
  situation.

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Stanza 3

• The final part of the previous stanza merges into
  this third verse and the disjointedness reflects
  Havisham's own distress.
• This stanza hints that sometimes she can feel
  happy and when she is bed asleep for a moment it
  as if she is still with her lover, but the strong
  words "bite awake" describe the gnawing pain of
  having lost a loved one.
• The dream is only a dream and life is difficult
  to live with.

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Stanza 4

• Love is personified and the narrator describes
  herself as "Love's hate behind a white veil"
• Love enjoys hurting her and again this is
  emphasised with her description of the balloon
  "bursting in my face."
• Balloons are supposed to be fun like love but in
  this instance it becomes something shocking ready
  to spoil her happiness.
• Havisham also describes at destroying her wedding
  cake, "I stabbed at a wedding-cake." This
  describes not only her pain, but the pain she
  would like to inflict on someone else.
• The imagery of a honeymoon is coupled with the
  words "male corpse" this also shows her unfeeling
  towards men.
• She doesn't want something living, she wants
  something dead. The very last word comes out in a
  stutter when she talks about how a heart
  "b-b-b-breaks" this shows sadness and madness at
  the same time.
• When she talks about her heart not being the only
  one that is broken it reminds us of Pip from
  "Great Expectations", she's been hurt and knows
  how to break a man's heart. In the case of Pip,
  she wanted to crush his dreams of gaining an
  education.