“Ropes on the backs of my hands I could strangle with”
We can see here that Duffy has described how Havisham is getting old and her veins on her hands are standing out, Duffy describes these veins as “Ropes”. This quote is also describing a feeling “I could strangle with.” Here, Havisham wants to cause pain and damage to the man who hurt her, however, She could also be describing how the veins are so thick, they could be strong enough to strangle somebody. We can clearly see evidence of Miss Havisham having hatred feelings here, she is somehow showing herself how she is getting so old but the wedding day still remains clear in her memory.
In the second stanza of the poem Havisham’s unstable and lonely behaviour is continued. “Whole days in bed cawing Nooooo at the wall” She is in a serious state of depression and has gone through an emotional experience and her courage is extremely low. The word “cawing” makes the women sound like an animal, ‘Nooooo’ shows depression and ‘At the wall’ tells us that no one is there listening to her. Though, it does not matter to her anymore, she does not care whether she follows the rules of society, the only thing that matters to her is having revenge on her ex-lover for leaving her alone.
Then down, till it suddenly bites awake”.
Here Miss Havisham could either be dreaming of the happy times she spent with her ex fiancée, and the “suddenly bites awake” bit could well be when she wakes up and realises that it has all changed and that she really hates this man deep down inside. Or she could be speaking about her not getting any sexual connotations from another man, so she is have to do it herself and the “suddenly bites awake” bit could be when she has an orgasm.
In the stanza four Havisham describe her anger by acting violently.
“I stabbed at a wedding cake” Her anger towards her ex-lover is filtered through vengeance. Her revenge is