Havisham and Valentine comparison

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“Havisham” and “Valentine” are both poems by “Carol Ann Duffy”. They both explore the theme of love or rather painful love. the poet revels the link between the two poems’s through a verity of techniques which is done very effectively but also shows the difference between the obsessive love in “Havisham” and the possessive love of “Valentine”.

The pain of love is evident from the beginning in both poems. “Carol Ann Duffy” uses the tone in the first couple of stanzas to show the unorthodox nature of the love.

“Not a day since then I haven’t whished him dead”-Havisham

This is very effective as the aggressive tone shows “Havisham” has been rejected and her love is causing her pain. Similarly in “Valentine” “Carol Ann Duffy” uses a very forceful tone with words like “here” and “take it” which tells us her lover is not being very co-operative and like “Havisham” suggests a degree of pain within there love.

The pain of love is not only confined to a mental state but also a physical representation in the deterioration of there appearance captured in an image. “Carol Ann Duffy” uses imagery to show the reader that the pain of love can be captured in an image and remind the characters of the fact they have been rejected.

"Whole days in bed cawing Nooo at the wall the dress yellowing trembling"

This is effective as it compares the pain of love to the pain of loss. It shows the great hurt the rejection has caused, the image of her in her wedding dress to show the deterioration the pain has caused “the dress yellowing” suggest she has become transfixed in this moment in time to the point her dress has become old and decayed. This is a very effective use of imagery as it shows the pain of love caught in a single moment.

Although there are many similarities between “Havisham” and “Valentine” “Carroll Ann Duffy” uses the sense of smell to distinguish a key difference between the poems. In “Havisham” she uses the technique of smell as a constant reminder “I stink and remember” This is effective as you smell the desperation and obsessive nature of her love and the pain it causes her. This smell is a representation of her obsessive love, she has not changed her cloths or washed in the hope that her love changes his mind. This shows that the pain of love has warped her grip on reality. In “Valentine” “Carroll Anne Duffy” uses the sense of smell to show possessive love.

“The scent will cling to your fingers”-Valentine

This is very effective as the smell clings to the lover’s fingers almost a reminder that she has a partner and both the smell and partner will not be easy to get rid of. This shows she has a possessive mentality. The possessive love of “Valentine” and obsessive Love in “Havisham” have a similar effect on the behaviour of the characters to a worrying degree.