Compare how Carol Ann Duffy presents women in the poems Havisham and Salome Essay Example

‘I needed to clean up my act’ suggesting that she may start to become a bit more mature and settle down. The poem also makes Salome sound very weak willed ‘I’d done it before...

I’ll do it again’ this shows how fragile she is as she falls for someone very easily. Havisham’s attitude towards men is negative as she believes that every man will ruin her life so she feels that she can’t trust anyone. So she stays cooped up trying to stay away from men. She also shows a lot of hatred towards her ex- fiance, ‘I could strangle with’ this suggests that she wants to see him suffer as revenge for breaking her heart. It also suggests she is very violent and she wants to harm him. Another quote to back this up is ‘Bang.

I stabbed’ this to me suggests the ‘Bang’ of gun and creates an image of her stabbing him and a bigger image of her hatred towards him. Salome also shows hatred towards men ‘was his head on a platter’ this creates a violent image of a man who she has killed. Duffy makes Salome seem casual around it ‘I’d feel better for tea, dry toast’ this show that it isn’t the first time Salome has killed a man, this shows how careless she is towards the man. And ‘so I rang for the maid’ this suggest she is of a high level of respect e. g.

wealth.The women are both very similar as they are unable to move on and find true love especially Havisham ‘the heart that b-b-b-breaks’ this proves her heart is broken and suggests she is having

a mental collapse as well as a physical collapse ‘trembling’. She is also seems to be envious of the woman her ex-fiance chose over her ‘I’ve dark green pebbles for eyes’, green is associated with envy. It also suggests she has become cold hearted as you imagine a pebble being cold and firm. Salome also find it hard to move on as she believes if she trusts someone they would take advantage of it so she kills them before she is able to fall in love.However she sleeps with random men because she believes as she thinks they find her attractive and she can almost take control of men.

Havisham has no emotion towards men as ‘red balloon bursting in my face’ suggests that love is never permanent as the more you put into love it will soon become weaker and weaker until it bursts. Also ‘red’ is associated with passion and love. Havisham and Salome contrast on levels of self esteem. For example Havisham says, ‘spinster.

I stink’ this suggests she has a very low self esteem and unconfident on the person she is.Whereas Salome believes she is of a class higher above other people ‘Good looking, of course’ this suggests she doesn’t love someone unless they are good looking. Salome is also undecided of her opinion for example ‘I’ll do it again... Never again! ’ this also suggests she is a pushover under the influence of alcohol she is weak willed as she can’t control her wrong actions and can’t resist temptations.

Also ‘I rang for the maid’ this suggests she is of a higher rank than others as she makes people fetch

stuff for her.The characters also differ as Salome is like a magnet she attracts men then kills them as revenge for pain conflicted on her perhaps by her ex-boyfriend. However Havisham is completely different as it seems she repels men. Carol Ann Duffy has constructed the poems with a range of poetic devices and has created lots of thoughtful images.

The poetic devices are very effective in both poems as they create imaginative images for the reader. The oxymorons used in the poems create more passion in the sentence for example ‘Love’s hate’ this also adds uncertainty of Havishams’ thoughts.Some images have been made by Duffy in Havisham. Violent images ‘Bang. I stabbed’ and images of loneliness ‘spinster’.

Duffy describes Havisham being very lonely and uncertain of herself and her feelings towards herself, men and love. She also shows Havisham is contradictory ‘Beloved sweetheart bastard’, this proves how uncertain she is of her feelings. However ‘bastard’ means a person born with parents who aren’t married, this could suggest that the man was an orphan or had only one parent. ‘Beloved sweetheart’ suggests she may still love him however she finds it impossible to love him, ‘bastard’.Duffy makes Havisham seem obsessive about her ex-fiance.

Duffy betrays a range of emotions of Havisham she shows her love to him, ‘my fluent tongue in his ear’, and hatred towards him ‘bastard... long slow’ suggesting she was him to suffer a long slow death. In Salome, Duffy also structures the poem with poetic devices and imagery. She has used parenthesis which makes it seem as if the statement was unimportant ‘(and doubtless I’ll do it again)’.

She also uses

alliteration ‘blighter, the beater or the biter’, suggest Salome could’ve been abused in previous relationships, which causes Salome to revengefully killing men.Duffy also creates images of violence ‘sticky red sheets’, indicating the blood of her murder victim. It is put casually into the poem and sounds as if Salome isn’t bothered as she finds it just as a inconvenience. ‘Was his head on a platter’ suggests she has been served it from somebody else.

This proves that men are served to her and she is taking no effort to be served. Duffy also includes rhyme which creates a flow and rhythm to the poem, ‘blighter... biter’.

To conclude the two poems are very much the same, side effects of love. I preferred the poem Salome as she is more adventurous than Havisham and there was a hint of action in Salome.I also preferred Salome as she is rebellious however I dislike the fact she can’t control her actions. Havisham is also a different character as she is very strong willed, she doesn’t want to fall in love again so she doesn’t look to impress men. However she comes across as cowardly as she is scared she will be hurt again.

I also prefer Salome as a character as she has self confidence and the poem contains some thrill whereas Havisham was dull and boring. Overall I enjoyed Salome because it was upbeat and I liked how Duffy put words as they had different meanings.