Duffy explores ideas, thoughts and feelings about love in Valentine and Havisham by commenting on societal expectations of outcomes and describing love as unstable, dangerous and likely to cause evil. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essay First, Duffy explores the wait for marriage following a relationship in the two poems, “Loops of platinum are reduced to a wedding ring, // if you like. The "shrinking" of the onion implies that it is shrinking, losing part of itself, triggered by the proposal - this may be Duffy showing his belief that people change themselves for love, they try to make themselves more attractive to their partner, to finally reduce themselves. into smaller pieces of themselves. On the contrary, the “platinum” ring suggests that marriage is precious and something to be cherished – it could also imply that people spend a lot of money unnecessarily on materialistic items. Adding “if you wish” in a casual tone suggests fear of rejection: if rejected, he will have to endure society's constant questioning of what went wrong. However, if the speaker does not marry, he will have to tolerate being asked why they are not married. The idea that weddings are an expectation is also present in Havisham - the poem presents several motifs of a marriage, such as "a wedding cake" which the speaker stabs. Duffy shows her anger at these expectations through the speaker stabbing the cake - the rejected speaker rebels against the stereotype of the sweet-natured, lively woman only to be subjugated to men with her fury. The word “old maid” forms a short sentence. This can be interpreted as the speaker saying this to herself in a fit of self-hatred, or (repeating?) what other people have said about her. This shows that women had to marry, otherwise they would become a pathetic and lonely spinster, a symbol of misery. Although the speaker is heartbroken, she is clearly broken by the loss of her ex-fiance, rather than his status; Duffy presents marriage as non-essential to relationships. Duffy also shows that love is dangerous in Valentine and Havisham. In Valentine, words from the lexical field of violence, such as "blind" and "deadly" are used after discussing the possibility of marriage - this could either be Duffy implying that marriage is a death trap, which will end in pain - either they will divorce, or even if they stay together, one will die and leave the other alone. Alternatively, this could simply be a reference to the wedding vows "in death we part", showing that this could be true love, which will last until they physically can no longer love. However, other lines in the poem indicate the dangers of love: “hold on to your knife.” The material verb "cling on" suggests desperation and the desperate attempt to hold on to the relationship or the other partner, no matter what is right - this phrase could imply an abusive relationship that the speaker refuses to leave , because he thinks his partner loves him. also describes love as dangerous. In the "popping red balloon", the stop sound "b" can be interpreted as unstable and turbulent, like a popping noise (the red of the balloon evokes either love, passion, or danger/death - all this could apply to tragedy). speaker); although this could be interpreted as some kind of ugly, bloody crying, especially when linked to "bbb-breaks", which creates an image of the speaker being devastated.