Miss Havisham

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  • Created by: Rosieteaa
  • Created on: 21-01-17 18:48

Personality

Role

  • Physical appearance: Crazy, strange, vengeful, still wearing her wedding dress and veil, both of which have decayed slightly. She only has one shoe on as when she learned of the betrayal she had only put one shoe on.
  • Miss Havisham displays an evident hatred of men, due to her being jilted at the alter by Compeyson.
  • Miss Havisham plays an important role in Great Expectations because without her Pip wouldn't have met Estella and wouldn't have wanted to become a gentleman to impress her and prove himself worthy of Estella.
  • She is a character the readers wont forget.

Development (Growth & change)

Other information              

  • Miss Havisham adopts Estella (Magwitch's daughter) with her original intentions being to keep Estella from suffering the same fate she did. This changes over time as she trains Estella to break men's hearts and seek revenge. This means that later in the novel Pip will be corrupted by Miss Havisham and changed from the innocent Pip we saw at the beginning.
  • Miss Havisham starts out the novel by making pip feel uncomfortable and ashamed by using him as a toy to satisfy her "sick fancies".
  • Later in the novel Pip is given a large sum of money by a benefactor (Magwitch). Pip assumes it was Miss Havisham, who then hints that it was her a few days later. This leads Pip to believe its her plan for Pip to become a gentleman and then marry Estella which leads to great heartbreak for Pip later in the novel when it is reveled that Miss Havisham isn't the benefactor and Estella is marrying Bentley Drummel. Miss Havisham is seen to play the part of Pip's imperfect fairy god-mother.
  • Estella rejects Pips love and breaks his heart as Miss Havisham intended but instead of causing Miss Havisham happiness she feels guilt and remorse over what she has done. "What have I done"
  • At the end of the novel we see that Miss Havisham feels guilt over the heartbreak she has caused Pip and how she has corrupted him- making him lust money and power and making him ashamed of his "common" background. She asks for Pips forgiveness to which he says she is already forgiven. Miss Havisham commiserates with Pip because she has had her heart broken before too and it is what caused her to be stood still in time.
  • This is a change from the vengeful Miss Havisham we saw at the beginning.
  • She dies later that day when her wedding dress catches fire, this being a Christian image of cleansing, as well as punishment.
  • Decaying feast in Satis house (wedding cake in particular)- A symbol of Miss Havishams own decay (physical, emotional and moral)
  • Time has stopped from the day she was jilted, everything remains the same as it was, and all the clocks are stopped at twenty to nine.
  • Miss Havisham trains Estella to break men's hearts- "With this boy? Why, he is a common labouring-boy!" I thought I overheard Miss Havisham answer-only it seemed so unlikely-"Well? You can break his heart".

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