Who Is Miss Havisham

Pip is later told by the well-known lawyer Mr. Jaggers that he is to join him in London to receive the education needed to become a gentleman. Pip’s opportunity is set up by a mysterious unknown benefactor, who Pip believes to be Miss Havisham.

Miss Havisham bewildered everyone around her. Being that she never resolved the past and is still in fact stuck in time. Her outfit was yellowed yet still sparkled.The socks”once white,now yellow, had been trodden ragged”.With this in mind Havisham being stuck in the past in not normal. Life is supposed to grow and change, but she ignores change. But despite everything she strangely is is aware of her old age. “So the days have worn away, have they?” After saying this then quickly redirecting the topic, she states, “I don’t want to know” to Pip’s answer to the date. Even her room is described, “heavily overhung with cobwebs.” It is as if she never set a foot in the room. The furniture is also falling to pieces. For

Miss Havisham plays a big part in Pip's life. Dickens portrays her as a women who has been jilted on her wedding day. This event has ruined her life. Miss Havisham has stopped all clocks and sits in her yellowing wedding dress. Miss havisham has stopped all clocks on the moment she has found out that her lover has jilted her. Dickens describes her in a way whick makes me imagine the castle of the white witch in Narnia, with its frozen statues in the courtyard.

It could have been an accident or it may not be. Miss Havisham realized that she has caused so much pain to Pip, she said mean things to him and set up Estella, which is her adopted daughter with Pip. Pip had fallen in love with Estella since the minute they had met. She had treated him bad too, she would say mean things to Pip and he did not care and he was used to people treated him that way. Also it could be because of her wedding day, she was sitting in her rotten wedding dress and that could be a reminder of that

Great Expectations, occurs in the early 1800s over three major settings: his sister’s house in the Kent marshes, Satis House, and London. Pip describes his first home with his sister and brother-in-law as, “...the marsh country, down by the river...this bleak place” (1). Pip regards his hometown to be dull and boring. This symbolizes how plain Pip’s life was before his benefactor’s generosity enabled Pip to go to more thriving places and have more lively experiences. Here, Pip spends his days gloomily, as his sister always scolds him, and he cannot escape it. However, one day, Mr. Pumblechook gives Pip an opportunity to be whisked to Satis House, the residence of Miss Havisham and Estella. Miss Havisham lives an isolated, restricted life which can be seen in the architecture of her house. It was “...of old brick, and dismal, and had a great many iron bars to it” (54). Miss Havisham’s residence represents her well because the worn bricks show how old and tired she is of life, and the iron bars symbolize how she lives as if she were in a prison. She mainly keeps to herself and does not step outside her house. In Miss Havisham’s manor, Pip’s life changes as he meets Estella, his beloved, and he encounters people different than him. Pip then travels to the metropolis of London with Mr. Jaggers and money from his benefactor. Pip, at first glance at the enormous city, “...was scared by the immensity of London...rather ugly, crooked, narrow, and dirty” (161). During the early

Before Miss Havisham's dress caught on fire, Pip asked her for 900 pounds to invest in Herbert's career. She agreed. She asked Pip if there was anything else she could do for him but he assured her that he didn't want anything belonging to her. Miss Havisham felt guilty for everything she had done to him and begged for his forgiveness. Pip assured her that she had been forgiven. She realized that she did to Pip what Compeyson had done to her. Later, we see Pip walking through the garden, looks up towards Miss Havisham's window and sees that she's on fire. In an attempt to put out the fire, Pip runs into the house, pulls the tablecloth off of the wedding table and wraps Miss Havisham in it. He succeeds in helping her but not without severely burning his arms. She eventually succumbed to her wounds and died.

He set higher goals. At Miss Havisham's house Pip starts on the idea of self improvement and education for success. Pip grows on Miss Havisham and falls in love with Estella, whom she is raising. Miss Havisham taunts Pip with Estella's coldness to him.

The fire in Miss Havisham's home means a a lot to Great Expectations. Miss Havisham is a sort of foster parent to Estella. Due to this, she serves a major role in the book. Towards the end of the book, Miss Havisham begins to wither away as she gets old. It's explained in a horrifically sad way for other characters such as Pip, as he takes interest in this and is there as it happens.

In the beginning, Pip is intimidated by Miss Havisham’s physical appearance and demeanor. During the meetings with her, Pip also learns about her peculiar character and attitude. He describes her as a “ghastly waxwork” (56) thus revealing that Miss Havisham’s unpleasant physical appearance makes her intimidating. The “waxiness” of Miss Havisham’s skin depicts how unrealistic she looks, a feature that makes her even more eerie. The intimidating demeanor Miss Havisham possesses causes Pip to shrink “under her touch” (82). Pip is uncomfortable towards Miss Havisham and sees her as someone to be scared of rather than someone

Great Expectations tells the ultimate rags to riches story of the Orphan Pip. Dickens takes his readers through life changing events that ultimately mold the identity of the main character. Dividing these events into sections will provide the basis for interpreting which events had the most profound effect on Pip’s identity towards the end of the novel. These life-changing events provide the catalyst for the development of Pip’s character from childhood, his adolescence, maturing into a social gentleman, and finally becoming a self-aware man of society.

Estella and Miss Havisham share many devious qualities. One of those qualities would be that they are both manipulative and cold-hearted. Throughout the book, Miss Havisham is controlling Estella to destroy the hearts of men. Since Miss Havisham adopted Estella at a young age and continually used her, she never developed her own personality.

An idea in the book did strike me as being appalling. The idea that Miss Havisham wishes to use Estella to break other men’s hearts and get revenge on them as well is extremely weird. It seems to me as though instead of trying to be a good role model and let Estella do her own thing, she seems to treat Estella as her puppet. Normally if parents wanted their kids to do something for them, they would want to live out one of their childhood dreams through their own child, but no Miss Havisham wants revenge on all men and she wants it to take place and happen through Estella’ s actions and words. I mean who would really do this in the real world today?

This selfless act redeems Miss Havisham as a character who has been living in the past who comes to terms with her role in the destruction of Estella, the one person who always loved her.

Pip’s mindset regarding classes and success in life is drastically altered after his initial visit to the aristocratic Miss Havisham. “She said I was common” (69) spurs the realization in Pip that he is indeed innocent but unfortunately much oppressed. Pip is very distraught with his birth place into society, to the point that he “was discontented” (130) -- he increasingly desires to be a gentleman. He primarily desires this as a means of impressing Estella and winning her over. At this point in the novel, Pip is willing to give away what he loves (Joe – family setting) to obtain a superficial and insulting girl. One day Pip receives word that he now has the ability to grow up to be his ultimate dream, to be a gentleman. Pip awakens to a new world and those he once loved are no longer good enough for Pip. Moving to London, he becomes far more sophisticated, but at the same time loses his natural goodness. (Chesterton 142). Pip is leaving happiness and his real family to attain a life he thinks will make him more content. Before departing, he dreams of “Fantastic failures of journeys occupied me until the day dawned and the birds were singing” (148). This relates the dream that Pip has just before he sets out to London for the first time, with all of his "great expectations" before him. Pip’s dream is permeated with the sadness and guilt caused by his imminent departure from Joe and Biddy and his aspirations for a new social station.

Estella also is a victim to her guardian in the novel. She too is never given the chance to be her own person and live life to its fullest. Estella is conditioned by her guardian, Miss Havisham, to make men suffer, and in return it is Estella who will be made to suffer for her guardian's actions. Miss Havisham is a severely disturbed old woman who has adopted Estella. Miss Havisham was abandoned on her wedding day and as a result she forever maintains hatred toward men. Thus for her dirty work, Miss Havisham uses Estella to meet this purpose. Pip concludes that Miss Havisham "had done a grievous thing in taking an impressionable child (Estella) and had manipulated into the form that her wild resentment, spurned affection, and wounded pride, found vengeance in". Miss Havisham makes Estella have a fear of men being close to her and not to allow herself to become attached to them emotionally. Dickens’ made Estella an almost identical copy of Frankenstein: trained to perform specific tasks for the pleasure of their guardian. However someday, they crack and see the illness in their lives. Estella was Miss Havisham’s toy. Estella never