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Why Is Miss Havisham Important

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Everyone experiences pain, a universal feeling; how someone deals with that pain reflects their character. While pain is unavoidable, suffering is subjective. In Charles Dickens’ novel Great Expectations, the main protagonist, Pip, meets a wealthy lady named Miss Havisham and her adoptive daughter, Estella. When Pip first encounters Miss Havisham, he notices that, despite being dressed in bridal attire, she resembles a corpse. Dickens intentionally named her Havisham to emphasize that regardless of her wealth and elegant possessions, she endures a life of misery and sorrow. Out of the array of characters that Dickens imbeds into the story, Miss Havisham has one of the most complex, in-depth storylines. The torture and agony she felt in the …show more content…

Instead of facing the truth and accepting the sorrow she has caused Estella, Miss Havisham counters by calling her ungrateful and coldhearted. Estella resents how she has been brought up and says, “I am what you have made me. Take all the praise, take all the blame; take all the success, take all the failure; in short, take me” (238). Estella blames her lack of a heart on Miss Havisham’s lack of affection towards her. Miss Havisham denies Estella’s accusations of never loving her, and becomes delirious from the harsh truth of Estella’s words. Despite Miss Havisham’s protests, Estella continues to verbally berate her; rightfully blaming Miss Havisham for making her so proud. As the fight progresses, Estella further distances herself by referring to Miss Havisham as her “mother by adoption” (239). Estella uses a metaphor to explain how she feels she has been wronged: “...If you had taught her...that there was such a thing as daylight, but that it was made to be her enemy and destroyer...for it had blighted you and would else blight her” (240). She compares daylight to love, and how Miss Havisham trains her to see love as the enemy due to how love ruined her own life. Because of this heated argument, Miss Havisham begins to realize that while she succeeded in making Estella feel no remorse for breaking men’s hearts, she also succeeded in raising a daughter who does not love

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