Character Study of Miss Havishman in Charles Dickens' Great Expectations

Character Study of Miss Havishman in Charles Dickens' Great Expectations Miss Havisham is the representation of a 'faded spectre'. The failed

effects of nineteenth centaury chauvinism amalgamating with the

product of a rigid society with definite and pre-destined roles for

women, in which Miss Havisham fits none. The figure confined to a

'dark chair' is in fact a personification of the themes, which are

predominantly based on hatred, betrayal, and morality and criminality.

Satis House is an eerie backdrop to a sinister plot. Satis meaning

enough is a description of not only the house but its residents,

enough being its primary concern, so much so that they never leave

because they do not need to as they have enough. It is here 'through a

side door', along 'more passages' and 'up a staircase' that the reader

is introduced to Miss Havisham. The tension created by Dickens in

preparation to meet Miss Havisham has the reader taken on a

psychological maze. Thus, her character having a profound negative

effect, on the reader, and in turn revealing that Dickens associates

physical landscape with personality. Linking people and their

possessions. It is therefore intended that when Pip meets the

'strangest lady' he 'has ever seen', she is, although 'dressed in rich

materials' symbolising death and decay. This is shown through sinister

curator ship in the room which houses objects that seem as though they

have lost their 'lustre'. This is made evident by comments from the

narrative voice. The continuous elements of surprise and urgency from

a young boy, which describe surround...

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... 'brooding

solidarity had grown diseased' and that is more sinister. Her 'ghastly

bridal appearance' laying on a table unable to move invokes a sense of

pity from the reader. It is her macabre and tragic but almost humorous

death that allows forgiveness from not only Pip but the reader also.

However Miss Havisham's begging forgiveness shows that she has done

wrong and if she knows she had done wrong then surely she must be

aware of her actions and cannot be insane. This dampens the amount of

forgiveness that the reader feels toward her. Overall the reader feels

neutral toward Miss Havisham, she has been both prey and predator,

both the tormented and the tormentor, both the hateful and the hated.

Dickens had created a monster so, that people could to the conclusion

that the good does not outweigh the bad and vice versa.